Laguna Beach’s Chase Shipp repeats as CIF diving champion

Chase Shipp has been a top diving talent for all four years of his high school career at Laguna Beach.

He placed second in CIF Southern Section Division 1 as a freshman and sophomore, winning the Division 2 title last year as a junior.

Make that back-to-back crowns for Shipp, who repeated as Division 2 boys’ diving champion on Wednesday at the Marguerite Aquatics Complex in Mission Viejo.

He scored 565.80 points, edging out second-place Braeden Valenzuela of San Juan Hills (555.10).

“The meet was really well run and I had some tough but fun competition,” said Shipp, a Harvard commit who also competes for Crown Valley Divers, in an email. “My friend and teammate Braeden set the bar really high and smoked every one of his dives. I can’t wait to see him take the top spot next year.”

Newport Harbor girls’ divers Nikka Asgarian, Violet Carone and Corinna Ruffini each earned top 10 finishes at the CIF Southern Section Divison 1 diving finals on Thursday.

(Courtesy of Fanak Asgarian)

Newport Harbor also had some female divers who were up to the task at the Division 1 finals Thursday. Junior Corinna Ruffini finished in second place, followed by teammates Violet Carone in fifth and Nikka Asgarian in eighth.

Ruffini, a University of Houston commit who was fifth in Division 1 last year, scored 526.40, just behind El Segundo freshman Reilly Stebbins (528.05). She also competes for Coast Divers.

Edison sophomore Allison McNichols finished seventh in Division 1 on the girls’ side, while Chargers senior Ian Dieh placed third on the boys’ side.

Each of the aforementioned local divers has qualified for the boys and girls state qualifier Tuesday at Mt. San Antonio College at 2 p.m. The top six at that meet will qualify for the CIF State Championship meet on May 17 at Clovis West High.