Greenwood returns to diving with win at Come as You Are meet

Fallbrook diver Joseph Greenwood missed most of his sophomore CIF season after a vertebrae fracture was detected in his lower back and corrective surgery was performed. Greenwood remained with the Fallbrook High School swim and dive team in an assistant coaching capacity but did not return to the pool until June.

Greenwood resumed diving competition June 25 with the Come as You Are meet at the Alga Norte Aquatic Center in Carlsbad and won that meet with a score of 434.50 points on 11 dives.

"It's so awesome," said Greenwood. "I had about a week of practice. I thought I was going to be horrible, but it was actually the best I've ever done."

Greenwood is a member of the Fallbrook Associated Swim Team (FAST), whose diving coaches are Sean Redmond and Terry Erard. (Redmond and Erard also coach the Fallbrook High School boys and girls diving squads; Greenwood attends Oasis High School and competes for Fallbrook under the CIF's Multi-School Teams Status policy, which allows students attending certain schools to compete for specified other teams.) Erard coached Greenwood at the June 25 meet.

"It was really well-done," said Erard. "He dove extremely well."

Five judges gave each dive a score of up to 10 points. The highest and lowest scores were discarded, and the remaining three scores were added and then multiplied by that dive's degree of difficulty to provide the score for each dive.

"Four hundred thirty-four points is no lean achievement," Erard said.

Greenwood, who won the 16-18 boys division, took the 2015 Valley League boys diving championship and posted a qualifying score for this year's CIF meet before the cause of his back pain was detected.

"He had to spend the CIF, the school season, out of competition," Erard said. "He spent really three months off the boards to allow his back to get better."

The limited practice prior to the Come as You Are meet allowed for an assessment of Greenwood's recovery as well as for rehearsal. "We weren't sure about his back condition being fully over," Erard said.

Greenwood's score qualified him for the Amateur Athletic Union national meet in Colorado in July, although he was unable to attend. Greenwood needed a score of 405 points or higher to qualify for the AAU nationals.

"We're looking forward to a bright future for him," Erard said.

FAST diver Annie Riley won the 13-and-under girls five-dive novice competition. The 11-year-old accumulated a score of 114.50 points on her five dives, including two required dives with no degree of difficulty.