BY Wilton Bulletin,

At the Class M boys diving championships last year, Brad Schott never recovered from a sluggish first few dives, finishing a disappointing fifth.

At last week’s Class L meet, sluggish was hardly the way to describe his start, as Schott performed a powerful 1 and 1/2 pike and scored 7s and 7 1/2, as well as his back 1 and 1/2 pike and reverse 1 and 1/2 pike with high degrees of difficulty, receiving 5s and 6s.

He still found himself behind his friend, Mark Gracia of Xavier, after five dives, but he had set the tone for the remainder of the meet.

The Wilton High senior then left Gracia and the rest of the field way behind with an impressive final two rounds, capturing his first state title with a school-record score of 435.10.

Gracia, who never recovered from a mistake in the second round, finished a distant second at 387.15.

Schott, while happy to finally win a state title, was also aware of his good fortune that came at the expense of his buddy.

“Mark's a great diver. If he doesn't miss that dive, we go right down to the wire on the last dive,” Schott said. “I'm sure he won’t make the same mistake at Opens, so I’ll be on the board all next week getting ready for the state diving championship.”

The State Open for diving takes place today at Yale University.

Brad wasn’t the only Schott on the leader board at the Class L championships, as his brother Dan, a freshman, finished 10th with a score of 305.50.

After the first round of five dives, Gracia was leading the competition with a score of 199.55. Brad Schott was in second (189.65), followed by Coner Walsh of Ridgefield (178.60). Dan Schott was in sixth with a score of 159.20.

After the second round of eight dives, Schott had taken the lead with a score of 298.45, with Gracia in second at 276.35. Gracia performed an incorrect dive on his seventh dive and Schott took advantage of the mistake, hitting all three of his dives during the second round for big scores. He performed a reverse dive pike and an inward dive pike for 7s and an inward 1 and 1/2 pike for 6s to jump into the lead.

Dan Schott was in eighth after two rounds.

During the final round (11 dives), Schott closed the door on the rest of the field by performing three dives with the combined highest degree of difficulty of any other diver. For his final three dives, Schott performed a forward 1 and 1/2 with one twist, scoring 6s and 7s; a forward 2 and 1/2 pike for 6s; and his final dive with the highest degree of difficulty (3.1) performed at the meet, an inward 2 and 1/2 somersault scoring 5s, that won the championship.

His final score of 435.10 broke his Wilton High School record for an 11-dive meet from a year ago, as well as qualified him for the High School All-America Diving Team by National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association of America — one of only 100 divers from around the country to do so — for the second year in a row.

Schott finished third at last year’s State Open, his best showing after taking 11th and 12th the previous two seasons.

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