Cape divers lift Tigers, each other through trying 2023 season

There were several reasons why the Cape Central High School girl’s swimming and diving team improved its production at this season’s MSHSAA Class 1 State Finals from 187 points a year ago to 224 points this year, but none were more obvious than having divers Tommy-Anne Marriott and Lydia Cao actually be available for the meet.

“We went into the (swim finals) with 34 points from our divers,” veteran Tiger coach Dayna Powell said of her team earning a third-place finish, “which was huge.”

A year ago, Cape Central finished second in the state finals but was without the services of Marriott and Cao, who didn’t participate in the Districts due to a controversy involving the quality of the board at the facility.

With that situation remedied this winter, Cape Central felt really positive about entering the state finals with Marriott, who had finished second in the 2021 state finals as a freshman.

“We’ve had some adversity,” Powell said of the past. “We missed this meet last year, which was a tragedy. It wasn’t the same not having our whole team at state.”

Another thread of “adversity” was the fact that the Tiger divers were without their own training facility this past season.

With Central Municipal Pool closed since the fall, Marriott and Cao had to travel to Perryville each day to train, which cut into their available time.

“Their days were long,” Powell said, “having to drive to Perryville. But they showed up (at the Finals) and it was so much fun.”

The fact that Marriott ascended to the top spot on the podium was not unexpected. The Tiger junior is phenomenal and anyone who watches her compete can see that. However, having Cao battle to a fifth-place finish was impressive.

“Of course,” Powell said, “Tommy-Anne stood out. But Lydia got on the podium.”

Cao had advanced to the State Finals as a freshman in 2021 but was 22nd after the opening round, so she did not move on to the semifinals.

This season, she was ninth after the preliminaries, 10th after the semi-final round, before soaring up to fifth after her final dives.

“Lydia has been consistent,” Powell said. “She is always consistent. But you don’t really watch her and think ‘Man, she is going to end up in fifth,’ because she is just so consistent. She has beautiful dives, but she is so calm and collected.”

Powell said her goal for Cao was “to be on the podium.”

“But if she would have been 10th,” Powell said, “I would have been so happy with that.”

Powell said that the key to Cao’s success wasn’t having incredible scores awarded by judges, but adding degrees of difficulty to her dives.

“She threw some really big dives,” Powell said, “and made them.”

With the looming presence of training with the state’s best diver every day, Powell said Cao’s personality lends her to be able to deal with that.

“You would think that it is hard to be in Tommy-Anne’s shadow,” Powell said, “but they both say that they are diving this well because of each other. Lydia is there for Tommy-Anne and Tommy-Anne is there for Lydia.

“They are best friends on the boards and away from the pool. They can keep each other calm and have a good friend right there with them.”