Jonas Balcetis of Horace Greeley competes in the Section 1 Diving championships at White Plains High School Feb. 5, 2026.

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Greeley senior Jonas Balcetis highest diving finisher at states

by The Journal NewsMarch 6, 2026

As the New York State diving championships got underway Friday at Ithaca, Horace Greeley senior Jonas Balcetis became the highest-placing Section 1 finisher.

The Section 1 champion took fifth overall scoring 480 points.

Eighth-grader Anderson Vermette of the combined New Rochelle/Bronxville team took 12th overall (418.85 points). Scarsdale junior Noam Tiomkin was 13th (417.35).

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Rounding out the quartet was sophomore Harry Wang of the combined Byram Hills/Briarcliff/Pleasantville/Westlake/Valhalla finishing 23rd overall.

Scarsdale seniors Stahl and Lee, Mamaroneck’s Koenigsberg lead Section 1 after trials

The swimming got the day started Friday at Ithaca College with the individual event and relay trials.

The top 30 swimmers advanced to Saturday’s championship finals beginning at 10 a.m. It’s broken up into three heats: bonus finals (21-30), consolation finals (11-20) and championship finals (1-10).

Three seniors will compete in the championship finals in both of their events.

Scarsdale senior Avi Stahl goes into the finals as the top seed in the 500-yard freestyle. He finished the trials in a time of 4:33.14. He was sixth in the 200 free in a time of 1:41.5.

His teammate Kieran Lee finished fifth in the 200 individual medley (1:53.61). He finished sixth in the 100 backstroke (51.54 seconds).

Mamaroneck senior Sam Koenigsberg also finished in the top 10 in both of his individual events. He was ninth in the 200 free (1:41.91) and fifth in the 500 free (4:37.38).

New Rochelle senior Sam Cave of the combined New Rochelle/Bronxville team made the championship final in the 50 free. He finished eighth in a time of 21.12 seconds.

Two relays made the championship finals in the 400 free relay.

The quartet of Nikita Ambotas, Haochen Yu, Toby Chen, and Kelly Franks of the combined Ardsley/Hastings/Edgemont/Dobbs Ferry/Irvington finished seventh in a time of 3:14.24.

The combined team of Fox Lane/John Jay and the quartet of Matija Novakovic, Andrew Acocella, Aidan Polese, and Spencer Grayson finished ninth in the 400 free relay in a time of 3:14.87.

Twitter: @LoHud_Debbie

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Greeley senior Jonas Balcetis highest diving finisher at states

Reporting by Debbie Schechter, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News

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The Journal News is the leading daily broadsheet serving Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam Counties in New York's Lower Hudson Valley. Formed in 1998 from the merger of several local papers dating back to the mid-1800s, it now reaches about 43,000 daily and 71,000 Sunday readers. Owned by Gannett, The Journal News delivers trusted local, state, and national news through print and its LoHud.com platform.| All assets – including all text, audio and imagery – are provided by USA TODAY Network. Reuters Connect has not verified or endorsed the material, which is being made available to professional media customers to facilitate the free flow of global news and information.