San Bernardino San Gorgonio freshman Clay Pinckney won the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 11-Dive Springboard title Tuesday at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.

The contest consists of 11 dives that are scored by five judges. The high score and low score are withdrawn, and the scores are multiplied by the degree of difficulty.

Pinckney's score was 441.90.

Not bad considering this is the first season for the diving team at San Gorgonio, which came about partly because of Pinckney.

"Clay is a pretty serious diver," diving and girls swim coach Stacey Rahn said by phone. "He suggested the idea of a diving team in the fall and asked me to coach it."

The two belonged to the same swimming club team when Pinckney was 9.

"When I started coaching him in high school, I didn't know how much he had progressed," Rahn said.

Sophomore Hanna Jure didn't want to swim, so she joined the diving team. But San Gorgonio didn't have the facilities for a diving squad, so the three met at the Arrowhead Country Club for practices.

The two divers qualified for the CIF-SS finals at invitational meets since no other school in the San Andreas League has a diving team.

Pinckney said he's sure his victory will come as a surprise.

"It feels great to win the title," Pinckney said. "It feels really good to do it for San G. A lot of people don't even know we have a diving team, so I'm sure it's a surprise for some."

Jure finished 16th with a score of 257.85.

Reach John Gonzales at 951-368-9729 or jgonzales@PE.com