SAN MARCOS — On the five-and-a-half-hour drive from San Marcos to Fresno with his mother, Lily, on Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s CIF State Championship meet, Isaac Peralta practiced visualization while Metric and Crosses played in the background.
The Mission Hills High School sophomore — the San Diego Section Division I champion and school record holder in the 11-dive (378.25) and six-dive (271.30) formats — often runs through the mental imagery of how a meet will unfold before stepping onto the pool deck.
“I think a lot about what to do instead of what not to do,” Peralta told The Coast News. “I feel like I’m more prone to making that mistake otherwise, so I try to visualize what I’m going to do. Even if it’s just an hour before, it really helps me calm down and really feel like I know what I’m doing.”
Peralta, who finished third in the section as a freshman and placed 21st overall at the state meet last season, has also been refining his approach to a new dive: the reverse one-and-a-half.
“I was essentially visualizing the end of the hurdle,” he said. “When you press down on reverses, you have to reach in order to make the dive easier.”
Heading into the state meet at the Aquatic Center at Clovis West High School, Peralta said his goal was to advance past the first cut — meaning a top-18 finish.
He met that goal, finishing 16th overall in the boys 1-meter 11-dive competition with a score of 381.65, moving through both cuts and setting a new Mission Hills High School program record.
Central Valley diver Lucius Haddad of St. Mary’s won the state title with a score of 556.50.
“He was absolutely thrilled,” Mission Hills head swim and dive coach Cole Baratte said. “This is just classic Isaac — he was happy, but still very focused. Finishing 16th was huge for him, and he was incredible in how he competed and finished the year. But almost right away, he’s like, ‘Next year I want to medal.’”
Baratte said Peralta’s best dive came early in the competition — his inward one-and-a-half.
“My inward one-and-a-half I’m usually able to enter the water cleanly with that one,” Peralta said. “My strongest are probably my front tuck and my front twister. The thing I need the most improvement on is my hurdle. I tend to lean out, and I’ve noticed I need to go straighter up.”
Peralta, who competes for a school without its own pool, said much of his motivation comes from his desire to leave a lasting mark on Mission Hills High School.
“Our mascot is a grizzly — but it’s really more of his paw or claw,” he said. “I see those records and I just really want to leave a mark — like, yeah, I did something when I was there and I competed for the school. It just makes me happy to see all my accomplishments and everything I’m doing.”
“One of the things I love most about Isaac is he’s incredibly proud to represent his school,” Baratte said. “One of the reasons breaking the records was so important to him is because he wants to be an inspiration for more divers in the area. As the sport fluctuates — sometimes diving goes up in participation, sometimes it goes down — Isaac is the perfect representative of diving in North County.”
