MOULTRIE – The path to an Olympic stage is now laid out for two Moss Farms Diving Tigers.

According to coach John Fox, Ruth Anne McCranie and Carson Tyler were recently given High Performance status by USA Diving. He said this means USA Diving feels that McCranie and Tyler have a chance to advance as far as the U.S. Diving team for the Summer Olympic Games either in 2024 or 2028.

“They had to make a qualifying score at USA Nationals (held this past summer in Atlanta),” said Fox. “Obviously they met it. This means they can go to High Performance camps and are eligible for international competitions.”

The last High Performance divers to be part of the Moss Farms program were Maggie Merriman and Johanna Holloway, both of whom moved to Moultrie from Florida to train as Diving Tigers after the 2016 USA Nationals were held at the Moose Moss Aquatic Center.

Fox said McCranie and Tyler, along with teammates Sky Geovanni and Bo Bridges, are scheduled to compete in the International CAMO Invitational in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on the weekend of Dec. 1. That same weekend, the coach said 27 members of the Diving Tigers squad are traveling to Orlando for the YCF Christmas Invitational.

The diving schedule is also entering the high school and middle school phase, and it was time for Tigers to become Packers representing Colquitt County High and the middle schools this past weekend. On Friday, Westminster Middle School in Atlanta hosted a meet with 1-meter springboard diving.

McCranie won among the girls with a score of 258.1 followed by Shannon Icard’s 232.6 (both students at William J. Williams Middle School). Emma Bryan, a Diving Tiger from Tifton, placed third at 189.1

Bridges, also attending William J. Williams, won among the boys at 248.2. Trip and Tuck Gregory were third and fourth respectively.

On Saturday, both middle and high schoolers dove in the Packer Invitational at Moose Moss. Bridges scored 240.1 among the middle school boys and McCranie 261.45.

High school divers were: (Boys) Tyler, 513.25; Geovanni, 485.4; Timothy Fagan, 444.05; and Hunter Kebler, 393.55; (Girls) Abi White, 423.75; Lillian Fagan, 404.25; Jordan Avery, 397.4; and Mauri Leroux, 343.35.