ATLANTA- The 2018 USA Diving Championships began Sunday at the McAuley Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech with Joshua Hedberg (The Indiana International School of Diving) winning the D boys 1-meter finals, while Anna Lemkin (Stanford Diving) clinched the D girls platform title.

The 11-and-under boys 1-meter final was full of excitement as Hedberg, who carried 92.85 points into the final, clinched first place with 223.75 total points after beginning with an inward 1 ½ tuck for 37.40 points. He jumped up to first in the second round after completing a back 1 ½ somersault pike for 45.10 points. Hedberg saved his strongest dive for last, where he scored 48.40 points off a front 1 ½ somersaults with 1 twist.

“I was just thinking about one dive (at a time) and doing my best,” Hedberg said about his performance in the finals.

R.J. Keating (American Flyers Diving) followed Hedberg at second with 196.50 points, while Ivor Brown (Dominion Dive Club) was 6.60 points behind at third, after carrying 90.90 points from the previous round.

Simultaneously, the 11-and-under girls competed in the platform final, where Lemkin’s 207.90 points allowed her to claim first place. Lemkin, who carried 106.90 points from the semifinal, had two strong dives, a front 2 ½ pike for 58.50 points and a back 1 ½ somersaults with 1 ½ twists for 42.50 points, to seal victory.

“Obviously (Anna) was amazing. I think that was her first nationals,” coach Oleg Andriyuk said. “She had (previously) competed for zones and regionals, so for a first-year experience I think she’s really been laser focused. She competes really hard and she wants to be a great diver.”

Teammate Molly Gray (Stanford Diving) carried 96.55 points from the previous round of competition and finished the final at second with 189.45 points. Juliet Radich (Ft. Lauderdale Diving Team), who placed 15.85 points behind Gray, competed in the preliminaries before advancing to the semifinal and final as she had not qualified as one of the prequalified divers coming into today’s competition. Despite having to compete in the preliminaries, Radich was able to carry 104.50 points from the semifinal before finishing competition at third place.

Sunday’s competition also saw divers compete in the preliminary rounds of the B Boys Platform, B Girls 1-meter, C Girls 3-meter, A Girls 1-meter, A Boys 3-meter and C Boys platform. Six divers from each event will join prequalified divers to compete in their event’s semifinals. Divers who qualified for the semifinals in the groups B Boys Platform, B Girls 1-meter, A Girls 1-meter and A Boys 3-meter dive Thursday, while the group C Girls 3-meter and the group C Boys Platform semifinals will take place Wednesday.

The 2018 USA Diving Junior National continues through August 4. Monday’s events feature group D boys platform, group D girls 3-meter, group B preliminaries. Group D boys platform and group D girls preliminaries will also take place, with semifinals beginning at 4:25 p.m. ET and finals at 6:15 p.m. ET. All events will be live streamed and can be found here.