MARQUETTE – Senior Valerie LaChapelle of Westwood High School won a close four-girl race for the diving event at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Swimming and Diving Finals held at Marquette Senior High School on Friday afternoon.

LaChapelle was joined by senior Kevin Boucher of Sault Ste. Marie on the boys side as champions in the diving, the only event in the meet held on Friday. The 11 swimming events kick off at 10 a.m. today at the MSHS pool.

While Boucher had a rather easy 16-point victory in his competition, LaChapelle beat out the Soo’s Ellie Raffaele by just 0.85 of a point and was only 1.35 points ahead of the fourth-place finisher in an eight-girl event.

LaChapelle scored 127.75 points to 126.90 for Raffaele. Houghton’s Kieran Storer was third with 126.70 and Torye Anderson of the Soo was fourth with 126.40.

Westwood junior Stephanie Grace was fifth with 118.05, Manistique senior Brianna Yang sixth with 115.60 and Marquette junior Chantel LaBlonde of Marquette seventh with 107.05.

In the boys competition, Boucher scored 178.45 to 162.70 for senior runner-up Ricky Vermeulen of MSHS. In the nine-boy event, sophomore Joe Boburka of Westwood was fourth with 133.05, senior Jake Burnis of Manistique was sixth with 122.35 and senior Lucas Abram of Manistique was seventh with 119.35.