Two Chattanooga prep school divers broke state records this past year and now are honored as All-Americans for 2009.

Julianne Wilson, headed into her senior year at GPS, doesn't have the Tennessee high school girls' state record, but her 485.20 points at the 2009 state meet exceeded the old standard. She was second in the state to Knoxville's Tori Lamp, a senior who became the national champion.

Wilson, who has a 4.0 grade point average and is a three-time cheerleading All-American, was the 2007 state diving champion. She couldn't compete in her sophomore year because of a broken wrist.

Recent Baylor School graduate Jordan Mauney now is a three-time diving All-American after earning "consideration" for the distinction as a freshman in 2006. His Baylor record of 535.05 points shattered the 29-year-old boys' Tennessee record by nearly 30 points.

Mauney, who had a 3.67 high school GPA, will be diving this year for the University of Tennessee, where he plans to major in finance. Immediately ahead is the U.S. Junior Olympic zone meet in UT's Allan Jones Aquatic Center starting Thursday.

The national meet likely will follow, but immediately after zonals he'll be going on a weeklong mission trip to Belize with his church, Signal Mountain Presbyterian.

Wilson attends Ridgedale Baptist Church but has no time to go overseas. In addition to cheerleading activities, she's lifeguarding at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club and competing for its Chattanooga Area Swim League team, and she has been a dance student since the age of 3. Her career interest is graphic design.

Mauney, who admits to trying to recruit Wilson to UT, is a Signal Mountain Golf & Country Club lifeguard.

"They are both great kids," said GPS diving coach Soso Eibhkidze, who like Baylor Diving Club coach John Bonds has worked with both All-Americans.

Eibhkidze was there at the beginning for both. He coached diving for the Greater Chattanooga Aquatic Club, the Baylor-based predecessor to the Baylor Swim Club. Bonds got back into local diving coaching five years ago.

"It's all about the coaches. That's what got me this far," said Wilson, a native Chattanoogan who is torn between diving and cheerleading for a Southeastern Conference school. "With Soso and John and Phil Lesseroth at McCallie, Chattanooga is very fortunate. All three coaches are awesome."

She started diving when she began at GPS as a sixth-grader, coming to Baylor for coaching from Eibhkidze before he became her school coach. Before that, she had done some dives "off the side of the pool" but never off a board.

"I walked past the pool during diving practice one day and thought it looked like fun," she said. "I thought I'd give it a shot, and I loved it."

She also took gymnastics as a child and said that and her cheerleading acrobatics "definitely" helped her in diving.

"And Soso and I both believe that a lot of her grace and finesse come from her dance," Bonds said. "With Jordan, for a person not having any of that, he's got really pretty form and great entry."

Mauney played youth baseball and played soccer as late as his freshman year, his first at Baylor. He was a swimmer for seven years but didn't get involved in diving until after his family moved from South Carolina to Signal Mountain 10 years ago.

"Diving is kind of a specific sport. Not everybody can do it well," Eibhkidze said. "But both Jordan and Julianne had good body builds for it and good potential, and both are hard workers and want to do it."

Mauney visited Indiana, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech along with Tennessee before committing to the Volunteers last November. He passed up a visit to Alabama and was recruited also by Harvard, among others, but was sold by UT's spectacular new facilities, including what Eibhkidze called one of the "best college diving wells in the country."

Mauney said he wants to "make the NCAAs" by his senior year, but Bonds predicted he'd make it much sooner -- even qualifying for the SEC meet as a freshman.

"He's never had much platform experience, but the higher he goes the better he is," Bonds said.