Our History
U.S. Masters Diving was founded in 1974 by John Deininger, a former professional diver who had a vision of creating a community of and competitive organization for adults divers for life. The first National Masters Diving Championships were held in June 1974 in San Angelo, TX. Nate Holt was the first meet director. Over the past 40+ years the organization has grown os that there are now thousands of Masters divers worldwide.
Masters Diving is completely volunteer-run but is sanctioned by USA Diving. Since 1974, Masters Championship events have evolved. Now, both Spring and Summer events are included in the By-Laws, and only Spring Championships of 2020 were canceled due to COVID-19. We are all grateful to our founders, to USA Diving, and to the countless hundreds of volunteers and financial contributors who have supported the torch for the organization.
Masters Diving Leadership Committee
Under our By-Laws of USA Diving, elections take place every two years at the Summer Championship. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 Elections were postponed to August 2021. As a committee of USA Diving, our leaders may vote in USA Diving elections and initiatives; all active competitive adult members of USA Diving may vote for committee leadership.
2022-2024 USA Diving – Masters Committee
Heather Carrano
Chairman
Heather currently coaches part time at Carolina Diving Academy (CDA) in Huntersville, NC. She began diving during her junior year of college at Louisiana State University following a 17-year career as a high-level gymnast. During her time in masters diving, she has won serval medals at international masters’ competitions, including gold medals at both the 2018 and 2022 Masters Pan American Championships on platform and silver medals on both 1m and 3m, respectively. She also was the 2014 3m FINA Masters Champion in Montreal in the women’s 35-39 age group and the bronze medalist on Platform. Three years later, she the 2017 FINA Masters World bronze medalist on 1m in Budapest (women’s 40-44 age group. For many years, Heather has also volunteered on several committees for USA Masters Diving. Previously, Heather had worked as a business analyst, primarily in Finance and IT departments. She is very passionate about diving and furthering opportunities for USA Masters Divers. Heather can be reached at either info@mastersdiving.org or her personal email at heathercarrano01@gmail.com; (408) 835 – 8385
Mark Timko
Vice Chair – Recording
Maryhelen Bronson and Melanie Milone
Vice Chair – Rules
Maryhelen Bronson
Vice Chair – Rules
Mark has been diving for over 39 years, starting in High School. He started in Masters Diving post-college for 4 years at Tualatin Hills Dive Club in Beaverton OR and competed at various Masters meets on the west coast as well as in the 1993 Masters Nationals hosted by his local club. After taking a break from competitive diving for 15 years to start a family, Mark got back on the boards in 2011 and started training to get back to Masters National,s which finally came at the 2013 Summer Nationals at U of Michigan. He has competed at all but one Masters Nationals since then, including the 2018 PanAm Masters Championships. Since coming back to Masters, he has taken on the role of one of the technical meet facilitators for the National meets and is one of the admins of the USA Masters Diving Facebook page. Mark’s day job is as a Computer Engineer (chip design) for Digital Design Corporation in the Chicago suburbs for the last 21 years. Reach him at marktimko1@gmail.com; Phone: 847-707-6110
Maryhelen dove in high school (Dallas 1962-66) and college (Colorado State University 1966-1970). After graduating, she started a 37 year career teaching and thought diving was done for her. she knew nothing about the masters program. For years, she did swim workouts with the master swimmers at UT Arlington and was always asking if they knew if there was a masters diving program. Finally, in 2018, she was given Krista Klein’s name. She went up to Keller where Krista coaches and met her new diving family and has been active with the masters ever since, diving in the spring and summer nationals every year.
She is now retired and spend my time volunteering, teaching swim lessons, sewing and reading. For the past 2 spring national meets, she has made a diving tee shirt quilt from donated shirts that was auctioned off at the team banquet. She is currently working on one for Spring, 2025.
817-821-6212
Melanie Milone was born and raised and still lives in Arlington TX. She was on an age group diving team, high school team and college team (Texas Tech). She started diving consistently (again) in 2006 and recently retired from working as an accountant. She is married to Bob Milone and they have two sons, one daughter in law and one grandson.
Her email is mjmilone@sbcglobal.net
Chay Shipley and Regina Feny
Athlete At-Large
Chay has been diving for 23 years. She dove at the University of South Carolina in college. She currently resides in Greenville, SC and works as a sports medicine Physician Assistant at Piedmont Orthopedics. Chay has always had an underlying passion for Masters diving since she read an article in USA diving magazine when she was in middle school. She enjoys encouraging retired athletes to get back into master athletic programs, especially diving. She has attended multiple masters events since 2017. Chay hopes to continue to expand the incredible Masters diving experience to young, old, current and past athletes in any way she can. Her favorite part about Masters diving is seeing athletes overcome fears. She enjoys the contagious energy of overcoming a new or old obstacles. Chay enjoys crafting while not at work and is always willing to discuss projects people may request or need!
e-mail: chay.malvasio@gmail.com
phone: 484-788-9790
Reggie brings almost 2 dozen years of administrative expertise to the US Masters Diving leadership team. She serves as a Senior Advisor in the Federal Government and will leverage that experience to support the US Masters Diving leadership team as they navigate the multi-faceted dynamic of operating a fast-paced organization in an ever-changing environment.
Reggie grew up in Ellicott City where she dove in the summer first for Nob Hill Swim Club and then for North St. John’s. She also spent 7 years diving for the Johns Hopkins JO team on 1M, 3M, and platform. After high school, Reggie dove on the California State University of Long Beach varsity diving team for two years before their aquatics program was cancelled.
Reggie was away from diving for 30 years raising children and started diving again in 2018. Her favorite dives are twisters! All kinds of twisters, her all-time favorite was a front 1 ½ with 3 twists on 3M, but now it is a toss up between the front 1 ½ with 2 twists and the back 1 ½ with 1 ½ twists. Some days it's one, some days it’s the other.
Cell phone: 410-971-4143
E-mail: reggiefeny@gmail.com
Immediate Past Leaders 2021-2022
- Heather Carrano- Chairman
- Ron Kontura- Vice Chair - Recording
- David Cotton- Vice Chair - Rules
- Mark Timko - Athlete-at-large
DIVE IN – BECOME A VOLUNTEER!
We rely on our community of volunteers to run the administrative side and to operate our meets. If you have even an hour to give and would like to get involved, please contact us! Our volunteers have made ALL the difference, and we invite you to join us!
MAKE A DONATION OR BECOME A SPONSOR
As a volunteer-run non-profit we appreciate all financial and in-kind support. Sponsors will have the opportunity to meet and to market to our community of adult professionals. To inquire about opportunities, or to assist in our fundraising efforts, please contact us at info@mastersdiving.org
To donate financially to Masters Dive, please contact us so that we can direct the funds with USA Diving appropriately. Checks must include ”MASTERS DIVING” in the memo. Thank you!