Noblesville’s Eryn McMahon prevails in close battle
By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – The competition was close at the Hamilton Southeastern diving regional Tuesday night.
Noblesville’s Eryn McMahon and Hamilton Heights’ Campbell Lively-Mason both held the lead at one point and were battling until the last of the 11 dives for the regional championship. It took one last high-scoring dive for McMahon to claim the title, which she did by scoring 410.05 points.
Meanwhile, Carmel’s Helena Gibson used a huge final dive to jump into second place, totaling 406.15 points. Lively-Mason finished third with 401.95 points, but not before getting the highest-scoring dive of the night on her 11th try.
All three divers advance to Saturday’s IHSAA state finals at the IU Natatorium.
Lively-Mason led by less than a point over McMahon after the first five dives. McMahon took a very slight lead after eight dives, totaling 292.95 to Lively-Mason’s 292.65. McMahon increased her lead after the first two dives of the finals, then clinched the title by scoring 40.25 on her 11th, a forward two somersault pike.
“I think I dove pretty well,” said McMahon. “I feel like I dove the same as sectionals. I try to keep my head in the same space. I just think I put my best foot forward and just try hard my best on every dive.”
McMahon said her regional score was close to her personal best, a 416.90 that she achieved at last Saturday’s Carmel sectional finals. While she was a few points off, she said she was “just grateful that I got to break 400 at this meet.”
Gibson, the winner of the Carmel sectional, kept herself consistently in the top five throughout the meet. She made her move on her 10th dive, a back 1-1/2 somersault, 1-1/2 twist, which scored her 43.75 points. Gibson followed that with a score of 41.85 points on her final dive, an inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck that featured a high degree of difficulty (3.1).
Gibson called that “her hardest dive, so I had to have a lot of energy for it. I put it at the end of my list because the DD got me the good score.”
“I don’t think I dove my best, but I am still really proud of how I did today,” said Gibson. “I’m glad with how I finished.”
Lively-Mason struggled with her first two dives of the finals, but came back with a solid score on her 11th dive, a back 1-1/2 somersault pike. The Huskies senior scored 48.30 points, pushing her above 400 points and clinching the bronze.
“I think everything went pretty well,” said Lively-Mason. “I definitely left some points out there on the board, for sure. I missed one or two dives that I could have definitely hit for higher points.” But she said she was “definitely proud” of how she performed.
Three other county divers competed at the HSE regional. The Royals’ Zoe Rehm finished 12th with a score of 312.00 points. Fishers’ Blair Kallas was 13th with 218.40 points, followed by Carmel’s Emily Linder in 14th with 214.10 points. The top 12 divers after eight dives advance to the finals.
The state diving finals begin at 9 a.m. Saturday with the preliminaries, where all 32 divers from across the state perform five dives. The top 20 after the prelims advance to the semifinals to complete three more dives. The top 16 after the semifinals perform another three dives that afternoon to determine the state champion.
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