Five county divers qualify for state

By RICHIE HALL

sports@readthereporter.com

FISHERS – Five Hamilton County divers qualified for the IHSAA state meet on Tuesday after their performances at the Fishers diving regional.

The competition at the Tigers’ aquatic center featured some extremely talented divers, including six that had sectional scores over 480 points. The winner was Oak Hill senior Grant Cates, who totaled 614.15 points in his 11 dives. A Southern Methodist University recruit, Cates scored 78.00 points on his seventh dive, a reverse 2-1/2 somersault tuck, and scored three 10s right before that on his sixth dive, a reverse pike.

Cates ran away with first place, but the county divers held their own. Senior Jacob Schade led a parade of three Fishers divers to make it to state, as he placed second with a score of 507.75 points.

Schade performed a reverse 2-1/2 somersault tuck for his seventh dive and scored 63.00 points. He eclipsed the 50-point mark on two other dives as well. This will be the third year in a row for Schade at state; he placed fourth as a sophomore and fifth last year as a junior.

“I thought I dove pretty well overall,” said Schade. “Obviously there’s dives and skills to improve upon for Saturday, but I thought it was overall a pretty solid meet and hopefully I can build on it for Saturday prelims in the morning.”

The top eight divers from the regional advance to the state meet, which begins with the preliminaries at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Junior Mason Lawson was right behind Schade, scoring 496.05 points to place third. Lawson brought out some big dives early, scoring 58.90 on his second dive (inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck) and following that with another 50-point dive.

Lawson then scored 50-plus points on his last two dives, including 56.00 on his finale, a forward 2-1/2 somersault, one twist pike. He had five dives score over 50 points at the meet but believes he can do better.

“I’ll improve for state,” said Lawson. “I’ll be ready for state.”

The third Fishers state qualifier is junior Kirby Danglade. He finished fifth with 431.55 points. Danglade’s second and third dives both scored 50-plus points, then he scored the highest on his 11^th dive, totaling 53.30 points on a forward 1-1/2 somersault, two twist free.

Danglade said he dove “pretty good for some of them,” but “left a lot out on the table in other places. But I can definitely figure it out in time for Saturday. I know what I can fix and how to do it, so just going to see if I can get it done.”

Seniors Kless, Summers advance

Noblesville senior Aiden Kless, already a two-time state qualifier, advanced to state for the third time by finishing fourth with a score of 490.45 points.

Kless scored 58.50 points on three separate dives. He reached that level for both his third and fourth dives, respectively a forward 2-1/2 somersault pike and a forward 1-1/2 somersault, two twist free. Kless totaled 58.50 a third time on his eighth dive, a reverse 2-1/2 somersault tuck.

Kless said he performed “pretty well” at the regional.

“Some dives went not so great, but some dives went great,” said Kless, who noted that “you can’t really think of the bad ones” and let them ruin the competition. Kless was fifth at state two years ago as a sophomore and seventh as a junior.

“I think I’ll do a lot better,” said Kless. “I’m in a way better head space than I was last year.”

Carmel senior Henry Summers just missed qualifying for state last season, placing ninth at the regional. He made it this year, finishing in eighth place with a score of 348.30 points.

Summers’ best dive was his fifth, a back 1-1/2 somersault 1-1/2 twist free. He totaled 42.50 points.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Summers. “I’m really liking the competition, just diving with all my friends.”

Carmel freshman Alrik Mansberger placed ninth at the regional this year, with a score of 322.95 points. Mansberger scored highest on his 11^th dive, a forward two somersault pike on which he scored 35.65 points.