After an incredible performance at the sectional on Saturday, Fishers’ Cole VanDevender dialed it back a little bit for the regional.
Dialing it back, though, still means an incredible performance when one is a diver of VanDevender’s caliber. The Tigers senior won the Hamilton Southeastern diving regional on Tuesday, scoring 577.00 points. In addition, VanDevender qualified for this weekend’s IHSAA state meet.
VanDevender has committed to dive for Indianan University next year. He placed second last year at state as a junior, just missing first place by 0.55 points. Fishers diving coach Kristy Ford said that VanDevender went hard at the sectional and scored 601.15 points, overwhelmingly finishing in first place. On Tuesday, the senior backed off a little today to get through the regional and concentrate on the state meet.
Three other Hamilton County divers qualified for state by placing in the top eight. The host Royals had two of them: Nathan Barr placed fifth with a score of 380.00, while Garrett Garwood finished sixth by scoring 378.15. Noblesville’s Jared Newman qualified as well, getting the eighth spot with a score of 361.15 points.
Carmel’s John Curcio finished 11th with 339.85 points.
The state diving competition begins at 9 a.m. Saturday with the preliminaries, and will be immediately followed by the semi-finals. The finals take place during the swim meet, which starts at 1 p.m.
ABOVE: Fishers’ Cole VanDevender won the Hamilton Southeastern diving regional on Tuesday. VanDevender finished with 577.00 points and leads a county contingent of four divers that qualified for Saturday’s state meet.
BELOW: Noblesville’s Jared Newman finished eighth and will advance to the state meet. (Bret Richardson)
