BLOOMINGTON — Going into Tuesday’s Bloomington North Diving Regional, Columbus East senior D.J. Rhodes was seeded 18th of 20 competitors.
That psych sheet didn’t intimidate him in the slightest.
By the night’s end, Rhodes had climbed the ladder in his first-ever regional competition. Rhodes jumped five spots to finish 13th, one spot shy of making the final round of dives.
Rhodesscored 220.55 through eight tries, just 4.9 points behind the last finals position.
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"I feel like I did better than I thought I would," Rhodes said. "Knowing I was ranked 18th, I was glad to push up."
Rhodes said he had a decent night overall.
"My entry was better than usual," he said. "Sometimes I have bad nights, but tonight was one of those better nights."
The top 12 scores through eight dives were awarded three additional attempts, and the top eight made it to Saturday’s Boys Swimming and Diving State Finals at IUPUI’s Indiana University Natatorium.
Seymour’s Devin Ramsey won the competition with a score of 472.75 points. Franklin’s Gauge Creech was runner-up (438.25), and Edgewood’s Wyatt Blake (403.35) took third.
East diving coach Nancy Snyder said Rhodes came ready to compete.
"He did really well. It was a nice competition," she said. "He had some nice scores and had a clean competition. He did well for himself."
Rhodes had qualified for regional with a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Columbus North Sectional.
"I’m glad that I can come out and represent my school," he said. "It was a lot more serious than sectional, but it was a lot of fun."
