Columbus East diver Gabbie Meier competes during the Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals Saturday at the Indiana Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Chris Williams | For The Republic
By Mark Ambrogi
For The Republic
INDIANAPOLIS — Columbus East sophomore diver Gabbie Meier accomplished what she set out to do Saturday in the Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals.
Meier placed 16th in the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 379.85 at Indiana University Natatorium at IUPUI.
“My goal was to make it to each round, and I did that,” Meier said. “At the end, we really didn’t care what place I came in. Sixteenth place is really good for state.”
Meier was pleased to make an improvement over last year’s state meet finish of 29th. The added experience is something Meier can build on, she said.
“For us to go from 29th to 16th, that’s huge,” East diving coach Nancy Snyder said. “She’s real proud of herself. I’m real proud of her. She’s done a phenomenal job. We kind of know where we need to go for the next year.”
Meier said her best dive in the finals was, “My 104 was a double somersault in the pike position. I was really happy with that one.”
After breaking her own school record with a 422.2 in winning the Columbus North Sectional, Meier placed sixth Tuesday in the diving regional at Jasper.
Meier was 12th after Saturday morning’s preliminaries. The top 16 make the finals.
“It was fantastic,” Snyder said. “She just did really well, nice and solid all the way through and I thought did a fantastic job. She stayed calm, stayed relax and was very consistent with her dives. That’s the name of the game — staying consistent — and I thought she did a really nice job.”
Center Grove sophomore Mia Prusiecki won the diving event with a 524.00.
Meier was one of two East athletes to make the state meet. Senior Ellie Proffitt finished 25th in the 50-yard freestyle in Friday night’s preliminaries.
Also in the prelims, Jennings County’s Avery Witt took 29th in the 200 freestyle, and Reagan Brown was 28th in the 100 breaststroke.
Paced by wins in six of the 12 events, top-ranked Carmel scored 461 points to win its national-record 36th consecutive team title. Fishers finished second with 283, and Hamilton Southeastern edged Concord 164-162 for third.
