East’s Meier headed back to state

Gabbie Meier

JASPER — The previous two years, Gabbie Meier has snuck into the state finals with one of the final qualifying spots from the Jasper Diving Regional.

Tuesday night, the Columbus East junior left little to chance. She finished third to claim one of the eight spots to Saturday’s state finals.

“I didn’t think I would be third, but I thought I would move on if I hit everything,” Meier said. “I wasn’t too worried about it.”

Meier scored a 407.95 for 11 dives. That was about six points better than her score at last year’s regional, when she finished sixth, but about 14 points below her winning score from Saturday’s Columbus North Regional.

“It may not have been as a good a score, but that is almost irrelevant,” said Nancy Snyder, one of East’s diving coaches. “It’s just different because you have different judges. She dove well. She had a good night tonight. This is a tough regional.”

Meier was in third place just about the entire way through the competition.

“I feel like I did really good,” Meier said. “I dove really solid and consistent. I was in a better attitude, so that made it a lot better. It made me more confident.”

Defending state champion Mia Prusiecki of Center Grove won the regional with a score of 539.85. Ella Taylor of Indian Creek finished second at 441.10.

“She did fantastic,” said Cordell Glass, the Olympians’ other diving coach. “I told her from the very beginning she could be in the top three on the podium. The only thing she needed to do was be consistent. She was consistent at conference, consistent at sectional and consistent at regional. She’s getting the job done, and now, she’s going to state.”

Glass thinks Meier can improve her score at state.

“I think she’s capable of better dives than she did tonight,” Glass said. “She had some very good dives, and she had some dives that need a little bit of improvement.”

Saturday’s diving competition will begin at 9 a.m. at IUPUI’s Indiana Natatorium with 32 divers. The field will be cut to 20 after five dives and 16 after eight dives. The top 16 competitors will perform their final three dives within the swimming finals, which begin at 1 p.m.

Meier finished 16th at state last year.

“I think I could probably do about the same as last year,” Meier said. “I’m going to try to get to the finals. I’m just happy that I’m going to state, so I’m just going to try to have fun.”