Columbus East junior Gabbie Meier is The Republic Girls Swimmer/Diver of the year. She is pictured in the natatorium at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Gabbie Meier took a step forward this year.
The Columbus East junior diver returned to the state finals once again and improved in terms of placement. Meier placed 14th at state, a jump from 16th the previous year. She also broke another school record along the way.
In addition to diving, Meier also participated in a few swimming events.
Meier credited her progress by being in the weight room more often in the offseason. She would go to a few practices, mainly working on weights, and then for swim practice, having morning weights, as well.
This season, she set the six-dive school record with a 260.45. Meier also owns the 11-dive record of 422.2, a feat she accomplished her sophomore year. Her best 11-dive score this season came at the Columbus North Sectional with a 421.65.
“I was definitely a lot better at getting more height off the board,” said Meier, who is The Republic Girls Swimmer and Diver of the Year for the third time. “My dives were looking cleaner this year. I also got a lot more dives that I got to use to compete.”
In swimming, Meier finished eighth in the 100-yard butterfly at the sectional in 1 minute, 10.93 seconds. She also competed in a variety of other events and relays for the team this season.
Diving coach Cordell Glass, a former East diver himself, mentioned that diving is about 90% mental and 10% physical. Glass was an assistant diving coach last year before becoming a co-coach with Nancy Snyder this season.
“She will keep trying and trying to get it done. Diving is a very mental sport. They do the best they can to fight those mental challenges and overcome those obstacles, but all of them persevere, including Gabbie,” Glass said. “She learned new dives this year. She took it more seriously and listened to the coaches more. She wanted to evolve her diving skills. She upped her DD (degree of difficulty) substantially and she was able to grow as a diver, and that’s all I could ask for.”
In the summer, Meier said she mostly practices at school. She mentioned that she will also attend a camp at RipFest Diving in Arcadia sometime in the summer.
“I think some of it has got to do with her confidence. She’s really gotten confident with her own skills in the last couple years figuring out what she is capable of, figuring out, ‘I can really do these things,’ and trusting her coaches, between the two coaches she’s got,” Snyder said. “They’ve been right there for her the whole time.”
Meier didn’t begin diving until her freshman year. Previously, she was doing gymnastics for about nine years. She wanted to try a different sport or event. She mentioned going out for swimming because one of her friends was going to, and her mother, Trish mentioned diving. She’s loved diving ever since.
“I didn’t really know it was going to be the sport for me,” Meier said. “I was thinking that’ll be fun to try because I was done with gymnastics and ready to try something else.”
The age old question that everyone has asked Meier after her success the past three years is whether she has plans to pursue diving in college. Meier still has another year to decide, but hasn’t ruled it out completely.
“I think it would be fun but I also thought about focusing on my career, but I still have another year to decide,” Meier explained.
Meier said she will need to focus on for next year is consistently hitting her dives. She mentioned that at regional and state, judges make the entry more of an emphasis.
“I need to work on not making as much of a splash, then my scores will go up from there,” Meier said. “Probably even getting more height off my board and probably increasing my degree of difficulty.”
Glass agreed.
“She’s going to have to continue to do what she’s doing,” he said. “She needs to continue to up her difficulty and clean up her basics, and she’ll score higher. She needs to continue to become more consistent with all her dives. That’s all she’s got to do. There’s no magic potion, it’s showing up to practice and getting better.”
The 2022-23 Republic All-Area Girls Swimming and Diving team:
Gabbie Meier, Columbus East: The junior won the sectional and finished third in the regional and 14th at state in diving and placed eighth in the sectional in the 100 butterfly.
Cassidy Furnish, Columbus East: The freshman finished third in the sectional in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle.
Claire Brooks, Columbus East: The senior finished seventh in the sectional in the 100 butterfly.
Ainsley Sherlock, Columbus North: The freshman finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 individual medley in the sectional.
Katie Frazier, Columbus North: The sophomore finished fourth in the sectional in the 200 freestyle.
Karissa Bevis, Columbus North: The senior finished fifth in the sectional in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.
Brooklyn Pendleton, Columbus North: The freshman finished seventh in the sectional in the 50 freestyle.
Lydia Putney, Columbus North: The junior finished eighth in the sectional in diving.
Avery Witt, Jennings County: The junior won the Floyd Central Sectional and finished 26th at state in the 100 backstroke and won the sectional and took 29th at state in the 200 freestyle.
Tatum Brown, Jennings County: The junior finished fifth in the 500 freestyle and sixth in the 200 IM in the Floyd Central Sectional.
Honorable mention
Columbus East: Maddie Beyer, Hannah Dean, Josie Havenaar, Saya Hauser, Ali Trueblood, Kira VanValkenburg. Columbus North: Georgia Abdallah, Nicole Brault, Kara Buntin, Emma Glyn-Jones, Ella Gray Partin, Cara Tregoning. Jennings County: Shelby Davis, Harmony Ernstes, Alyssa Monnin, Lydia Ponsler, Hannah Webster.
