Columbus East’s Gavin Day competes in diving portion of a Dec. 17, 2024 meet at Columbus North.
The Republic file photo
Gavin Day will be looking to finish strong in Saturday’s Boys Swimming and Diving State Finals.
The Columbus East senior diver will compete beginning with the prelims at 9 a.m. Saturday at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. The diving finals will be during the break in the swimming finals, which start at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Day finished second in the Jasper Regional Tuesday with a score of 478.95 to qualify. Based on the regional scores across the state, he has the seventh best score. However, he is only 18 points off of fifth-place and 31 points off from a top-three placement at state. Grant Cates of Oak Hill is considered the favorite with a top regional diving score of 614.15.
While those results could vary at state, Day knows the potential he has ahead of him.
“I’m excited to compete at state. Whether I do good or bad, I’m just really excited to be there,” he said.
Gavin Day
Day will be making his third trip to the state finals. He qualified for state as a sophomore and finished 11th last year as a junior.
“His goal this year was to be top-eight, so he’s got a really good shot at it,” East diving coach Nancy Snyder said. “As far as some of the scores go, he’s got a shot to move up. It depends on having a really great day where everything hits. Unlike swimming, where you’re racing to the clock, diving is more about muscle memory and consistency. Gavin is a pretty consistent diver, so I don’t see a huge change one way or the other in that because he stays pretty steady through the whole few years.”
Regardless of how Day finishes, he is excited for making his third trip to the state finals.
“The state finals meet is probably my favorite meet of the season,” Day said. “I know a lot of the guys out there from club meets. Everyone is cool with each other, so that’s what I’m most excited about. Everyone knows each other, and there’s some really good competition.”
Day will join four other Olympians at the state finals. Keaton Stephenson will swim the 200-yard freestyle, Josh Pendleton will compete in the 500 freestyle, Misha Machavariani will swim the 100 breaststroke and those three will team with Eli Isaacs to compete in the 400 freestyle relay in Friday’s preliminaries at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.
