INDIANAPOLIS — It was a pretty satisfying weekend for Mt. Vernon swimmer Lydia Tierney at the IUPUI Natatorium, but it was just imperfect enough to give the junior a little bit of an added edge heading into next year.
Tierney scored in a pair of events at Saturday’s IHSAA swimming and diving state finals, picking up five points to put the Marauders in a tie for 34th place. Greenfield-Central was 43rd, getting two points courtesy of a 15th-place finish from diver Shyanne Milne.
Starting her Saturday in the 200-yard individual medley, Tierney finished the consolation final in 2 minutes, 6.85 seconds, matching her time from Friday’s preliminaries and placing 15th. Shortly thereafter, she wound up 14th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.85 seconds.
“I was really pleased,” Tierney said. “I was hoping to get a top-eight (finish), so I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, but my times yesterday and today were really good — I got lifetime bests in both, and it’s putting me in a good spot for next year.”
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Making it into two consolation finals and lowering her previous best times had Tierney leaving the state meet with a smile on her face — but she made it clear that she’ll have higher expectations for herself as a senior.
Those expectations will include at least one appearance in a championship final.
“Since I didn’t get top eight this year, it’s a little bit of a motivation for next year to work even harder,” she said.
Milne also came out of the weekend pleased after reaching the final round of the 1-meter diving competition and finishing with a total score of 410.70.
Though the senior dropped down a bit from last year’s 13th-place showing, her score was actually higher this time around.
“There’s a lot more competition this year than there was last year,” Milne said. “Overall, I’m proud of how I did. I don’t really care how I placed, honestly. I was just happy with the way I dove. I think I had a pretty good meet. I broke 400. I didn’t beat my personal record, but I broke 400, and that was my goal.”
Milne was 13th after the 1-meter preliminaries and finished the semis in 14th with a score of 302.20. She picked up 33.75 points for her first dive of the final round, an inside dive pike, then added a reverse 2 somersault tuck for 36.80 points. She closed out with a back somersault 1.5 twist free worth 37.95 points.
Mt. Vernon’s Maddy King finished the prelims in 22nd, two spots short of moving into the semifinals. Milne’s Greenfield-Central teammate, Maci Montgomery, was 25th.
