Greenfield-Central’s Lauren Haffner competes during the HHC Swimming and Diving Championships at New Palestine High School on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
By James Howell Jr./Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — While Hancock County divers from the Hoosier Heritage Conference represented their schools well on Thursday night, none were able to top opposing divers from Pendleton Heights and New Castle in the 2021-22 conference diving championships at the New Palestine Natatorium.
After last year’s title went to Greenfield-Central’s Reagan Crouch, the 2022 title went to Madelyn Heineman of Pendleton Heights with a score of 331.55. Heineman placed fifth last year.
Sacha Shunneson of New Castle placed second with an overall score of 321.45.
Riley Nielsen of Mt. Vernon led the way for all county divers with a 300.85. The junior Marauder was able to meet her goals and leave the pool feeling accomplished.
“This is a new sport for me,” Nielsen said. “I’m really enjoying it though and wanted to go out there and just enjoy each dive and give it what I had. In the end, I wanted to hit a 300 score and was able to do that.”
Nielsen, who started diving just six weeks ago, finished third in the meet — her first ever 11-dive event.
“Honestly, there weren’t too many nerves,” Nielsen said. “I just went into each dive and tried my best. That’s what got me to third.”
Alayna Walker of New Palestine was the fourth place finisher with a score of 236.60.
Dragons diving coach Corey Johnson was thrilled with the result and the result of Walker’s teammates.
“These ladies are doing their best every single day and it showed today,” Johnson said. “We compete well, but practice even better. That work in practice showed today with their progress, specifically with Alayna going from seventh last year to fourth this year.”
Johnson’s hope is that this meet’s results will motivate his divers to keep pushing themselves.
“I tell the girls always that you practice what you want to perfect,” Johnson said. “They’re practicing hard and this result should show them that the practice is pushing them toward perfection.”
The Cougars from Greenfield-Central were able to surpass their goal for the night with two top eight finishers.
“We honestly came into the meet with the goal of getting one diver into the top eight,” Cougars diving coach Dane Knecht said. “To get two in is great considering we came in with multiple girls that had never competed in an 11-dive meet.”
Ava Jaggers-Rust led the Cougars with a fifth place finish, scoring 220.30. Avery Davis finished seventh with a score of 213.70.
New Palestine’s Lauren Appleby placed 10th, Greenfield-Central’s Lauren Haffner placed 12th and Mt. Vernon’s Emma Craig placed 13th to round out the results for Hancock County divers.
The five county divers that placed themselves in the top eight, set up their swimming counterparts well for Friday evening’s swim meet to decide the 2021-22 swimming and diving HHC champion.
