Greenfield-Central’s Alex Jahrsdoerfer, shown here at Saturday’s sectional competition, won Tuesday’s regional at Plainfield. The senior is advancing to the diving state finals for the third straight year.
The Daily Reporter File Photo
Staff report
PLAINFIELD — Greenfield-Central’s Alex Jahrsdoerfer is going to the diving state finals for the third time, but it will be the first time he competes as a regional champion.
The G-C senior, in a field of 20 divers, won Tuesday’s Plainfield Diving Regional to advance to Saturday’s IHSAA Boys Swimming and Diving State Finals at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.
It is the first time a Greenfield-Central diver has won a regional title.
Jahrsdoerfer finished with an 11-dive score of 375.95. Brownsburg’s Maddox Grant was a close second with 362.60. Abram Monahan of Franklin Central totaled 360. The top eight divers advanced to Saturday’s state finals.
“I went in wanting to get top eight to go to state, dive consistently,” Jahrsdoerfer said. “I wasn’t expecting first, but here we are.
“About the third or fourth round it was me and (Grant) going back and forth for first and second. It was then I thought, this could happen, and it did.”
After five dives, Jahrsdoerfer was in second place with 181.95 points. Grant led with 190.35.
After eight dives the field was cut from 20 divers to 12. Jahrsdoerfer was in the lead with 277.35 points. Grant had dropped to second at 264.40.
Three other Hancock County divers competed Tuesday. New Palestine’s Aidan Stephens made the finals and finished 12th with 260.20 points.
New Palestine’s Cade Rodgers was 13th with 203.95. Greenfield-Central’s Gabriel Hall was 19th with 174.20.
As a sophomore, Jahrsdoerfer qualified for the state finals by placing seventh in the regional round. Last year, he finished fourth. He followed it up with a 19th place finish at the 2022 state meet.
Jahrsdoerfer and the other county divers qualified for the regional by finishing in the top four at Saturday’s New Palestine Sectional. Jahrsdoerfer was the sectional champion.
“I’ve done this list (of dives) once, but we added a dive about two weeks ago that I competed today,” Jahrsdoerfer said of Tuesday’s meet. “It went decent, but some of my harder dives went a lot better than they did at the sectional. That’s probably what boosted my score a little bit.”
Saturday’s diving competition begins at 9 a.m. with the finals taking place as the fifth event of the swimming and diving championship beginning at 1 p.m.
“It’s definitely a new experience, very fun,” Jahrsdoerfer said of being a regional champion. “I can’t wait to get to state to see if I can do any better.”
“It’s definitely special (being the first diving champion from Greenfield-Central). I hope it’ll leave some kind of impact for someone out there to look up to and be the next person to win the regional.”
