Just before Hayley Fry’s final dive of the night Tuesday during the Emporia High Diving Invitational, she could be seen mouthing some words of encouragement to herself as she stepped onto the diving board.
She was about to attempt a dive that she had done one other time this season — she tried it once the day before in practice — and had not even attempted it in warmups before Tuesday’s meet began.
“I was telling myself to go for it,” Fry said. “I said to myself, ‘Take your first step and go.’ I was just telling myself I could do it.”
Fry completed the dive, a front double, and even though it was her lowest-scoring dive of the night out of 11 dives, it was enough to propel her to a first-place finish at the invitational with 287.50 points, 18.75 points ahead of Salina Central’s Lindsay Jones.
The victory was particularly sweet for Fry, who is recovering from a six-month battle with mono, which only allows her to practice for one hour at a time.
“I’m glad I went for it,” the junior said, “especially since I haven’t been able to practice very much since I was sick. I was a little worried about not having enough time to get in the water. But it feels good.”
Fry and EHS dive coach Barbara Clark decided to include the dive in Fry’s repertoire to improve Fry’s degree-of-difficulty scores. Had it not been included, Clark said, Fry might not have had enough higher-difficulty dives to pull off the win Tuesday.
“That was a dive that we knew we had form last year, but we knew we had to give her some difficulty to help her move up,” Clark said. “Even though she got her lowest scores on it, she still did it and got points on it. I’m proud of her.”
Sophomore Alli Armitage also came through with a strong showing Tuesday in what was her first meet back from a slight shoulder injury she suffered during basketball season. Armitage finished third with 263.60 points.
“She did really well,” Clark said. “She took some dives out, but some other dives that we’ve been working on, I saw good form.”
Armitage’s sister, freshman Aubrey Armitage, rounded out Emporia High’s impressive day with a second-place finish in the six-dive competition. It was Aubrey’s second dive competition at EHS, and Clark said she saw a noticeable different since the last time out.
“She has improved so much,” Clark said. “Her confidence is getting better. I felt like today’s meet, she was more focused. She had good form. She scored well on a lot of dives that she did.”
The EHS divers are back in action on Thursday when they compete with the swimming team in the Emporia High Invitational, which begins at 4 p.m. at the EHS pool.