Derek Krause knew that if he wanted to reach the State-qualifying mark in the 1-meter diving competition, he’d have to eventually increase the degree of difficulty of his dives.
With that in mind, Krause decided there was no better time to up the ante than at the first meet back from winter break.
It paid off for the Emporia High sophomore, as he surpassed the State-qualifying mark by by nearly 18 points on his way to a first-place finish at Thursday’s Emporia High Swimming and Diving Invitational.
“It feels pretty good,” said Krause, who went to State last year as a freshman. “That was my goal the whole season. I’m very pleased.”
Krause’s first-place showing was one of seven titles the Emporia High boys swimming and diving team won out of 12 events on its way to winning the meet over second-place Seaman, 556-472.
Krause easily distanced himself from the four other divers at the meet thanks to a couple of well-executed dives, in particular his first and third attempts out of six total.
His first dive — a forward 1 1/2 with a full twist — was one he had never done in practice before, essentially performing it on the fly.
“It had a higher difficulty,” he said, “and I thought I could do it.”
His third dive easily was the highlight of the competition — a reverse double — which Krause essentially described as a “backflip, but going forward.”
Krause got the highest score of the day on that attempt and even got EHS dive coach Barbara Clark to let out a holler after he completed the dive.
“I’ve been working pretty hard on that,” Krause said, “and it felt really good to get it down.”
Though Krause was the only Spartan to earn a State-qualifying mark on the day — senior Aaron Clark passed the State mark in the 50 freestyle but already had qualified in the event — that didn’t stop the Spartans from dominating the field of six teams.
“Lots of endurance and no speed, and that’s the way it should be right now,” EHS coach Bob Yevak said. “We should be able to just go and go, but not very fast. When they taper, they’ll be fast.”
Emporia began the day by winning the 200 medley relay by .92 seconds (1:56.01) over El Dorado, one of two relay titles for EHS. The other came when the 200 freestyle relay of Clark, Scott Peterson, Adam Coburn and Sergio Segura missed out on qualifying for State by less than 2 seconds, finishing in 1 minute, 37.59 seconds.
Coburn, who swam and won the 500 freestyle just before swimming in the 200 free relay, said he’d be surprised if EHS didn’t drop the 2 seconds needed to qualify for State in the event.
“I don’t want to be overconfident,” Coburn said, smiling, “but there is a strong possibility.
“As soon as we start tapering, our times will drop dramatically.”
Clark won both the 50 freestyle (23.24 seconds) and the 100 butterfly (1:03.44) to continue his strong start to the season.
Sergio Segura, in winning the 100 freestyle, dropped .75 seconds off his time in the event to inch closer to the State mark of 52.16 seconds.
“Sergio had a great swim in the 100 free,” Yevak said. “He’s just a hair off the State cut, and he’ll get that. The sprint guys have no speed right now, but that’s OK. I don’t care right now.”
In the five events in which an EHS swimmer did not finish first, the Spartans’ top placer finished no worse than third in every event.
Scott Peterson in the 200 individual medley (2:35.93) and Michael Stauffer in the 100 breaststroke (1:17.64) each picked up second-place finishes, while Coburn in the 200 freestyle (2:07.11), Dillon Suprian in the 100 backstroke (1:10.34) and the 400 free relay team of Cord Stanley, Suprian, Coburn and Dustin Loewen (4:03.04) all placed third.
The next action for the Spartans will be Tuesday when they travel to Topeka for the Topeka West Invitational at the Hummer Sports Park aquatic center.
Emporia High Swim and Dive Invite
Thursday at EHS
Team Scores
1. Emporia 556, 2. Seaman 472, 3. El Dorado 441, 4. Topeka West 254, 5. Field Kindley 203, 6. Parsons 16.
Emporia Individual Results
200 Medley Relay
1. EHS (Suprian, Stauffer, Clark, Segura) 1:56.01
200 Freestyle
2. Adam Coburn 2:07.11
4. Andrew Wayman 2:16.67
5. Cody Yevak 2:20.26
200 IM
2. Scott Peterson 2:35.93
4. Michael Stauffer 2:40.27
9. Larkin Bennett 3:00.50
50 Freestyle
1. Aaron Clark 23.24
3. Sergio Segura 24.07
9. Cord Stanley 25.90
Diving
1. Derek Krause 207.70
2. Sam Nolan 159.90
4. Alex Neises 126.45
100 Butterfly
1. Aaron Clark 1:03.44
3. Cody Yevak 1:06.91
4. Cord Stanley 1:12.86
100 Freestyle
1. Sergio Segura 53.59
5. Dillon Suprian 57.95
9. Dustin Loewen 1:03.78
500 Freestyle
1. Adam Coburn 5:50.90
3. Andrew Wayman 6:22.99
5. Ryan Schlup 6:41.42
200 Freestyle Relay
1. EHS (Clark, Peterson, Coburn, Segura) 1:39.18
8. EHS (Bennett, Hrabik, Hudson, Yevak) 1:57.76
100 Backstroke
3. Dillon Suprian 1:10.34
11. Cody Muckenthaler 1:24.82
13. Dustin Loewen 1:27.63
100 Breaststroke
2. Michael Stauffer 1:17.64
6. Scott Peterson 1:21.86
10. Larkin Bennett 1:25.15
400 Freestyle Relay
3. EHS (Stanley, Suprian, Coburn, Loewen) 4:03.04
4. EHS (Yevak, Hudson, Schlup, Wayman) 4:16.60
8. EHS (Hrabik, Morey, Stone, Peterson) 4:55.13