In a matter of two days, Crawfordsville diver Trinity Deck become the owner of two 6-Dive records.
On Monday, Dec. 15 she broke the Athenians school record with a mark of 246.05. A day later she broke the Montgomery County meet record with a score of 226.1, beating the previous mark held by Crawfordsville’s Britney Ward by 14 points.
The best thing?
Deck is only a sophomore and starting to come into her own.
“It’s definitely technique,” she said of her improvement. “You can always improve your technique and having a good coach is a really big thing, because he knows what he is doing and knows what I need to fix.”
Longtime Crawfordsville diving coach Dave Whitehead has helped produced a number of top divers for the Athenians over the years, which makes Deck’s new records that much more impressive.
“Coach Whitehead knows what he is doing, and he’s the reason I try so hard, because he puts hope in me, and tells me I can make it big.”
Deck’s brother, Sam, who was a teammate of Crawfordsville’s last diving state qualifier Caleb Whicker, inspired Trinity to pick up the sport just four years ago.
“It makes me feel really good to have the school record, because everyone is so good and for me to be at the top is really cool,” she said. “I didn’t think I would get this far, I just one day woke up and decided I wanted to try diving.”
Deck has seen her biggest improvement just in the last two seasons by pushing herself in practice.
“This year and last year have been harder than middle school, because they didn’t really push me that hard,” she said while giving credit to coach Whitehead’s guidance. “I feel like I have changed my approach to get me up higher so I can do more somersaults and twisting and increased difficulty.”
During the Montgomery County meet, Southmont junior Jordan Stanley also broke the county record with a mark of 216.95, but Deck’s win was her first over Stanley, who also owns the Southmont school record.
“She’s always been a big competition,” Deck said of Stanley. “She’s really good, so for me to be able to beat her for the first time felt really good.”
One diver left the county meet as the new record holder and new champion, while the other left with extra fuel in her fire knowing there would be plenty more opportunities for the two to compete against each other.
Needless to say — a county rivalry in girls’ diving is heating up.
