Neuqua's Wagner sets tone for state
Neuqua Valley diver Ted Wagner is going forward one step at a time to be where he wants to be at the state swimming and diving meet in late February.
His goal is to make it into the top six in Illinois.
At Saturday's Hinsdale Central Diving Invitational, which is billed as a pre-state state meet, Wagner finished seventh in the competition, which included many of the top divers in Illinois.
"This is a great meet to gauge how I'm going to do later in the year," said Wagner, who finished 11th at state last year. "Everybody from third place to seventh place was bunched pretty close. I just have to work as hard as I can to finish in the top six."
Neuqua Valley diving coach Gerry Petit was pleased with Wagner's showing against the best of the competition.
"I'm proud of Ted and what he did," Petit said. "We came here and accomplished what we wanted and that was to make a statement that Ted is getting better and better as the weeks go by. He'll be ready to at the state meet."
After the first round of the competition, eight dives, Wagner finished seventh and then moved up to sixth in the three-dive second round.
But then his last dive in the final round, the back one-and-a-half, one-and-a-half, didn't score enough points for him to keep his hold on sixth, and he finished 3 points behind New Trier's Matt Staab.
"That last dive was something I'm working on in practice," Wagner said. "It was better than I've ever done it. So I'm pretty happy. It's getting better."
Hinsdale South's Jordan Dyson won the invitational for the second year in a row with 466.35 points just ahead of Glenbrook North's Jonathan Roby's 459.40.
Roby was second at state last year and Dyson was third.
"Jonathan is my main competition," Dyson said. "He was beating me at the beginning, but I pulled close to him on the eighth dive. My last three dives are solid dives for me and I knew I would have a chance."
Other DuPage County divers who finished in the top 16 were: Josh Gitzlaff of Naperville North in 10th place with 335.15 points; Downers Grove South's Mike Holz, who was 15th with 215.5 points; and Waubonsie Valley's Kyle Machalinski was 16th with 214.90.
New Trier won the team competition with 25 points, two ahead of Loyola, with Hinsdale Central, Hinsdale South and Evanston tied for third with 16.
Gitzlaff, who missed his first state qualification by just two points last year, said he's getting more comfortable competing against this level of competition.
"Nerves are always a factor," Gitzlaff said. "But I felt more confident after my first couple of dives. Just being here boosts my confidence. I feel as though I belong."
Machalinski is also looking for his first state qualification.
"There are a lot of great divers here and it can be a little intimidating," Machalinski said. "It's a lot of fun to dive against them. It wasn't my best meet but I did well by finishing in the top 16 and I believe it can only go up from here."