Bobcat senior claims Alliance diving title
Kate Hauser had quite the turnaround on Tuesday night.
The Marshalltown senior diver put up a new career-best score to take the Iowa Alliance Conference diving title in Tuesday’s competition at the Linda Bloom Natatorium in the Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA.
Hauser posted an 11-dive score of 454.70, blowing past her previous best of 416.65 and winning by a 73-point margin over runner-up Lucy York of Ames.
After failing to complete one of her dives at Saturday’s Bobcat Diving Invite, Hauser said she was much more at ease on Tuesday.
“I came in a lot more confident,” Hauser said. “I knew all of the divers well because I practice with them at Iowa State club diving, and I was just excited for the meet.”
The reverse dive that derailed her performance on Saturday was moved to the front of her dive list on Tuesday, and she completed the dive successfully this time with a 38.25 score to take a lead that she would never surrender.
“It’s one of her best dives,” MHS head coach Angie Nelson said. “We thought we really needed a confidence builder in the beginning, we needed to come back from Saturday. … She had a lot of really quality dives in that first five where coming off that, she already had a commanding lead and it put her in a spot of confidence and power.”
Mixing in the strong dives with her less confident approaches was a formula for success on Tuesday.
“It’s a really good confidence boost, because I really didn’t have a bad dive today,” Hauser said. “It was really nice to see what I’m capable of and know that I can do it again.”
Hauser also had some support from Abby Tollefson, last year’s state diving champion for Marshalltown.
“I knew she was coming, but it was really nice to finally see her walk in tonight,” Hauser said. “I miss her.”
It’ll be more than two weeks before Hauser’s next competition at a state-qualifying diving meet at Waukee on Thursday, Nov. 7.
Among the teams at that regional, Hauser leads the way in the 11-dive competition as the only diver who has broken the 400-point threshold as of press time.
“We needed that turnaround now,” Nelson said. “Now we just need a couple weeks of solid practice time, polish some things up a little bit, and I think she’s going to be awesome.”
Marshalltown’s Ella DeMonte competed in the junior varsity division and scored 138.35 in her six dives.
Iowa Alliance Conference Diving Meet
At Linda Bloom Natatorium, Marshalltown YMCA-YWCA
Medalists (top 6) — 1. Kate Hauser, MHS, 454.70; 2. Lucy York, Ames, 381.05; 3. Molly Engelman, Ames, 327.40; 4. Delaney O’Connor, Fort Dodge, 323.05; 5. Allison Rodemeyer, Mason City, 288.65; 6. Maggie Buseman, Mason City, 275.00.