Merrillville Gary Post Tribune
By Dan Sipocz

Mishawaka -- Two weeks after Valparaiso's Maddie Miskulin took the regional crown in the girls diving competition at Mishawaka High School another Valparaiso diver, James Raber, found himself in position to do the same after five dives.

"This is pretty awesome. It validates all the hard work we put in over the summer," said Valparaiso diver Anthony Trinoski. "I just wanted to qualify for the finals and I accomplished what I set out to do."

What happened next didn't surprise anyone. Every competitor began throwing their best dives and racking up the points.

Korey Schrock (Concord) and Michael Boyle rallied behind spectacular back dives and an array of twisting dives to overtake Raber with three dives to go despite Raber's consistent dives between 36.30 and 42 points.

"I love competing against competitors like Korey. He is a great diver and he really challenges you," said Raber. "No one has 11 perfect dives, but even for just one round, one dive I was ahead of him and that is awesome."

Schrock was the only diver the entire night to notch a 50 point dive. In this case, he tallied two and a close call that came in at 49.60.

Raber fell to third but led the charge for the area heading into the final stages and held on for a fifth place finish Tuesday night. Schrock ended up taking the win with a total of 427.60, outscoring the closest competitor by 52.35 points.

"It feels really good to get the win and continue on to finals. I was excited to be here because I was sick last week for sectionals and I didn't give my best performance," Schrock said. "I just wanted to hit my dives, knowing that would take care of everything."

Trinoski was in close proximity, finishing sixth while LaPorte's Joshua Batten notched the best finish for area divers, finishing fourth with 360.05 points, just ahead of Raber (359.35) and Trinoski (357.50).

"The pressure is off. We (Raber and Trinoski) made it to the finals and that's all we wanted to do," Raber said. "This is a great reward for us making the year-round commitment to diving."

There was a dogfight to land in one of the eight coveted finals spots to compete at IUPUI behind the trio of area divers.

In the end a mere 9.45 points was all that stood between a trip to Indy and just going home between two Warsaw competitors.

The Valparaiso duo of Trinoski and Raber recognized their work was cut out for them, but were enjoying the moment.

"Going to state is awesome," Trinoski said. "Especially since this is the first time we are both going and we get to go together."