Fishers High School senior diver Morgan Casey’s plan was simple as she prepared to defend her state diving title.
“I try to focus on one dive at a time because I didn’t want to put pressure on myself,” Casey said. “Everyone motivated each other to dive well. I wasn’t leading going into my last three dives, so I really needed to nail them. Those are some of my favorites but also some of my hardest dives. I just wanted to do every dive the best as I possibly could, just as I practiced.”
She accomplished that mission, winning the 1-meter diving competition in the IHSAA girls state swimming and diving finals Feb. 13 at the Indiana University Natatorium at IUPUI. Casey won with 517.30 points, just ahead of Center Grove freshman Mia Prusiecki, who was second with 510.90.
“I definitely wanted to end with a big bang,” Casey said. “This was special to me with it being my senior year.”
Casey will compete for Indiana University next season.
“There’s not been a lot of two-time state diving champs, so to be able to come back and repeat really demonstrates her level of excellence,” Fishers coach Joe Keller said. “She works hard. She really deserved it.”
Casey is the first repeat diving champion since 2013-14.
The Tigers finished second int the team standings for the second consecutive year with 200 points. Carmel won its 35th consecutive state team title with 479 points.
Keller said Casey and senior diver Natalie Bryan finishing 11th helped the Tigers get off to a strong start as the diving was held before the swimming finals in a format change because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They got us a little bit of cushion we could work with,” Keller said. “We wanted to hit that 200-point mark, so we did. We grew a lot in the process. We had a lot of people swimming in this meet for the first time.”
Keller said the team didn’t perform as well he would have liked in the Feb. 12 preliminaries.
“We challenged them to respond and they did,” Keller said. “No individual moved down from where they were seeded. They either maintained their spot or moved up.”
Sophomore JoJo Ramey finished fourth in both the 200-yard freestyle and 500 freestyle. Sophomore Kate Mouser was fourth in the 200 individual medley and fifth in the 500 freestyle. Junior Lydia Reade placed third in 100 breaststroke.
