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When asked about her thoughts on last Saturday’s state diving meet, Lisa Willhite paused, thought a moment, and bit her tongue. Not literally- she just declined not to comment, which showed a lot more self-control than most expected.

To be blunt, Brian Willhite, Jeremy Salokar and Adam Sill’s scores were suspect at best. The three Chisago Lakes divers dove well, yet found themselves on the outside looking up. Willhite finished the meet in third place while Salokar took seventh. As for Sill who was eighth going into the finals, he missed medaling after dropping to 10th place overall. The top eight medal.

“The kids were classy, we all decided to take the high road,” mentioned Willhite, Chisago Lakes head diving coach. “They all dove really well, they dove good dives. They were getting in the water, but in the end, the scores just didn’t reflect that.”

The state diving meet began last Thursday with preliminaries (first eight dives). Off the record, that’s where most feel the scores hurt Chisago the most.

After the first five dives, all three Wildcat divers were put in an early hole. Unfortunately, that trend continued over the next three dives as well. When the first round was over, after eight dives, Salokar and Sill were in seventh and eighth place respectively, while Willhite was in second. However, Brian was 36 points behind Simley’s Jake Salmon going into the finals. It was too much to make up in three dives.

“Realistically, after Thursday, I thought Brian could hold onto second,” commented Willhite. “I thought Jeremy could maybe move up a couple spots, and I thought Adam could hold onto eighth place. Those were realistic goals.”

Unfortunately, none of those three goals became reality. Despite performing three solid dives in the finals, Willhite actually dropped to third. Meanwhile, Sill moved from eighth place to 10th, and Salokar stayed put to finish in seventh place. That’s after scoring six’s and seven’s on his second of three dives.

“Adam didn’t have the day we were hoping on Saturday but he really dove well on Thursday,” remarked Willhite. “I though Jeremy dove very well both days. He had some form issues here and there but overall, he really did some nice things. And Brian dove well the entire meet. He missed just one of his 11 dives and that was his two-and-a-half on Thursday. Otherwise, he was as good as he’s been all year. Like I said, I’m happy because I thought they all did great even though the scores didn’t reflect that.”

Salmon won the meet, grabbing first with a score of 424.35. Willhite finished just two points out of second, ending up with a score of 380.55.

Adding to the emotions last Saturday was the fact that it was the final state meet for all three divers. It was a tough way to go out.

“It wasn’t quite the way we wanted to end it, but in the end, those kids had great careers and they have nothing to be disappointed about,” mentioned Willhite. “They all had great careers. We’re definitely going to miss them.”

State Swimming and Diving Meet

Team Results (Top 5):

1. Saint Thomas Acad. 371

2. Breck / Blake 189

2. Hutchinson 189

4. Northfield 157.50

5. Simley 134

21. Chisago Lakes 35

Individual Results (CL only):

Diving-

1. Jake Salmon (Simley) 424.35

2. Hollis Leja (Orono) 382.30

3. Brian Willhite (CL) 380.55

4. Wilson Robinson (Hib) 369.60

5. Kirby Mattocks (MW) 369.50

6. P.J. Rongitsch (STA) 356.40

7. Jeremy Salokar (CL) 345.10

8. Danny Pogue (Chis) 302.50

9. Matt Mahowald (Farm) 296.55

10. Adam Sill (CL) 295.95

11. Marcus Rein (Rocori) 283.90

12. Chris Axelson (Wil) 278.05

13. Tony Zeglis (GR) 203.85

14. Zach Kenning (Hutch) 260.40

15. Wes Schlicting (SR) 237.45

16. Josh Cagle (GR) 183.10

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