On Tuesday, Jan. 26, sophomore Caroline Stevens made RBHS history by scoring 256 points in a 6 dive meet at the Hannibal Swimming and Diving meet. Stevens topped the school’s record holding score from 1981 (248.8) by a staggering 7.2 points. Stevens qualified for the Lee’s Summit state diving meet on Feb. 20 by receiving a 230 or higher and obtaining at least a 12.2 degree of difficulty for her dives.
“I missed getting the state cut the weekend before and this was one of my last chances, so I was trying to stay calm,” Stevens said. “If I got too nervous or overexcited I would throw off my focus. I was just trying to keep the mood light and focus on doing my very best.”
In a six dive meet there are six rounds of diving. The diver participates in five categories of dives — front, back, inward, reverse, twister — including an additional dive from the “Dive of the Week.” Scores are determined by taking the average three scores of an individual and multiplying it by the dive’s difficulty, explained Stevens.
[quote cite=”Caroline Stevens, RBHS sophomore”]If I got too nervous or overexcited I would throw off my focus. I was just trying to keep the mood light and focus on doing my very best.[/quote] Stevens’ achievement was a culmination of drive, determination, and diligence. Setting up goals and pursuing them seemed a viable game plan, as her name now stands among one of the greats in RBHS’s hallway and history.
“At the beginning of the season I had told one of my friends that before I graduated I would break one of the [school] records,” Stevens said. “So the day after the meet, she came up to me and asked me if I had. I had completely forgot about them, so we went to the hallway with the records together and saw that I broke it.”
This year marks Steven’s second season of high school diving — and diving, for that matter. It’s a wonder as to how Stevens grasped onto the sport so quickly and valiantly with only the 2014-15 season as prior experience.
Yet even after accomplishing such a feat, Stevens remains humble and accredits her success to assistant Swim and Dive coach J.D. Estes.
“I was overjoyed. I couldn’t be happier,” Stevens said. “But I have to give tons of credit to my coach J.D. — he’s amazing.”