Bella Walters finishes third at diving regional to make it to state a year after missing by one place of advancing

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Sectional girls diving champion Bella Walters came to Tuesday night’s regional with just one goal on her mind: finish in the top eight to earn a spot in the state field of 32.
In just her second year of taking up the sport, Walters, a Chesterton sophomore, overshot her goal to place third.
In a remarkable show of consistency, Walter was third at the break after five dives, third at the break after eight dives and third at the end of the 11-dive competition won by Penn’s Catalina Martinez-Gil.
“Make it to state, that was the only goal,” Walter said. “I honestly didn’t think about anything but that.”
Walters’ night ensured that Chesterton will have at least one athlete competing in each of the 12 events at the state meet this coming weekend in Indianapolis.

Walters barely missed advancing to state in her first year of diving a year ago, when she finished ninth at the regional.
If history repeats itself, her teammate and friend Ruby Fowler will finish third next season, because Fowler finished ninth Tuesday night.
“Third?” Chesterton diving coach Elijah Mercado questioned. “Hopefully, they’ll take one and two. They feed off each other during their training. If one is kind of struggling, they pick each other up and try to keep going, especially since it’s such a long season, so you’re trying a lot of new things and trying to gain confidence in these new dives that they do.”
The second-year divers had hoped to go to state together. They still have a year to make that happen.
“She’ll be up there with me,” Walters said of Fowler while looking at the podium. “We’ll be going to state together.”
Fowler, also in her second year of diving, was hovering near the bubble most of the night and fell from seventh to ninth after her 10th of 11 dives didn’t go well.
“I know the last couple of competitions, like conference and sectionals, the focus was handling pressure because she’s still fresh into the sport,” Mercado said of Fowler. “It’s only her second year, technically. But today she handled it very well. There are always going to be some mishaps with some dives, but as far as the competition itself, she did a very good job. She dove amazing.”
Walters was sharp from beginning to end.
“In that first round, those first five dives, she was amazing,” Mercado said of Walters. “One of her best first fives ever. She was calm, collected. I’m sure she felt some pressure, but she put it all together. She handled it well.”
Walters performed her fourth dive, the 104-B, a forward double somersault pike, so well that she ranked it as her best of the night and her coach agreed.
“It’s pretty hard because you’re in a pike position, you’re rotating fast and you have to land on your feet and you have to stop yourself from flipping over,” Mercado said. “Some people they land on their face, some people get lost because they’re holding their pike.”
Walters was quick to credit her coach with helping her get up to speed so quickly in a new sport for her.
“He’s the best. He’s the best,” Walters said. “Everything about him. He’s a great coach. He’s a great person. He gets along really well with us.”
This is the third consecutive year Mercado has coached a Chesterton girl into the state meet. Bayley Fowler, Ruby’s sister, also took up the sport in her sophomore year. Now diving for Illinois State, Bayley made it to state and advanced to the finals in both her junior and senior seasons.
Mercado will try to make it 4 for 4 at state on the boys’ side. He’s 4 for 4 in coaching a DAC boys diving champ. Lucas Lauzon won the DAC and made it to state in both of his seasons diving for Mercado and two-time DAC champion Luke Hawkins, a junior, made it to state last season and will try to go back this season.