Chesterton's DAC diving champion and sectional runner-up Luke Hakwins places fourth at diving regional and qualifies for state for second year in a row, giving Coach Elijah Mercado four state divers in four seasons

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Add junior diver Luke Hawkins’ name to the list of Chesterton athletes competing this weekend at the IU Natatorium in the swim and dive state championships.
Hawkins needed to finish in the top eight at Tuesday night’s Mishawaka diving regional to make it to state and he placed fourth with 370.50 points, bettered only by regional champion Ian Parrott (545.50) and his Warsaw teammate third-place Skyler Kretsch, and runner-up Evan Snyder of Valparaiso (383.35).
A two-time DAC champion, Hawkins joins six teammates swimming at the state meet and is making his second consecutive trip. Sophomores Vlad Lutterman, Greydon Pieroni and Carl Schiller, juniors Liam Eschbach and Aaron Guzzo and senior Tyler Scalf are swimming in Friday night’s preliminaries.
Divers don’t begin competing until Saturday morning.
Hawkins qualifying keeps the diving momentum rolling at Chesterton. This is Elijah Mercado’s fourth season coaching the divers and he has had the DAC champion four times, Lucas Lauzon twice, then Hawkins and had a diver make it to state four years in a row. On the girls side, Mercado has had a diver at state the past three seasons.
The boys DAC meet was a big day for the divers, who not only had the winner in Hawkins, but also the seventh-place finisher, freshman Callum McKiddy, who compiled 306.5 points and the ninth-place finisher sophomore Devon Thomas (285.45).
“We’ve been training hard for the big tournaments,” Mercado said after the DAC meet. “I was telling them this is our championship season right here. They showed up today, for sure.”
The seasons McKiddy and Thomas had project well for their futures.
“I’m super proud of them to be able to dive comfortably in the midst of all the pressure, with all the noise in the background,” Mercado said of their DAC performances. “It’s kind of our norm to be practicing in loud environments. That’s how we train at home, so when we came here it was like nothing for us.”
McKiddy called diving for Chesterton, “an amazing experience.”
Mercado predicted that both Mercado and Thomas would do even better at the sectional meet than at the DAC Championships and they did last Saturday at Hobart.
McKiddy placed fifth, falling one spot shy of qualifying for the regional and improving his score to 327.85. Thomas was ninth and improved his score to 315.65.
Hawkins finished 21st last season at state, missing by one spot of advancing to the semifinal round, and is improved to improve on that in his second of what he hopes will be three trips to state.