Chesterton junior Luke Hawkins makes Saturday the best diving day of his life and his 415.75 total for 11 dives earned him a sixth-place medal at the state meet at IU Natatorium

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

It didn’t take Chesterton junior Luke Hawkins long to love the sport of diving, but it took him quite a bit longer than that to be high on himself as a diver.
Hawkins attended an introductory diving clinic put on by Trojans diving coach Elijah Mercado in the summer before his freshman season, and Mercado instantly saw potential in him.
“I was excited that he said that,” Hawkins said. “I feel like I found the sport that I wanted to do in high school, so I was pretty happy about that.”
But it wasn’t easy.
“I think at the beginning I was comparing myself to people and thinking I’m not as good as them and I can’t be as good as them, so I was kind of pulling myself down,” Hawkins remembered. “But I knew that it was a fun sport, so I started focusing on that more than focusing on who’s better than me, so I know to just have fun and do it for God. It’s a sport that, I don’t know, it’s just fun.”
Two-and-a-half years after letting self-doubt drag him down at times, Hawkins was on the medal stand Saturday at the state meet, where he placed sixth.
Four days earlier, Hawkins placed fourth at the Mishawaka diving regional, behind regional and state champion Ian Parrott of Warsaw, Valparaiso’s Evan Snyder and Warsaw’s Skylar Kretsch.
At IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Hawkins passed Snyder (11th) and Kretsch (15th) and his score improved from 370.50 to 415.75.
Hawkins talked about how he got himself into the right frame of mind for his big day.
“We prayed before the meet,” he said. “I feel like the prayer helped, and my coach, he just kept me relaxed and made it feel more like a practice. I was calmer and I was ready to have fun, instead of worrying about where I was going to place and what I was going to score. I was just there to have fun. I think that made me more relaxed.”
Hawkins was a freshman in his first year of diving when senior teammate Lucas Lauzon, now diving for Southern Illinois University, placed sixth at the state meet.
As a sophomore, Hawkins advanced to state and was 21st after the preliminary round, missing advancing to the semifinals by one spot.
“That was super fun and I felt about the same as this year, but I felt like I was calmer and more relaxed this year,” he said.
Hawkins added one dive since his first appearance at state, an inward 2-½ summersault tuck, which has the highest degree of difficulty (3.1) of any of his 11 dives.
“It’s pretty hard. I like it though. It’s just a fun dive to do,” he said. “I like inwards.”
Seeing divers moving so rapidly through the air and coming so close to the diving board, especially on inward dives, can create a layer of tension, more so for spectators than the divers.
“There are some fear factors,” Hawkins said. “Jumping up in the air, you still can be a little scared of smacking sometimes or even being close to the board, but I feel like I kind of pushed that away more because I feel like I’ve been diving for a while, so I feel more comfortable with it.”
Hawkins has simulated dives on the ground, sometimes known as dryland drills, for a while but said that “it clicked this weekend and felt like it made more sense to me.”
The 13 points that Hawkins earned with his sixth-place finish enabled Chesterton to finish 30th in the state.
Six swimmers made it to the state meet but did not advance to Saturday’s consolation and championship finals.
Sophomore Greydon Pieroni came the closest to placing in the top 16 to advance to the second day when he finished 20th in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:44.73. He also tied for 26th in the 100 butterfly.
Sophomore Vlad Lutterman was the only other Chesterton swimmer competing in an individual event. He finished 29th in the 100 individual medley, clocked in 1:59.93.
The 400 free relay team of Tyler Scalf, Pieroni, Liam Eschbach and Carl Schiller finished 24th. Scalf, Aaron Guzzo, Pieroni and Schiller finished 28th in the 200 free relay.
The Trojans won the DAC, by tying for first with Valparaiso at the conference meet and finishing second to Crown Point in the regular season. The Trojans also finished second at the sectional, just two points behind Valpo.