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Thursday, 22 February 2007 |
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Wapak’s Lucas to compete in dive meet
By BRYAN CRAFT
Sports Editor
Wapakoneta Redskin freshman Chelsea Lucas is moving on.
Lucas, who placed during the district diving meet with 347 points, qualified to compete at the state meet today.
“My goal at state is to get past the second round,” Lucas said. “It’s only my freshman year so it’s pretty much my learning year. I just want to go in and compete well and be aggressive and see what I can do as a freshman.”
Lucas advanced to the district by breaking a sectional record with 371.3 points. She will dive at 9 p.m. today at the state meet.
“It was pretty cool as a freshman,” Lucas said of breaking the sectional record. “I had only been out of a cast for two weeks, so that was pretty exciting.”
Lucas said she practices for an hour, two days a week in Celina with her coach Sara Knapke and spends several hours by herself in Lima practicing.
Lucas said she dives because she is a level 9 gymnast and has been competing for 12 years, and she was looking for something different to do.
“It gets tiring (gymnastics) and sometimes you need another sport to get your mind off it a little bit,” she said.
Lucas said her favorite dives are an inward one-and-a-half and a double full. She said the high school board she competes on is 1-meter, but when she hurdles to start a dive she gets 3-feet off the board on her approach.
“My goal is to hopefully win state at some point,” Lucas said. “Right now I have the dives it takes to do so, but I don’t have the form right now.”
Lucas said she enjoys mathematics and art in school and she also competes in pole vault, long jump, sprints and cheerleading.
Lucas said several people helped her accomplish the goal of making it to state, including Wapakoneta Athletic Director Mike Watt, who talked her into diving, Michelle Kirian, her gymnastics coach, as well as Knapke, who helped her perfect her dives and her parents Kristie and Steve Lucas.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 February 2007 )
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