Flying high: Colony diver soars to the top

DARRELL L. BREESE/ Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Quick, count to 10.

Now go to the end of the diving board and execute a near perfect reverse double somersault.

Colony diver Emily Whitstine uses the counting to help her overcome nerves and fear as she prepares for each dive.

When asked what she thought about as she walked onto the diving board. &#8221I am visualizing the dive, thinking of the technique and then before I start I count to 10.“

&#8221It's just a way of convincing me to stop thinking and dive,“ Whitstine said of the counting. &#8221Otherwise I would over think things and begin to question my ability and lose confidence.“

The method has worked well so far this year for Whitstine, who doesn't consider her self a dare devil or a thrill seeker, even though she resembles one while performing her acrobatic routine off the diving board.

A junior at Colony High School, she has flipped and twisted her way to the top spot in high school diving in Alaska, posting the highest score so far this season. A position that she is happy to have, but wishes she didn't.

&#8221I would rather have someone else out there with a better score,“ she said. &#8221It would be like a carrot dangling out there for me to work towards. But I like that I have the highest score as well.“

Having the highest score has made her the carrot for some of the states best divers. Among them are defending state champion Chelsea Ray of Dimond and runner-up Sasha Porter of Soldotna.

&#8221Emily is a good diver,“ Ray said. &#8221Having her and Sasha both putting up big scores at the Soldotna meet makes me want to work harder to be better.“

Whitstine topped Porter by 13 points in Soldotna on Sept. 24, scoring 323.15 in the first meet to feature a full catalog of 11 dives. Her score would have placed her fifth at state last season. that score broke her old school record of 317.5 for an 11 dive competition. Her high score of 223.8 this season for six dives is also a record for Colony divers.

Whitstine was ranked in the top-five last fall heading into the Regional championship meet, but she got into a little trouble costing her a chance to compete at the regional meet and an opportunity to challenge Ray and Porter at the state meet.

&#8221It's an extra motivation for me,“ Whitstine said of missing out last year. &#8221I really want to so that I can compete and score well enough to challenge for the state title. That's my goal.“

Her diving ability comes from her gymnastics experience that began when she was a young girl. Her best event was the floor exercises, which gave her an early start in twisting, flipping and turning her body in the air.

Then in seventh grade she turned to diving when she found no gymnastics program offered at school. After trying her hand at diving off a board into water instead of jumping around a mat, she was hooked.

&#8221I just liked it and took to it pretty quick because of gymnastics,“ Whitstine said of diving. &#8221Its fun and I like being challenged. I like individual sports better because I don't feel like I am letting everybody down if I do bad."

Whitstine also credits her teammates, or practice partners for some of her success this year. The fact that the Knight work out with the Wasilla diving team has really helped.

&#8221Last year I really didn't have anybody to push me in practice,“ she said. &#8221This year, the Wasilla boy's team has pushed me. They would make a dive in practice and I'm like, ‘I have to do this dive now they did it.“

But Whitstine says her biggest competition comes from the fear of missing a dive and smacking the water in a belly-flop, or a back-flop, instead of ripping into the water in a perfect vertical entry.

More practice, and the friendly competition from Wasilla boy's, pushed her into overcoming those fears, master the dive and becoming the state premier diver.

She had her first chance to compete head to head with Ray and the rest of the state's top divers Saturday at the Bartlett-Chugiak Invitational, a meet that featured 55 divers.

Whitstine finished third behind Megan Morton and her Dimond teammate Ray at the meet, reversing the role from being the carrot to being the chasing horse.

&#8221I like it that way better,“ she said of being the one gunning for the leader. &#8221It's a little less pressure.“

With the region championships three weeks away Whitstine is ready to make up for last season's missed opportunity and compete for the region and state title.

But there is one last thing she has to do before the championship events.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7Š

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.