THORNTON - The best was indeed last for Sydney Oveson in her prep diving career.
The defending Class 5A state diving champion had an imperfect season to say the least, but the Fossil Ridge senior earned her season-high in points Thursday afternoon at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center and departed with a second-straight state championship.
Ovesen racked up 527.10 points to hold off Northfield freshman phenom Elise Koehler and become the first 5A girls diver to repeat since Arapahoe’s Franny Cable in 2018 and 2019.
“Everyone put a target on my back because of last year, but I didn’t want that to affect me and I just wanted to have fun with my friends,” Ovesen said. “That’s exactly what I got.
It was a very calm, collected meet and it was super fun, so I’m really happy with it.”
Ovesen failed to make the finals as a sophomore, but jumped to the top of the podium last season with a scant three-point victory.
Though pursued by Koehler and others, Ovesen ended up with a win by more than 30 points and a performance that easily eclipsed her previous season best score of 486.55 points achieved Jan. 18 at the Fort Collins City Meet.
Ovesen scored 62.4 on her final dive (her “most scary dive”) and finished with a huge smile on her face.
“It was a little more smooth of a season this year, but not much,” she said. “I ended up breaking the six-dive record for my school, but other than that, I had quite a few losses. At Coaches Invite, I ended up failing a dive, then at Mustang Invite I missed one of my dives and then at (Jeffco) leagues, I smacked on one of my dives. So this was definitely a turnaround for me and I’m happy about it.”
Next up for Ovesen is college diving at nearby Colorado State University, where she will be able to dive for her current club coach.
She had some advice to leave to those who come after her.
“When you come into meets like this, don’t think about the end result, just be proud of where you are and try to enjoy the moment,” she said.
Koehler — who Ovesen called “super amazing” — finished the season with the top score of the season for 5A divers with a 537.80 that she earned Jan. 17 at the Wild West meet and she was in similar form at the state meet. She finished her 11 dives with a score of 493.05 points and served notice for the future.
Third place went to Cherry Creek’s Ruthie Spiegel, who moved up four spots on the medal podium with a score of 472.60 and helped give her team some valuable points in the chase for another 5A state championship. Heritage’s Cayla Jaffe (fourth) and Arvada West’s Layla Petz (seventh) also returned to the podium for a second-straight season and it was the third top-10 finish all-time for Petz. Rounding out the top-10 placers were Chatfield’s Lyra Moran (fifth), Valor Christian’s Madina Schebler (eighth), Ralston Valley’s Sophia Hineline — who was voted as CHSCA's 5A Diver of the Year — in ninth and Greeley West’s Hope Kayl in 10th.
The CHSCA 5A Dive Coach of the Year award went to Lauren Morrell of Chatfield/Columbine.
The 5A swim and dive state championships continue with swimming preliminaries on Thursday evening and swimming finals on Friday evening.