Franklin senior diver preparing for postseason

<p>A very limited window of time exists between the moment a diver’s feet explode off of the board and when his or her body makes contact with the water.</p><p>Few high school divers have been as adept at making the most of that window of time as Gauge Creech has — and as he prepares for his final state run, the Franklin senior is trying his best to squeeze in even more.</p><p>In an effort to climb as far as he can up the podium at next month’s state meet, Creech is looking to add a handful of more difficult dives to his repertoire.</p><p>Creech is already capable of doing both a reverse double and a back double — but, in part because he believes dives with a foot-first entry aren’t scored as highly, he’s working to turn each of them over into a 2 1/2-somersault dive.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Each would carry a degree of difficulty of 3.0, much higher than the back double (2.2) and reverse double (2.3).</p><p>&quot;Those would be my highest degree of difficulty dives,&quot; Creech said, &quot;and I feel like if I can get those, then those will just be dives that, once I can nail them and get those consistent, they’ll be devastators for me.&quot;</p><p>&quot;His list has always been really solid,&quot; Franklin diving coach Ty Hoffman added. &quot;We’re just trying to stick a couple of breathtaking dives at the end of that list just to push him over the top at the state level.&quot;</p><p>Creech has already been performing at a higher level this season without throwing in those upgrades. He broke his own 11-dive school record with a score of 496.25 at the Johnson County meet, just 11 days after he obliterated his old six-dive mark with a 317 against Plainfield.</p><p>Hoffman said that breaking 300 was a major goal for he and Creech heading into the season, but there are several others left to reach, including a very reachable 11-dive milestone.</p><p>&quot;It’s always been the goal to break 500 in a championship meet, which I think he will do without much of a problem at sectionals,&quot; Hoffman said.</p><p>In addition to the scoring aspirations, there’s also placement to think about.</p><p>After just missing out on a state medal as a sophomore, when he placed ninth with a score of 406.35, Creech made his way on to the podium with a 447.90 and an eighth-place finish last winter.</p><p>He has every reason to believe he can reach the top of the mountain next month. Seymour’s Devin Ramsey is the top returning finisher from last year’s state meet, but Creech beat him a few days earlier while winning the regional title.</p><p>While a state championship appears within reach, Creech is tempering his expectations just a bit on that front.</p><p>&quot;I’m trying to go for top five this year,&quot; he said. &quot;I would love to see myself top three, because that’s my ultimate goal, but as long as I get top five I’ll be really happy with myself. I think that’s a very realistic goal as of now.&quot;</p><p>Should Creech get comfortable enough with the back 2 1/2 and reverse 2 1/2 to add them to his postseason list, just about anything would become realistic.</p><p>He’s leaning toward taking both of those dives for a test drive at this weekend’s Mooresville Diving Invitational.</p><p>&quot;That might be a time for me to throw these bigger dives into my list for the first time, into an 11-dive list,&quot; Creech said, &quot;and see where it places me and scores, so I can kind of get my first look at what I might be able to get at state.&quot;</p><p>After the season is over, Creech will turn his attention toward deciding on a college. He has fielded a couple of Division I offers, but he would prefer to stay close to home and will likely choose between Franklin College (where Hoffman is also the coach) and IUPUI.</p><p>Once Creech starts competing at the collegiate level, Hoffman believes he can become an even better 3-meter diver than he is on the 1-meter board.</p><p>&quot;He really doesn’t have a lot of fear,&quot; the coach said, &quot;and with more time to fall, it gives you more time to try stuff.&quot;</p><p>For now, though, Creech is focused on the 1-meter and trying to master that pair of 2 1/2-somersault dives before the sectional meet on Feb. 15.</p><p>&quot;I feel like if I can do these,&quot; he said, &quot;it’s going to give me a better shot at getting 500 and above at state.&quot;</p>