Girls swimming and diving: All-County team

After finishing a close second in the state 1-meter diving final a year ago, Mia Prusiecki could have been experiencing a bit of déjà vu when she found herself in second again with three rounds to go, trailing Northridge’s Jiselle Miller by 2.55 points.

The Center Grove sophomore had no reason to panic, though; while most divers load their high degree-of-difficulty dives at the front of the meet, Prusiecki stacks hers at the back, so she felt fairly confident that as long as she took care of business she’d likely end up on top.

“I know how Jiselle dives, and I know she can hit her dives, and we both do pretty well under pressure,” Prusiecki said. “I knew that if I hit my dives and she hits hers it’ll definitely be close.”

Indeed, it was close — but Prusiecki came through in the clutch, outpointing Miller 524.00 to 519.15 to finish her season atop the podium. She also finishes it as the Daily Journal’s Swimmer — or rather — Diver of the Year.

She is the first state diving champion from Center Grove and the first from Johnson County since Franklin’s Katie Cooper in 1998.

While her margin of victory at state was narrow, Prusiecki was more dominant through most of the season. She set school and meet records with an incredible 572.95 at the Jasper Regional, winning there by 86.90 points, and she broke her own county meet mark with a score of 511.15 at that meet.

“It definitely felt nice, just knowing that I reached my goals,” Prusiecki said, “because all I wanted to do this year was win state and get the (school) records; I did both of those. So it just felt so much better knowing that I hit my goals instead of being like, ‘Oh, I could have done this,’ or having any regret.”

Though Prusiecki still has two years of high school remaining, she’s undecided on whether she’s going to continue competing for Center Grove. A year-round competitor who trains with the Indiana International School of Diving, she placed second among 14- and 15-year-olds on the 1-meter springboard and third on the 10-meter platform at last year’s USA Diving Junior National Championships. On the strength of that performance, Prusiecki was invited to compete at the inaugural Junior Pan American Games, where she won gold in synchronized platform diving and took third on the 1-meter board.

With a full menu of national and perhaps international competition ahead of her, Prusiecki isn’t sure if she’s ready to again commit the additional time needed to properly represent the Trojans.

“Right now I’m sticking to USA Diving stuff, working on that, and then I’ll see when it comes around,” Prusiecki said. “It’s a lot of stress going from morning practice to school then after practice with club, doing homework, everything else. It’s kind of stressful.”

Some of the stress comes from the uncertainty of the future; Prusiecki’s number one goal is to get a Division I college scholarship, and the recruiting process doesn’t really begin in earnest until this coming fall. She’d like to pursue a career in medicine once she’s done competing, so that will undoubtedly guide her decision-making process when the time comes.

Prusiecki’s Pan Am experience, though, has opened her eyes to some other possibilities — like potentially earning a spot in the Olympic trials two years from now.

“My biggest goal right now is just to get a D-I scholarship, but if the Olympics do happen, if it is attainable, then obviously I’m going to do it,” she said. “It definitely does give me that motivation to reach for something bigger, because Pan-Ams was such a good experience, getting third and first. I’m just going to see what happens.”

What happens may or may not include donning that red Center Grove suit again next winter. Whether it does or not, Prusiecki’s place in Trojan lore is more than secure.

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