Center Grove junior Mia Prusiecki won her second consecutive state diving title earlier this month. Will she attempt to become the first three-time champ in state history?
Daily Journal file photo
In the end, Mia Prusiecki couldn’t just abdicate the throne.
The state 1-meter diving champion as a sophomore, Prusiecki toyed with the idea of not coming back to compete for Center Grove this winter — as one of the top 18-and-under divers in the country, she could have focused on greater national and international pursuits. But she couldn’t bring herself to walk away while she’s still on top.
“My main thing was, I just really like being a part of the school. They made my schedule this year so I could still be in school and not have to go online, so I thought that I should give back and at least try to do my best for the sport and bring home another title.
“I just kind of didn’t want anyone else to have that shot, either. I already got it last year, so I was like, ‘Why would I just give it up and have someone else take that spot?’”
Prusiecki came back and repeated, becoming just the fourth back-to-back state diving champ in Indiana history. She is also the Daily Journal’s top girls swimming and diving performer for a second consecutive season.
The second state championship, like the first, didn’t come easily. Prusiecki needed to come through in the clutch to hold off two of her Indiana International School of Diving club teammates, Fort Wayne Snider sophomore Amelia Rinehart and Park Tudor freshman Simone Hall. Prusiecki finished with 478.30 points; Rinehart totaled 466.70 and Hall 463.10.
“Amelia’s on my club team, so I kind of know how she dives,” Prusiecki said of Rinehart. “She went to Pan Ams with me, so she is a great diver. I knew it was going to be tough competition.”
Over the rest of the season, Prusiecki had been dominant. She broke her own Johnson County meet record with a score of 543.95, then followed with convincing victories and meet records at both sectional (520.95) and regional (539.85). And she wasn’t exactly going up against pushovers, either — in all of those meets she was facing a pair of fellow state medalists in Indian Creek’s Ella Taylor and Franklin’s Camy Quiggins.
Prusiecki’s regional performance — her score was more than 68 points ahead of any other diver in the state that night — certainly made the state-meet record of 563.65 (set by Brooke Schultz of Hamilton Heights in 2015) seem within reach. Scoring was considerably tighter at state, but Prusiecki wasn’t bothered.
“The thing with diving is it’s super biased,” she said. “You get the scores you get; you can’t change that. It’s not like any other sport. I knew how it was going to be.”
Because of the subjectivity involved, Prusiecki doesn’t get too hung up on scores from meet to meet. She concedes that she does like breaking records, but she places more focus on personal growth and reviewing video of her dives to gauge her progress.
She feels she’s become far more consistent over the past year.
“Last year, I was very nervous; I’d always have at least one or two dives that were just kind of not the best,” Prusiecki said. “But this year I definitely think I’ve had a way more consistent list, and it’s been able to make me less stressed and not have to worry about each dive.”
Also lowering Prusiecki’s stress level was the fact that she secured her academic and athletic future about six months ago when she accepted a scholarship offer from Ohio State. That, she says, has taken some of the pressure off of her during competition.
The commitment does put some pressure on, though, when it comes to deciding how to navigate her senior year. Prusiecki says she would like to graduate early and enroll at OSU next January so she can have a semester to get fully acclimated to college life before she suits up for the Buckeyes.
Doing so would mean giving up some parts of high school, such as prom and graduation — not to mention potentially becoming the first diver in Indiana high school history to win three state titles.
Something will have to give, and she’s got plenty of time to weigh her options, but it sounds like Prusiecki might be leaning at least slightly in one direction right now.
“I’ve got to see if it’s worth it,” she said, “but I feel like since I’ve already got it twice and no one’s done three, I might as well try again.”
Can’t expect a queen to just toss her crown aside so easily.
ALL-COUNTY TEAM
The 2023 All-County team for girls swimming and diving:
Allie Lacy, Franklin senior: Capped her career by placing ninth in the 200-meter individual medley at the state meet (2:05.03) and adding a 16th-place finish in the 100 backstroke (57.56) … A four-time state medalist who holds the school’s backstroke record.
Jovie Mowrey, Franklin freshman: Qualified for the state meet in the 100 backstroke, finishing 20th with a time of 58.49 seconds… Also narrowly missed qualifying for state in the 200 IM … Swam on the Grizzly Cubs’ 13th-place 200 freestyle relay team.
Lara Phipps, Center Grove junior: The county’s top swimmer at state this winter, earning four medals … Placed seventh in the 100 butterfly (55.86) and eighth in the 200 IM (2:05.29), while also helping the Trojans place sixth in the 200 freestyle relay and eighth in the 400 free relay.
Mia Prusiecki, Center Grove junior: Won her second consecutive 1-meter diving state championship, pulling out the title by a margin of 11.6 points … Set meet records with her scores at county (543.95), sectional (520.95) and regional (539.85).
Camy Quiggins, Franklin junior: Three-time state meet qualifier earned the Grizzly Cubs’ lone individual state medal, placing eighth in 1-meter diving with a score of 393.60 … Finished third at sectional (419.20) and fifth at Jasper Regional (391.30).
Lili Ratzlaff, Franklin sophomore: The Grizzly Cubs’ top point scorer at the state meet, earning ninth-place finishes in both the 100 and 200 freestyle with respective times of 52.04 and 1:50.50 … Also led off Franklin’s 200 free relay, which placed 13th.
Ella Taylor, Indian Creek junior: Made her third consecutive state appearance and medaled for the first time, finishing seventh with a score of 398.60 … Was runner-up at both sectional (467.50) and regional (441.10) … Also moonlighted as a sprint freestyler for the Braves in dual meets.
Honorable mention
Clara Brandon, Center Grove; Grace Clarkston, Center Grove; Amelia Edens, Whiteland; Kayla Fischer, Center Grove; Kathleen Lacy, Franklin; Addyson Matern, Center Grove; Lexi Stuart, Center Grove; Naomi Weaver, Greenwood; Tenley Wilkins, Center Grove
