Victor’s Broderick wins state diving title
50 freestyle crown goes to HF-L freshman Stankaitis
WEBSTER — Ashley Broderick imagines each dive she takes before it is time to climb onto the board.
Broderick then takes her imagination a step further as she goes through some of the motions on the deck of a pool for added positive reinforcement.
“I’m totally zoned in,” Broderick said. “I’ll be sitting down and I’ll notice that I’m moving my shoulders.”
Broderick picked up the routine from a past high school girls state diving champion, and the Victor junior used it to earn a title for herself on Saturday during the Federation Girls Swimming and Diving Championships at the Webster Aquatic Center.
Broderick earned her first state title with a score of 475.80, after she pushed past Binghamton junior Alyssa Menz, the leader after each competitor performed eight of 11 one-meter dives on Friday. Menz finished second with a score of 451.95.
Jenny Chiang won the 2008 high school state diving title, and Broderick made sure to pay attention to how the Fairport graduate went about it.
“I try to do everything that she does,” Broderick said. “She’s my role model.
“I’ve done (visualization) since the seventh grade, but I didn’t do it as much until this year.”
Broderick saved some of her most difficult dives for the final set, including a back 1½ twist, after what she said was a shaky start on Friday. She was in sixth place after five dives.
“I knew I had to pick it up a little to get ahead,” Broderick said. “Sometimes you can hit it, sometimes it doesn’t go that well. I was nervous about it, but I kept telling myself that I can do it.”
Honeoye Falls-Lima freshman Cari Stankaitis was in no position to win the 50-yard freestyle swimming title at last year’s state meet in Buffalo. She failed to qualify for the championship heat.
Not so this time around, as Stankaitis produced the fastest time overall during the preliminaries, a swim of 24.23 seconds, then went faster in the final heat — 24.09 — to earn her first state title.
“It’s really amazing,” Stankaitis said. “I never expected to be a state champion, especially as a freshman. I can’t even describe this.”
Stankaitis could not help but smile during the parade of finalists to the awards podium.
Her teammates on the Honeoye Falls-Lima 200 freestyle relay reached up to high-five Stankaitis as they bobbed up and down in a warm-up pool.
Stankaitis joins Libby Snyder as a state champion from the Honeoye Falls-Lima girls team. Snyder won the 50 freestyle title in 2003, and worked with Stankaitis during this past offseason.
Honeoye Falls-Lima coach Norm Schueckler said that Stankaitis learned and applied her lessons well.
“It was a strategically, well-executed race, which is unique for a young swimmer,” Schueckler said.
