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Valley divers take district plunge starting today
By BRIAN DZENIS
Poland’s Tony Murcko used to do tricks off a diving board for fun in the summer.
Going into his junior year, he was looking do something different in the winter besides wrestling. He gave swimming and diving a shot.
“I used to have fun with that, so I thought it would be fun to try out,” Murcko said.
In his first year competing in diving, Murcko qualified for districts.
“I went a little farther than I expected. I’ve been doing things that I never thought I’d be able to do,” Murcko said. “I came in knowing how to do just one dive and all these new ones, I’ve never done them before.”
Murcko is one of five area divers to qualify for today and Thursday’s meets at Cleveland State. Murcko competes in Division II. Boardman’s Dominic Mariano competes at the D-I level. On the girls side, Boardman’s Madi Rast and Canfield’s Carlie Oddo are D-I and East Palestine’s Faith Anderson is in D-II. All are coached by Boardman assistant swimming coach Ron Navarra and Youngstown State diving coach Nick Gavolas. Murcko said he’ll take the tournament in as it comes.
“We’re not placing a ton of weight on him making it to state, especially since in D-II, they’re only taking two boys out of our district.” Navarra said of Murcko. “That’s tough odds, but he did well for his first year.”
Juniors Mariano and Anderson are the divers who have the best shot to advance to state considering both talent and their odds based on the number of spots in the state tournament. Mariano has made the district tournament as a freshman and sophomore, but failed to advance to state.
“I didn’t push myself. I was very nervous and didn’t do too well,” Mariano said.
This year, he’s upped the degree of difficulty to his dives in a bid to go for higher scores, Mariano said. So far, it’s worked. In sectionals last week, he finished in sixth place with a score of 375.25. Only seven divers will advance from Mariano’s district, with the theory is if he maintains his current pace, he’ll make state.
Anderson, a junior, has made state twice, but this year could be her toughest yet. The number of spots in the state tournament for her district has been cut from seven to six. There’s also been an influx of young talent from the Cleveland area that has its eyes set on state as freshmen and sophomores.
“My degree of difficulty hasn’t changed from last year, but they’ve become a lot cleaner,” Anderson said. “I’m more confident in my dives this year than I was last year. I’ve been scoring higher on them.
“I’m kind of excited to see how it turns out.”
Oddo and Rast took 11th and 17th in sectionals, respectively. Oddo is in the district meet for the first time as a senior. She missed the cut as a freshman and sophomore and just before last year’s sectional, Oddo broke her hand by hitting it on a diving board in practice.
“It really is a win,” Oddo said of earning a trip to Cleveland State. “Making state is a stretch, but I think I’ll do well and I expect to finish in the top 15.”
As a sophomore, Rast was one of the final divers to miss the cut for state and remains easy going about whatever the two-day meet holds.
“I just want to try my hardest and cheer my teammates on,” Rast said. “As long as they do well, I’ll be fine.”
Navarra has a few wardrobe changes in store. Despite being a Boardman coach, he’ll try his best to represent each diver equally.
“Usually when I do Boardman and Canfield, I’ll wear a plain black shirt because I don’t want to be biased. When it’s one team, I’ll wear their shirt,” Navarra said. “(Today), I’ll wear a Poland shirt in the morning and then in the afternoon, I’ll wear an East Palestine shirt.”