Pair of 50s lead Baxter’s Russell to second consecutive state diving championship

IOWA CITY — For the second straight season, Baxter senior Camryn Russell needed a big score to secure a state championship.

The Northern Iowa commit who dives for Grinnell/BGM/Baxter used one of her toughest dives to grab an early lead, and then put her second consecutive 1-meter diving state title on ice with her best score of the night on her most challenging dive during the Iowa High School State Diving Championships on Thursday.

“Those two dives were important for me to do well,” Russell said. “My inward 1 1/2 was rough during warm-ups, but I knew I needed to do it well if I wanted to get ahead early because the other girls had good dives the first two rounds.”

Russell scored 465.5 points to win the state title at the University of Iowa Campus Recreation and Wellness Center. She was 16.75 points clear of Southeast Polk’s Holli Hetzer and 18 points in front of Southeast Polk’s Emory Braunschweig.

Russell was in third place after the first round of dives for the second straight season but took over the lead with a 50.4 on her second attempt.

She led the entire way from there and secured the championship with a 52 on a forward 1 1/2 somersault 2 twist free dive that had a 2.6 difficulty score.

“My last dive scoring high was important because I knew if I could get around 45 points I would win so it was nice to get over 50 and not have to stress the last round,” Russell said. “I had some dives I know I could have done better than I did, but I knew if I could at least do all of my dives pretty well I could still win.”

The 50.4 came on an inward 1 1/2 somersault pike that had a 2.4 difficulty score. Her next best diving scores were 47.3, 46.8 and 46.25 that she posted in succession right before the first cutoff to 20 divers. All three of those dives had a difficulty score of at least 2.2.

Russell is the third diver in four seasons to win a state title from the Grinnell/BGM/Baxter program.

All three championship runs came under the direction of diving coach Deidre Freeman Huff, who is a Grinnell alum who dove collegiately at Iowa and was part of the U.S. National team from 2012-15.

“Camryn’s first 50-point dive put her well in the lead after round two,” Freeman Huff said. “She really needed that because she wasn’t as sharp as she normally is through some of her other dives. I think she was nervous. There’s a lot of pressure to defend a state title, especially after having two seasons where she also went undefeated.

Russell led the Southeast Polk duo by more than 20 points after the first cutoff. The advantage dropped to fewer than 16 over Hetzer at the second cutoff to 16 divers. She held at least a 10-point lead after her second dive.

Freeman Huff and Russell both said the diving list did not change during Russell’s two-year championship and undefeated run.

She made a slight change to her second dive — upgraded from a tuck to a pike — to improve the difficulty score, but the order is mostly what the Baxter senior is comfortable with.

“Some divers want to make the second cut so their last three dives are not as strong as those in the beginning of their list,” Freeman Huff said. “(Russell) was never in that position because her dives are strong throughout her list.”

Hetzer, who finished third last year, was the runner-up to Russell with 448.75 points. Braunschweig placed third with 447.5, Bailey Mahoney of Waukee took fourth with 427.95 and Grinnell/BGM/Baxter’s Norah Nicol came in fifth with 413.3.

Waukee went 4-7-8-11 in the final standings. Russell needed a 488.25 to win last year’s state title.

Russell admitted to being more nervous than last year at the start of the meet. But it didn’t take long for her to get comfortable. And a lot of that starts and ends with Freeman Huff.

“(Freeman Huff) has been super important for me in diving because she knows so much about diving and how to prepare for big meets like state,” Russell said. “The whole week leading up to it we did a lot of preparation for competing under pressure, which I think helped me a lot when I had scarier dives.

“When I felt stressed or had mental blocks in the weeks leading up to state, she helped me work through them and gave me a lot of confidence in myself that I don’t think I would’ve had without her.”

Russell will join former Grinnell/BGM/Baxter diver and former state champion Trista Thompson at UNI.

The next challenge for Russell will come on a 3-meter diving board.

“(Russell) has been one of the easiest divers to coach because she’s so coachable and has a lot of innate skill and talent,” Freeman Huff said. “She has a gymnastics background so a lot of her skills transferred easily to diving.

“When she began diving, I was amazed at how easily a lot of the skills and new dives came to her. It also helped that she had (Thompson) as her teammate her first year. It’s exciting to see her moving on to dive in college. I think she’s going to improve even more, and I’m excited to see what she can do on 3-meter.”