BY Steve Page

Alexandria Lake's smashing debut as a freshman came to an early conclusion Saturday morning.

The Martinsville freshman, who had finished second in last Saturday's IHSAA sectional meet at Franklin and then garnered runnerup honors in the Bloomington regional on Tuesday, lasted just five dives in the opening round of the Girls' Swimming and Diving Championships in the Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI in downtown Indianapolis.

Lake scored 133.00 points in her five dives, an average score of 26.6 points per dive.

But the competition proved keen indeed.

Lake ranked 25th out of 32 divers after the initial round, and only the top 20 moved into the semifinal round of three more dives. North Central sophomore Megan Wenzel took the last transfer spot with a score of 148.50.

From there, the field was whittled down to 16 finalists, who competed in their last three dives in the afternoon session.

South Bend St. Joseph's senior Gabriella Agostino won the overall competition by totaling 428.50 points for 11 dives. Krissy Riley, a Pendleton Heights senior, was second at 417.20, with Hamilton Southeastern senior Sarah Clay third at 408.40.

Experience proved to be the deciding factor, as seniors swept the top five spots. The only freshman to make the top 16 was Bloomington South's Chelsea McKeen.

McKeen had to rally past Lake in the IHSAA diving regional at Bloomington North on Tuesday. McKeen won the last three dives and outscored Lake 349.90-345.20.

A week earlier, Lake had dived her way to second place in the Franklin sectional by totaling 354.75 points. She finished just behind Center Grove junior Anna Wimmenauer, who scored 363.85. Wimmenauer finished 21st in the preliminary round at state.

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