State diving: Brunswick's Alex Burns, Highland's Libby Lutzko get All-Ohio honors

CANTON — The sequel was even better than the original for Brunswick senior Alex Burns, who accomplished all she wanted and then some Wednesday at the Division I state diving meet. In her second trip to the championships at C.T. Branin Natatorium, Burns reached the podium with an eighth-place finish and final score of 430.90 to earn All-Ohio honors. That result trumped Burns' first trip to the state meet, when she placed 18th to miss the finals by two spots. "I feel really good," she said. "Coming in, I just really wanted do all my dives well. My goal was to make finals. I got that." Burns was joined in the finals by Highland freshman Libby Lutzko, who finished 10th with 409.45 to earn second-team All-Ohio. "It was really fun," she said. "There was great competition here. It was just a great experience." New Albany freshman Samantha Petroff pulled away from the field to win the state championship by 16.55 points with a final score of 480.45. Burns and Lutzko started off hot, with Lutzko sitting tied for fifth after the first round and Burns surging to fifth in the second round and then holding third from the fourth through seventh of 11 dives, making sure to keep herself away from any danger of being cut after the fifth or eighth rounds. Burns nailed a forward 1.5 somersault from a pike position on her second dive to score a 48.00. She upped the ante in her fourth dive with 2.5 somersaults from a pike position for a 48.10. It was a dive she called her favorite of the meet, and the early success was something Burns was looking for after finishing second to Lutzko at the Northwest District. "After having a rough district, we reorganized my list so I had a lot of my more confident dives in the beginning," she said. "I think that really helped me start off well." Burns saved her best dive for last, scoring 48.60 on a back somersault with 2.5 twists. The experience of the state meet last year helped the senior know what to expect and to become more comfortable with the stakes and the environment. "It gave me a confidence boost," Burns said. "This year I knew how to move past a bad dive and keep moving with a positive attitude." While Burns kicked off the week's competition for the Blue Devils, who will see seven swimmers take to the pool in seven events in the preliminaries Friday morning, Lutzko was Highland's lone state qualifier in the girls competition. She still had a sense of camaraderie with her club diving teammates from the Flyers supporting her. "It was great," Lutzko said. "It really kept the mood up and made this one of the best experiences I could have asked for." Lutzko nailed a forward 2.5 somersaults in the tuck position to score a 40.80 in the second round. She then hit her highest score of the competition with a 1.5 somersault in a pike position for a 42.55 in the eighth round. That dive moved her into 10th and safely secured her spot as one of the 16 finalists. She finished the meet with her favorite dive, a back 1.5 somersault with a half twist, for a 39.90. Despite her success, Lutzko knows she has three more years of high school competition to take her score and placement even higher. "I'd really like to up my difficulty and just clean up all of my dives," she said. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.