{"id":4133,"date":"2018-01-26T13:07:47","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T18:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=4133"},"modified":"2018-01-26T13:08:19","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T18:08:19","slug":"mandarin-student-state-diving-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/mandarin\/mandarin-student-state-diving-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandarin student is state diving champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Martie Thompson
\n<\/span><\/em>editor@floridanewsline.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Mandarin High School senior Keegan Fluharty is a former competitive gymnast who turned her proficiency in twisting and tumbling into a new vocation as a diver \u2014 and last November, she earned the title of FHSAA Class 4A diving champion for the state of Florida. She is the first Northeast Florida diver to win a state girls\u2019 title since 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little upset about five years ago when I became injured and had to stop gymnastics, because gymnastics was my whole life,\u201d Fluharty said. \u201cBut I figured maybe a new start with diving would be good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So she took the advice of a coach at a gymnastics camp to look up local diving coach Melisa Hyams, and she never looked back. For her first meeting with Hyams, Fluharty said she got right in the pool and performed some basics like standing on the diving board and either falling or jumping in the water. Then she progressed to using a dry diving board, not over a pool, that has ropes to strap the diver in while practicing aerial somersaults and twists. Her first competitive meet was six weeks after she started.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a small meet,\u201d Fluharty said. \u201cBut it went well and I thought if I dedicated more time and effort that perhaps I could be good at diving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She began attending practices five days a week for two hours each as a member of the North Florida Diving team. Today, she has upped her schedule to include double practices on three of those days. She also participates in conditioning workouts at the gym or track with two other girls who are also members of Mandarin High School\u2019s diving team and North Florida Diving.<\/span><\/p>\n

The work paid off as Fluharty finished first at districts and second at regionals and qualified for her fourth trip to the state championships. She said she was hoping to do well, but was not overconfident as she had finished in sixth place as a freshman diving for Paxson, fifth place diving as a sophomore for Mandarin High School, and fifth place again her junior year as a diver for Jacksonville Country Day School. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought, \u2018This is my year. I want to go out with a bang,\u2019\u201d Fluharty said. \u201cThere was a lot of competition, including some of the girls I compete with at USA meets. Coming out on top was a great feeling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her entire family was in Stuart, Fla. to watch her win the state championship, including her older sister Hannah, who drove all night from college in Alabama just to see her sister dive.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Fluharty also competes nationally and finished 14th in the 1-meter springboard last summer. <\/span><\/p>\n

She said the hardest thing about diving is changing her perspective from that of a gymnast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a gymnast, you\u2019re not supposed to land on your head, but divers do,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her most difficult dives are a 105B front two-and-a-half somersault pike on the one-meter springboard and a 5235D back one-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twists on the three-meter. Fluharty is interested in platform diving, but facilities aren\u2019t available locally. <\/span><\/p>\n

After graduation this spring, she plans to attend college to study psychology, perhaps at Louisville or Florida Atlantic University, and definitely continue diving. Maybe she\u2019ll even add platform diving to her repertoire. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd maybe college can take me to the next step of the Olympic trials,\u201d Fluharty said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, she will continue with her training and workouts and hanging out with her diving friends. Fluharty\u2019s commitment to diving doesn\u2019t leave room for much else besides school work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The self-proclaimed competitor said, \u201cI like the fear factor of diving. It\u2019s cool to get up there on the springboard and throw something scary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photos courtesy Keegan Fluharty<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Keegan Fluharty in action.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Martie Thompson editor@floridanewsline.com Mandarin High School senior Keegan Fluharty is a former competitive gymnast who turned her proficiency in twisting and tumbling into a new vocation as a diver \u2014 and last November, she earned the title of FHSAA Class 4A diving champion for the state of Florida. She is the first Northeast Florida […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mandarin"},"yoast_head":"\nMandarin student is state diving champion - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mandarin NewsLineBy Martie Thompson editor@floridanewsline.com Mandarin High School senior Keegan Fluharty is a former competitive gymnast who turned her proficiency in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/mandarin\/mandarin-student-state-diving-champion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mandarin student is state diving champion - 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