Whitman, the River Valley Democrat-Gazette Diver of the Year, more than made a splash in her initial varsity season. She in dominating fashion won the 5A state championship in the one-meter dive.
"It was so cool to be the first to do this at Van Buren," Whitman said. "If I was going to do this, I might as well go for it all. If I fail, I fail. It turned out it was just all amazing. I couldn't ask for a better first year at this level."
Whitman took home the hardware by finishing with a score of 336.7 points in the 11-dive competition as the only underclassmen in the top five. She was 42 points better than second place and 87.15 points better than third place.
She also finished seventh with a personal-best time of 1:23.40 in the 100-yard breaststroke.
"The state tournament was a great experience," Whitman said. "Before I started diving, I didn't even know there was a state championship for this. It was a little odd doing this as a freshman when a lot of people doing it are seniors. But that makes it really cool. I just want to win even more now. It was really fun to be able to do diving and swimming at such a big event."
When you see your own face while traveling around your own hometown, that is a good indication that you did something special. That was just the case for Whitman in a whirlwind season.
"I was so surprised," Whitman said with a smile when she saw herself off Arkansas Highway 59. "It was just amazing to see myself on a billboard."
Although Whitman made it look easy throughout her freshman year, being a diver in the River Valley is anything but an unchallenging task. She has to drive to Fayetteville several times a week just to practice her craft. Like a lot of divers, Whitman made the transition to diving after first being a gymnast.
"I was doing gymnastics for a while, but my coach left," Whitman said. "One of my teammate's mom mentioned to my mom about diving. Since I loved doing flips, I tried a gymnast to diving class, loved it and kept going from there. There are plenty of similarities with those two different sports on the physical side of things. The scoring is very similar as well."
Whitman's biggest fan in her mom, Jamie Whitman, had the best seat in the house to watch the historic season. After all, she is her daughter's coach.
"I love being able to go watch every single one of the events to be there for this journey," Jamie Whitman said. "We were so excited to see her thrive this year. It was really nice. She had never competed against any of those divers at state, so it ... Click here to read full article
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