Fossil Ridge's Sydney Ovesen wins Colorado 5A girls diving state championship
Fossil Ridge is already on the board in the pool.
Fossil's Sydney Ovesen won the Colorado Class 5A one-meter diving state championship on Wednesday at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton.
The SaberCats junior took the gold with a score of 506.45 points across 11 dives, narrowly edging out Regis Jesuit senior Maya Kriz's score of 503.25.
The win capped a remarkable stretch run for Ovesen after some early season struggles.
She finished with four consecutive meet wins, including the City Meet title, a Front Range League championship and now the state crown.
“It’s incredible. It’s mind-changing,” Oveson told CHSAANow.com. “I never thought I could do it. ... I’m really, really proud of myself and my teammates. I went through a patch with diving where I really didn’t love it. Recently, I started loving it again and things have just started going upwards."
The win came in comeback fashion, too, as Ovesen erased a small deficit over her final three dives.
This was a stark contrast to the 2023 state championship, when the Fossil diver failed to even qualify for the finals.
"Last year, it was just me piecing a lot of things together just so I could make it here," Ovesen said. "This year, it was more of me saying, 'I want to be good and I want to show people who I am.'"
It's a strong start for Fossil Ridge in the 5A state swim and dive championships, which continued Thursday and Friday at the VMAC with swimming prelims and finals.
Fort Collins junior Elle Gray finished fourth with a score of 479.5, actually besting her runner-up state score from last year by more than 30 points.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado diving: Fossil Ridge's Sydney Ovesen wins 5A state championship
