Nearly a week after claiming his second straight state diving championship, Reed Slayden says his accomplishment still hasn’t sunk in.
The Emporia High senior easily won the 1-meter diving championship, outpacing his closest competitor by over 70 points. On KVOE’s Morning Show this week, he credited a combination of hard work and support for his success.
Slayden reset the six- and 11-dive records at Emporia High as well as the Centennial League meet record in winning all his meets this year. He says he hasn’t done year-round training, but he got in some unofficially training while working at the Jones Aquatic Center last summer. He also watched a lot of videos of Olympic championships or Big Ten championships, patterning a lot of his lineup on the successful routines.
Slayden has graduated from Emporia High and is tentatively planning to attend the University of Texas-Tyler to study computer science. His diving career, however, is uncertain at this point because some of Slayden’s preferred choices have not responded and the schools that have shown an interest are “out of my range.”
