Diver takes 8th at State

Having completed the best local girls diving season in two decades, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton senior Rilee Durovec will take a breather. But only until her winter diving schedule resumes.

Durovec reached the finals and finished eighth in the state Class A swimming and diving meet last weekend at the University of Minnesota. She'd entered the competition striving to reach Saturday's finals for the top 16 divers. She accomplished that and more.

"It really means a lot to know I could get there and achieve my goals - to know I could do that," Durovec said. "It was one of my better performances, but I know I could have done better."

Durovec blitzed through the high school swimming and diving campaign, never losing a competition in being named Section 7A diver of the year. Last season, Durovec, of Esko, finished 20th at State as a junior.

In her second straight trip to State, she scored 336.50 across three rounds of dives, totaling 11 dives. The winner, Alayna Kennedy, a senior from Austin, scored 444.80. Durovec and the rest of the top 10 divers were in a pack that finished with totals between 335-361.20, the score of second-place finisher Josie Bossen, a senior from St. Anthony Village.

Durovec's finish earned 11 team points for CEC - the team's final score good for a 31st place finish as Durovec was its only state participant. Orono with 259 points was crowned team champion. Two Harbors with 25 points in 25th place was the top team finisher from northeastern Minnesota.

Durovec's was the best Cloquet-based season since 2005, when Jenna Shelerud finished ninth at State in what was the last year of diving in Cloquet until the new middle school pool opened in 2018.

After five preliminary dives, Durovec was in third place. She then fell as far as 11th, and fought back to eighth on her final dive.

"Rilee's performance at state was extremely exciting and a regular roller coaster ride," CEC diving coach Nannette "Newt" Snyder said. "She needed to make her last dive exceptional to get back on the podium and she did it."

The top eight state finishers reached the medal podium.

Durovec will now take a beat to collect herself and recover, before hitting the club diving circuit, which takes her from dry land training and trampoline work in Virginia to diving boards and platforms at pools around the Twin Cities with her club, North Star Diving.

"I'll be working on the 3-meter, so when I do it in college I'll have experience coming in, and I'll also be learning new dives on the 1-meter," Durovec said of her winter plans.

She's currently weighing offers to dive collegiately from Concordia University of St. Paul and Minnesota State University Moorhead.

"I haven't decided yet," she said. "It's just really good to know that I'm good enough to dive in college."

Durovec's diving coach with CEC, Snyder, starred for Cloquet's first female diving programs in the 1970s. The Section 7A diving coach of the year, Snyder could not have been more proud of her pupil.

"Her ability to hold it together and nail her last dives took tremendous stability and courage," Snyder said of Dorovec's state performance. "She had always been able to come back after missing a dive or two this season and perform like new. At this state meet, it was particularly important."

Snyder concluded by saying it was a pleasure to work with Durovec "and watch her transform into a top diver."

When asked about her development in diving, Durovec reflected that she began tumbling at Mary Lee's School of Gymnastics in Scanlon at a young age, but came to diving later.

"I started in ninth grade - a little later than most I'd say - and ever since then I've really improved," she said. "Getting eighth this year really shows that."

The 5-foot-4 Durovec is also a catcher on the Esko softball team. She's proud to have built a career that figures to reverberate after she's gone.

"It's exciting to know that I can do that and that I will be remembered," she said of the undefeated diving run to state that included setting pool records at Cloquet and Duluth East.

"It's fun to know that," she added.

She's had a lot of support, she said, from her parents, grandparents and a sister. There have been other coaches who have helped along the way, like CEC head coach Rachel Peterson and retired Mesabi East diving coach Dave Setnicker - one of Durovec's go-to trainers.

"A lot of friends and school members ask me how I do, too, and support me through diving," she said.

Asked to reflect on how a competition day unfolds for her, Durovec said: "I go to school and then on meet days I usually hit up Kwik Trip to get a snack. If it's a home meet, we set up for an hour and I memorize my dive list before the meet. I hope to stay consistent and do what I know how to do.

"It really takes consistency - doing a lot of the same thing over and over - to succeed."