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It was so close she could almost taste it.
Warsaw's Stephanie Ellis was continuing her climb to the top of IHSAA diving ladder, but before she reached the top, she was knocked down a notch by a determined Amy Shurr of Valparaiso.
Ellis' 387.85 points were good enough for second place, only 1.7 away from Shurr's top spot in the state diving finals Saturday at the IUPUI Natatorium.
"I didn't dive as well as I would have liked to, and I didn't dive as well as I have the last couple of meets, but I can't be too disappointed. I got to state," Ellis said.
Ellis finished seventh last year at the state meet. Shurr won the diving competition as a sophomore two years ago and was injured last season.
Ellis and Shurr were in a dogfight from the beginning, scoring the same on their first two dives. Ellis came into the finals down by only 4.3 points with three dives to go.
Shurr began the final round with a reverse dive straight, scoring 35.1. Ellis countered with a forward pike with a reverse and a mark of 36 points to narrow the gap.
The next round, Shurr did a reverse one-and-a-half somersault and slipped up just a little, scoring only 31.05.
Ellis followed with a forward, two somersaults. She also made a mistake, leaning forward just a little, and scored only 30.8.
The final dives for both competitors were practically perfect.
Shurr executed a forward, two-and-half for 36 points, while Ellis hit her forward, two twists for a 37.95, but it was not enough to win.
"Neither Amy nor I dove very well," Ellis said. "She messed up a couple of dives, and I messed up a couple of dives."
Ellis followed Shurr in the diving order all day, which could have been a problem, but Ellis didn't have any problems.
"It was kind of bad, but because if she does a nice dive, then it's hard to follow, but I don't watch her anyway. So the only way I know she did well is her score," Ellis said.
At the state meet, the atmosphere is different and some people say the judging is tougher.
Wawasee swim coach Roger Karns happened to be one of those judges.
"Nobody does it intentionally," Karns said. "There's so much more talent here that if you think of an averge dive as a 5 1/2, then the average changes. I know that no judge is over there saying 'I'm going to judge tougher because this is the state meet."
