Sophomore diver improves over his 23rd place at state last year
After barely missing the cut in the diving preliminaries a season ago, sophomore diver Jamison Livermore returned to state diving action and placed 15th in this year’s Class AA Swim and Dive championships.
Last year Livermore earned his first career state berth and recorded a 23rd-place finish on a 138.25 score, three spots behind clinching a semifinals spot. Livermore ultimately earned his shot to compete for the 2024 Class AA title by grabbing a first-place overall finish in the Section 7AA diving championships at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids on Friday, Feb. 23, tallying a final score of 32 on 384.35 points.
Livermore wanted to see drastic improvement from last year’s state run, said head coach Dominick Mancini.
“This is now his second year going to state. His expectation was to really improve from the year before, where he just missed the cut. His goal this time was top 16,” Mancini said.
Livermore backed up his own personal expectations by making it out of the Thursday, Feb. 29, preliminaries with an 11th-place finish out of 31 total divers, securing a spot in the semifinals with a 180.75 score.
The two-time state entrant didn’t let the heat of the moment get to him, as Livermore snagged a 13th place finish in the semifinal round, owning a 266.35 score, just 2.05 points behind the 12th-place finisher Connor Peterson of Elk River and a full 15.2 points ahead of Charlie Jensen from Hastings.
In the final round of diving, held on Saturday, March 2, Livermore orchestrated a 94.85, good for a 15th-place finish as the sophomore ended with a grand total score of 361.20, above 16th-place finisher junior Charlie Jensen from Hastings (338.40) an just behind eighth-grader Kingston Kavati from Edina (364.55).
“Placing within the top 15 was definitely a good step in the right direction for him. He already wants to improve even more. He’s already got big plans in terms of trying to improve upon this year’s position,” Mancini said.
Junior Lucas Gerten of Rosemount clinched the state championship with an all-time state record of 539.60, blowing out the previous all-time record of 532.70 by Red Wing’s Turner Eckstrom in 2010.
With Livermore already possessing a veteran presence, Mancini notes how this year’s state experience has motivated the diver even further into his junior season.
“He’s a competitive kid. He sees the guys who are really good and he watches them and makes some mental notes, then asks our diving coach questions as to how he can do those certain things. He really gets motivated by seeing other people doing well and he wants to raise his game to be just as competitive as those other guys,” Mancini said. “He’s ready to go to work and get right back to it.”
What’s more, Mancini said, is how the top Ranger diver has been a leader for the swim and dive program.
“I know whenever the guys talk about him, [they say] he’s one of those kids who will always be there for you. He loves being a part of the team and it really motivates him to see how those younger guys see him willing to step in and lead and do those right things,” Mancini said. “It also pushes the younger guys and allows them to all be a little more open-minded. They think that if he can do it, we can do it too, and that’s something you want to see from a guy who goes to back-to-back state meets.”
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