ST. CLOUD — By the end of her senior year of high school in 2018, Tech diver Meredith Matchinsky was mentally burned out.
While she had finished as the Class 2A state runner-up on the 1-meter diving board, her desire seemed to vanish by the end of the school year.
“I didn’t have the drive for it, and I didn’t enjoy it very much,” Matchinsky said recently. “It’s a really scary sport … you’re going to practice every day, and you’re bound to do something that kind of terrifies you.”
She was driving an hour back and forth every day for extra diving practice in the Twin Cities, even during the swim season. That work paid off as she rose from ninth at state in 2016 to third in 2017 before taking second in 2018.
“She was very determined. If she didn’t get anything, she would keep working at it until she did,” Matchinsky’s high school coach Garrett Ewers said. “It’s fun to coach people like her that have a true drive to be better.”
But once she had lost that desire for diving, Matchinsky thought she would be able to stay off the board. However, only six months later — as a college freshman — she would be competing for St. Cloud State University at the NCAA Division II nationals in the 3-meter and 1-meter dives.
Read more: Former Tech diver Matchinsky shines at SCSU
