Emporia High School diver Allie Weiss completed her high school diving career last Saturday.

hough nothing is guaranteed in sports, Weiss entered the Kansas 5-1A state meet as the favorite.

The three-time state champion has dominated the sport since her freshman year, when she placed fourth.

Her senior season continued that progression.

Weiss posted a state composite finals score of 469.65. Second place was 460.10. That was the first time in three years that Weiss wasn’t the lone diver to score above 400.

Each year, the degree of difficulty in her dives has increased, and so have her scores. In 2024 and 2025, she registered 451.20 and 453.75, respectively.

Records Became the Goal

But the season’s primary objective wasn’t another state title. Another state title mattered, but the bigger pursuit became the elusive 11-dive and 6-dive school records.

“Going into my senior year, I’m record-focused,” Weiss told the Emporia Gazette in 2025. “I want to break records. I want to leave my name in the high school…it’s definitely going to be a hard focus next year.”

Following Her Sister’s Path

Weiss never thought too much about diving before high school or even when she arrived there. She would have fun informally practicing around the diving board with her sister but that was the extent of it. Nothing serious.

That motivation came from someone familiar – her sister.

Yes. Older sister, Haylee Weiss, who held Emporia’s diving records. Haylee was a three-time state champion as well.

Still, when Weiss reached high school, her extracurricular focus was cheer. But when spring of her freshman year rolled around, there was no more cheering to do.

A void had emerged. She thought, why not fill it with diving. Might as well. The added incentive was to surpass Haylee’s scores.

This month, Weiss accomplished the goal of being a record holder. She set the 6-dive record with a score of 342.70 and eclipsed Haylee’s 11-dive score of 531 with a 535.75.

Credit to Coach Barb Clark

Weiss primarily credits Emporia dive coach, Barb Clark, for much of her development and success.

“If you ask her, she’ll be like, ‘I don’t do much. Allie does all.’ But it couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Weiss said. “I came in kind of already knowing how to do a lot of the stuff, but all of the form and the little things that you need to do in order to score well came from her and her critiques. I really wouldn’t be as good as I am if I didn’t have her as my coach.”

The champion diver said the challenging dives that enabled her to score high wouldn’t have been possible without Clark’s guidance. The longtime Emporia coach stayed patient with Weiss.

“If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think I would be doing any forward doubles or two and a half at all. My freshman year I came in and literally had such a huge mental block,” she admitted. “I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t do it. We probably went through three quarters of the season and I just would not do it. And then she just kept helping me. She was being very patient with me.”

The dives finally began to click and Clark continued suggesting more demanding ones.

“I got there to the double, and then we did it in pike,” Weiss said. “And then the year following that, she was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we try two and a half?’ I just kind of looked at her like she was crazy.”

Clark’s positive prodding and Weiss’s determination paired nicely. The results speak for themselves.

“I don’t think I would have ever done that dive if it wouldn’t have been for her pushing me…I would be a completely different diver if I didn’t have her,” she said.

The Mental Side of Diving

The graduating Emporia senior spoke of mental obstacles. And in diving, success often comes down to mindset.

“One thing that people don’t understand about the diving world, it’s more of a mental sport than it is physical,” Weiss said. “It’s very, very hard to overcome the fear of doing it inwards, doing a reverse because it’s not something that’s normal for the human brain to be able to comprehend, because you’re supposed to go forward. You’re not supposed to go backwards.”

She admitted that there were days during the past four years when she couldn’t go backwards off the board. Whether it was fear or just not focused, the muscle memory wasn’t there those days.

“I couldn’t even do a backflip because my brain just forgot how to flip. It comes to those parts where it’s like, all right, we need to take a break and we just need to take a pause and we’ll come back at it tomorrow because I’m not mentally there. Barb can tell you too, if you’re not mentally there and ready on the board, you’re not going to get anything done.”

Weiss said in order to be the best version of yourself on the board, you have to be present.

“I’m going on year four and it’s still happening to me. So you very much have to be in the mindset coming into practice or you’re not going to get anything done.”

Choosing a Different Future

In 2025, Weiss said she wasn’t opposed to competing in college. She would look at potential opportunities. However, in 2026, she decided her collegiate future will include cheer only.

“So after high school, I will be going to Cowley College in Ark City (Arkansas City, Kansas)…I am going to be leaving the dive world behind, unfortunately. I’m going to be studying cosmetology and continuing to cheer, which I have a passion for.”

Weiss leaves Emporia with three state titles and two school records.

“I think growing stronger mentally and just knowing that I can push myself and that I can do the hard things is probably the biggest takeaway from dive.”

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For the first time in program history, Kansas baseball has been chosen to host an NCAA Regional as part of the 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament. The Jayhawks are one of 16 teams to be selected as hosts, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday.

KU, who is ranked as the No. 15 seed in the country overall, is one of just two Big 12 teams to earn the honor along with the West Virginia Mountaineers – whom the Jayhawks dominated in the Big 12 Tournament Championship on Saturday by a score of 9-0 to capture the program’s second Big 12 Tournament title in school history and the first since 2006. This is also just the seventh time that KU has reached the NCAA Tournament in program history.

As host, KU is the No. 1 seed in a four-team regional played at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence that includes No. 2 seed Arkansas, No. 3 seed Missouri State, and No. 4 seed Northeastern. There will be a maximum of seven games played between the four teams from May 29 to June 1 in a double-elimination format.

The Jayhawks will first face off in Game 1 of the regional against Northeastern at 12 p.m. CT on Friday, May 29, with the game airing live on ESPN+. Arkansas and Missouri State will then follow in Game 2 at approximately 5 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

The loser of Game 1 will play the loser of Game 2 at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, May 30. The winners of Game 1 and Game 2 will then meet at 5 p.m. CT later that day.

The winner of the Lawrence Regional will move on to play in the NCAA Super Regionals next weekend against the winner of the Georgia Tech Regional (Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, The Citadel, UIC) in a three-game series for the right to play in the College World Series.

Full details about tickets, parking, and other information can be found at KUathletics.com.

Blue Valley West High School, located in Overland Park, KS, won the Kansas 6A Girls’ High School State Championships in a commanding 333 points, 44.5 points ahead of runners-up Shawnee Mission East (288.5 points). Blue Valley West’s team and the meet overall were highlighted by strong performances from underclassmen swimmers, particularly freshmen.

Blue Valley West kicked off the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay, winning by over two seconds in 1:47.51. The team of freshman Sasha Weiner (27.09), sophomore Caitlyn Chopra (31.11), sophomore Avery Johnson (26.01), and freshman Anya Pivonka (23.30) was tied with Lawrence Free State at the 150-yard mark, only to see Pivonka pull away and post the fastest freestyle split by a margin of 1.14 seconds. Given the team’s youth, the State Record of 1:45.28, set by Blue Valley North in 2024, will be tested over the next few years.

Shawnee Mission East’s team of CoCo Reiser (25.17), Darcy Kroening (24.30), Georgia Boyd (24.79), and Teni Oyetunji (24.21) won the 200 freestyle relay in a 1:38.47. Blue Valley West’s quartet of sophomore Greta Reardon (25.42), Sophomore Johnson (25.19), freshman Amber Stringer (25.57), and freshman Hayden Benbow (24.21) took third in 1:40.39.

The last race of the day, the 400 freestyle relay, was won by an entirely freshman quartet from Blue Valley West. Stringer (54.49), Weiner (54.80), Pivonka (52.81), and Benbow (52.96) combined for a time of 3:35.06, more than three seconds ahead of runners-up Blue Valley North (3:38.42).

Stringer went on to become Blue Valley West’s only individual champion, winning the 500 freestyle in 5:05.68, recording a 4.32-second margin of victory in the process over fellow freshman Evie Boshart of Shawnee Mission Northwest. Benbow and Johnson placed fourth (5:16.34) and fifth (5:16.36), respectively, in the 500 freestyle, earning Blue Valley West 49 points in a single heat. Stringer also took second in the 200 IM 2:10.14. Both swims were off of Stringer’s lifetime bests of 5:01.54 and 2:09.03, respectively, both recorded in March at the 2026 Speedo Sectionals Region VIII Championships.

Lawrence Free State freshman Ella Marsh won the 200 IM in 2:02.80, shaving 1.40 from her prelims time and winning by 7.34 seconds. In March at the 2026 Speedo Sectionals Region VIII Championships, Marsh posted a 2:04.84 in the 200 IM to place 12th, which itself represented a 2.49-second drop from her previous lifetime best, meaning that Marsh has shaved a total of 4.53 seconds in the event in a 10-week time period. Marsh later recorded a runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly with a 57.23.

Senior Maggie Dahl of Blue Valley Southwest claimed both sprint freestyle titles, first winning the 50 freestyle in 23.14, making her the only swimmer to break the 24-second barrier in the field. Freshmen Anya Pivonka and Sasha Weiner of Blue Valley West placed second and third, respectively, in times of 24.12 and 24.55. Dahl later won the 100 freestyle in a similar fashion, posting a 50.77 to make her the only swimmer sub-53 in the field. Meanwhile, the duo of Pivonka and Weiner would switch places in the 100 backstroke, this time with Weiner placing second in 57.59 and Pivonka placing third in 58.46

Fia Boshart, a junior from Shawnee Mission Northwest, captured two individual state titles. First, in the 100 butterfly, Boshart posted a 55.22, more than two seconds clear of the next-fastest competitor. Later, in the 100 backstroke, Boshart posted a 57.28, still 0.31 clear of the runner-up. Boshart also contributed a 24.68 butterfly split on Shawnee Mission Northwest’s 7th-place 200 medley relay, as well as a 24.85 lead-off split on the 200 freestyle relay to earn fifth. Younger sister Evie Boshart placed second in the 500 freestyle with a 5:09.00 and picked up a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle with a 1:55.64. E. Boshart also contributed a 25.12 split on Shawnee Mission Northwest’s 5th-place 200 freestyle relay, and also led off the 200 medley relay in a 28.35.

Senior Libby Barney of Olathe East achieved victory in the 200 freestyle with a 1:53.11, adding slightly to her time of 1:52.80 from prelims. Barney also placed third in the 500 freestyle with a 5:09.71. Abby Stidham-Ebberts, a junior from Mill Valley, won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.36, dropping nearly two seconds from her prelims time of 1:06.34. Sophomore Katharine Costello of Olathe East also dipped under the 65-second barrier, posting a 1:04.82 after registering a 1:06.13 to emerge as the top seed in prelims.

Irene Gettya, a junior from Olathe East, won the diving with 409.00 points, with senior Avery Metcalf of Olathe North coming in second with 311.95 points.

Top-10 Team Scores

1. Blue Valley West – 333 points
2. Shawnee Mission East – 288.5 points
3. Olathe East – 245 points
4. Blue Valley North – 209 points
5. Free State – 188 points
6. Wichita-East – 164 points
7. Shawnee Mission Northwest – 148 points
8. Blue Valley Northwest – 122 points
9. Olathe Northwest – 111 points
10. Mill Valley – 83 points