Despite a late introduction to diving, Lawrence High sophomore Skyler Criswell has performed like a veteran of the sport.

“I picked it up pretty fast,” Criswell said.

One year after beginning his competitive diving career, the 16-year-old qualified for the Kansas state meet for the first time by posting 306 points – 26 points above the requisite total required for state – during his six dives at the Olathe South Invitational on Dec. 9.

Criswell, a forward on the Lions’ JV soccer team in 2006, prefers that sport to diving. But he has displayed his prowess this winter on the one-meter springboard.

What attracted you to competitive diving?

The head coach last year (Ryan Adams ) was my ninth-grade math teacher. I was planning on doing it because I always had fun diving at the pool. Then I just started trying to do it competitively last year just for fun. But now I’m getting real competitive with it.

How exciting is it to have qualified for state so early in the winter season?

It’s really cool. I’ve been having a lot of fun.

Describe the difference between this year and your freshman year.

When I started it, I just wanted to do it for fun. I was OK last year. I wasn’t too great, but at the end of last year, I had a couple of pretty good dives. At the beginning of this year, I just started doing more and more complicated dives, and it was clicking real easy.

It sounds like your performance improved drastically during the course of last year’s season.

I started off kind of a rough. At the end of the year, I started doing pretty good and I ended up beating both the Free State divers in a couple of meets last year. So I was pretty happy.

During the offseason, what did you focus on to try and improve your diving?

Over the summer I was pretty busy. I didn’t really practice at all.

LAWRENCE HIGH SOPHOMORE SKYLER CRISWELL has wasted little time getting up to speed as a competitive diver. In just his second season of competition, he already has qualified for this season's Kansas state meet.

So how did you improve so much from your freshman to sophomore year?

Probably being less afraid to do the harder dives.

What is your best dive?

I’ve got a couple of them. One is my front one-and-a-half with a full twist, and then my other one is a front two-and-a-half. The two-and-a-half has the highest degree of difficulty.

What is your favorite part of diving?

I like the adrenaline rush you get right when you get on the board at a meet. That’s pretty cool.

What are your objectives for this year?

My goal is to get top 10 in state.

Since you have much of high school ahead of you, how good a diver can you become?

All the divers that are better than me now are all older than me. There isn’t really a sophomore diver that I’ve met yet that is as competitive. So I’m thinking my senior year I might win state or get second.

Would you consider diving on the collegiate level?

I’ve thought about it. If I win state, I might consider it, but my main favorite sport is soccer.

I know you’re only a sophomore, but where would you eventually like to attend college?

I haven’t given much thought to it, but a good soccer school I’d love to get into would be Creighton (University).