[Stardust]

The 13-year-old state 1-meter diving record is under siege and Beechwood senior Justin Youtsey has it in his sights following a record-shattering performance at the regional meet.

“Justin is motivated to break the record,” coach Allyson Heger said. “He’s been looking forward to this the whole season and he’s prepared for it.”

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Youtsey, an Auburn University recruit, will take aim at the record beginning at 6p.m. Thursday during the preliminaries of the KHSAA swimming and diving championships at University of Louisville’s Ralph Wright Natatorium. “Competing with the best is something that makes me better,” said Youtsey, the two-time state champion.

At the regional championships at Scott, Youtsey smashed Evan Stowers’ local mark with a score of 571.35, which is nearly 19 points better than the state record of 552.70 set at the 1999 diving finals by Tates Creek’s Phillip Jones. KHSAA diving records can only be achieved at the state meet.

The top 16 divers will perform their last three dives Saturday morning following the 50-yard freestyle final. Northern Kentucky is looking for a sweep of the top three in diving. Scott’s Logan Stevens is seeded second and Dixie Heights’ Bailey Harrison is third.

Covington Catholic is looking for its eighth top-3 finish in 11 years in the team standings. The Colonels, runners-up four times since 2001, qualified 18 state participants, including defending 200-yard individual medley champion Max Williamson and Hunter Pasek, seeded fifth in the 100 butterfly. Williamson hopes to unseat defending 500 freestyle champion Conner Downard of Highlands.

The Colonels are attempting to get in the way of 23-time defending champion Louisville St. Xavier. The Colonels, last a state winner in 1983, finished third in 2011. Swimming preliminaries begin at 10a.m. Friday; the finals 10a.m. Saturday.

“We don’t have the depth St. X has,” CovCath coach Richard Dickmann said. “What we hope for is good finishes that push their points down.”


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