He’s only a sophomore.
Jake Herremans of Rockford might only be a 10th grader, but he’s a Division 1 state champion in the one-meter dive.
He pulled off the trick at the state swimming and diving meet at Saginaw Valley State University.
Rockford finished 10th as a team in the meet, led by Herremans, who had a 320.65 in the semifinal and a 458.90 in the final. Second-place finisher was Dakota Hurbis, a freshman from Saline, who had a 433.25.
“I won by 25 points, which is a decent margin,” Herremans said.
Rockford coach Tom Parks had a quick reply when asked for key to Herremans’ success. “Hard work, hard work, and a lot of confidence,” Parks answered. “He trains year round and is never satisfied with current success. He wants to improve consistently. He also dives year round with another top diver from Rockford, senior Shane Phillips. They push each other.”
Phillips placed eighth in the one-meter dive at the state finals this year.
Parks noted that Herremans has shown improvement from last season. “He was a very solid diver his freshman year,” Parks said, noting that Herremans was ninth at state. “But he really worked on improving his [degree of difficulty] from his freshman year. He added a whole new list of dives to his 11-dive performance.”
Herremans has been diving since the seventh grade, and it’s his second year of high school diving.
He went into the state finals this season ranked No. 1. “I knew I had a good shot at it,” Herremans said, adding that coming into the season, “I knew I had good shot at top three or top five. I didn’t know until mid season that I would have a good shot of winning at state.”
Herremans said that one of the improvements he’s made as a sophomore is going into the water with a smaller splash.
He worked during the off-season with a USA diving club, and he indicated that his confidence with his work on the diving board has especially increased this season.
Parks called Herremans’ state finals performance “awesome. Not only did he dive well and broke the varsity record, but he did so under great pressure,” Parks said. “There were several divers near him scorewise through much of the meet. He will not only be awarded all-American, but I suspect he will be listed in the top 15 high school divers in the United States.”
What obviously excites Parks and the Rams is that Herremans has two years of high school eligibility remaining.
“He will not rest on this, he will raise the bar for himself,” Parks said. “I have no doubt. He has the potential at being one of the best divers to ever come out of Michigan.”
Looking ahead, Herremans simply wants to get better. “I can’t let my head get too big,” he said, “and I need to keep getting stronger and improve my form and keep getting higher for increasing the difficulty of dives.”
Diving is his only event. He played baseball last spring but is now focusing strictly on diving.
“I like the feel of being in the air and flipping,” he said.