Competitive development continues for diver Luke Ogren.
Now finishing his junior year at Cherry Creek, Ogren is the unbeaten favorite to repeat as Class 5A state champion at the Colorado High School Athletic Association finals meet this weekend at Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton.
But even if he wins, as expected, don’t look for him at the upcoming U. S. Olympic Trials.
“Not this year,” he says. “There are a few people my age going, but those people are a couple levels above where I am.”
The coach responsible for teaching Ogren how to become an Olympian, Jeff Smith, founder of Dive5280, chuckles in agreement when he hears Ogren’s self-assessment. He calls it the result of his star pupil’s “epiphany” at the USA Diving Senior Nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee last October.
Participants qualified on the basis of the degree of difficulty of their dives in competition. The meet brought together collegiate and advanced high school divers from across the nation.
“I took Luke and Carson Harrington (a junior at Evergreen High who Smith says is the favorite to win the 4A state title) to that meet in Tennessee,” Smith said, “mostly to show them what this is all about.
“They walked in there pretty confident, and they were like, ‘Oh, my goodness!’ They were warming up next to Olympians, and they were like, ‘Holy smokes! These guys are good.’”
Ogren puts the humbling experience this way:
“I was able to compete against divers who were just amazing. I saw levels of diving that I’ve never seen before in my life.”
Seeing others perform more sophisticated dives showed Smith’s proteges what he has been trying to teach them by instruction during Dive5280 club sessions.
“I always tell them, ‘You have to ride the board.’ That means bending it and letting it throw you up in the air.
“They had no concept. But because of that exposure, they were like, ‘Oh!’ They saw what was possible. They saw all the things I was trying to explain to them. They’ve been incredibly motivated since then.”
Ogren, who now practices at least once a day, often twice, agrees.
“After that meet, I tried to do what I saw. That really boosted my progression a lot. It definitely helps to see the dives.
“Last year,” he said, “a lot of my dives were a lot easier than they are now. I’m doing dives now that I could only have dreamed of when I first started diving.”
An example is called a Front Three-and-a-Half. It’s a forward dive with three-and-a-half flips, which requires somersaulting really fast coming off the one-meter board.
“Sometimes I can feel the G-forces pulling my face up,” he says. “It’s pretty crazy.”
Ogren’s growing repertoire will be on display at this weekend’s state high school meet.
I’ll be doing most, if not all, of my most difficult dives,” he said, “because I need experience with those dives to do them in future meets. If I didn’t do them, there definitely are some divers who could get an edge on me and maybe beat me.”
As important as winning another high school state championship is, Ogren has other challenges coming up, too.
He recently qualified for the USA Diving zone meet in Novato, California at the end of this month. It’s the last step to the USA Diving Nationals in Morgantown, West Virginia August 2-12. In between are the AAU Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He’s also reaching the point when he’ll decide which college scholarship he’ll accept. Front-runners right now are two military academies—Air Force and Naval—and Cal Poly. He’s already made campus visits to all three.
Attending one of the academies would require a Congressional appointment, but he’s been told that should not be a concern, given that he’s also a top student.
“I would like to decide when I start my senior year,” he said, adding: “I don’t want to make it too early because I don’t want to limit my options.”
Translated, that means there’s still a chance Duke will enter the picture.
Wherever he winds up, Ogren will be a collegian when the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles roll around.
“I could definitely see myself going to the Olympic Trials next time,” he says.
Denny Dressman is a veteran of 43 years in the newspaper business, including 25 at the Rocky Mountain News, where he began as executive sports editor. He is the author of 16 books, nine of them sports-related. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.