December 22, 2024
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Oswego co-op junior Katie Malm wins program’s first state diving title

By Bill Stone - for Shaw Local News Network
Oswego’s Katie Malm dives during the IHSA Girls State Championships on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024 at FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

Oswego’s Katie Malm dives during the IHSA Girls State Championships on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024 at FMC Natatorium in Westmont. (Sandy Bressner)

WESTMONT – Oswego Co-op junior Katie Malm went into the last three dives of the girls swimming and diving state meet Saturday holding first place.

Malm was among the last to realize she maintained it.

“My thing today was I didn’t want to look at the [updated results] scoreboard, just do my dive, get out of the water and think about the next one,” Malm said. ”Then at the end I looked at it and I was really happy with it.”

Malm’s 492.00 points for 11 total dives gave the program its first state championship diver by 5.5 points at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

Also all-state in her previous two state meets, Malm was fifth in 2022 (435.15) and fourth last year (462.60) behind two seniors, 21.20 points from first.

”I was pretty proud of that but I didn’t think I could win it this year. I’m super happy,” Malm said.

“It means everything. I’ve worked so hard this season. I came off surgery in June. I’m really pumped that I could do it for my team and everything.”

Malm posted the state’s highest sectional score in winning the Metea Valley Sectional Nov. 9 with a school-record 516.50.

During Friday’s state preliminaries, Malm led after the first round (230.25 points for 5 dives) and semifinals (356.10 for 8 dives) by 11.35 points.

”She’s been rock solid all year,” Oswego co-op diving coach Ryan Pentzien said. “She’s got a really good headspace when it comes to competition. She can lock in and do her best performance pretty much every time. She showed that off today.”

In June, Malm had some concerns after she underwent surgery to repair her dislocated left knee. Physically, she felt back near 100% by September.

”I was still partially held back at the beginning just because I couldn’t jump all of the way. Definitely a lot of muscle memory going into the season,” Malm said. ”We worked a lot of technical things at practice that helped me out a lot but I think just having a new headspace going into this season helped me a lot, too, with the meet aspect. [I was] going into things more confidently. Not thinking about the pressure as much as just doing one dive at a time helped me a lot, too.”