Mercer Island High School (MIHS) freshman Connor Carson completed a diving championship trifecta this season with a victory in the boys one-meter 3A state competition on Feb. 20 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Leading up to the state meet, Carson won both the 3A KingCo and District 2 crowns.

Carson finished atop the state standings with 428.85 points, beating out two-time state champ Alma Smith from Cheney, a senior, who placed second with 423.20 points. MIHS junior Shane Kornblum finished 10th.

“I’m very happy with how it went. I mean, it couldn’t have gone better,” Carson said of his stellar season. “I got first place at all the meets throughout the whole season.”

Carson, who also competes for Seattle’s Alpha Diving Club, discussed his strategy that he felt gave him an edge over the competition at state.

“I strategically decided to do some easier dives so that I wouldn’t have to be worried about doing anything difficult,” said Carson, who has been diving for five years. “I did stuff that I knew I was comfortable with so that I could go in relaxed. And honestly, throughout the whole competition, none of my dives were very difficult, but I was able to get very high scores on them.”

For the last four years, he’s trained five days a week with the Alpha Diving Club at the King County Aquatic Center. He competes in the club realm and also through USA Diving. Among his multitude of competitions, he dove at junior nationals last year in West Virginia.

After trying soccer, gymnastics and lacrosse, Carson latched onto the diving scene after watching the competitors make a splash at the 2016 Olympics.

“I thought it was so cool, and I thought that I would stick with it. And here I am,” he said.

Following the state competition, Carson and his MIHS swim and dive teammates celebrated by munching on takeout meals from Chipotle back home on the Island.

In state swimming, MIHS took fifth in the team standings and notched a plethora of top-eight finishes.

Freshman Luke Dunn placed third in both the 200 individual medley (1:52.17) and 500 freestyle (4:30.87); junior Ilan Gallot took fifth in the 100 breaststroke (57.84) and seventh in the 200 IM (1:55.41); the 200 medley relay (Dunn, Gallot, senior Ari Waingold and sophomore Alex Jack) took fourth in 1:37.52; the 200 free relay (freshman Zi Zi Song, senior Ron Rastorguev, Jack and senior Rhett Hounsell) took fifth in 1:28.21; and the 400 freestyle relay (Dunn, Song, Gallot and Rastorguev) notched sixth in 3:12.58.

“I couldn’t be prouder of these kids and what they’ve accomplished as a team this year,” said coach Tim Chung. “It wasn’t the finish we had hoped for or talked about all year, but we saw some incredibly fast swims throughout the season, with many best times and personal growth both in and out of the pool — not just from our postseason swimmers, but from everyone on the team.”

Chung said that he, Elysee Forester and Karl Maclane made the perfect coaching trio this season.

“I’m so grateful to have such fantastic assistant coaches by my side,” said Chung, who is a MIHS swimming alumni along with Maclane. Forester is a MIHS horticulture teacher.