McCook's Matt Hall breaks school record for third straight meet

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette McCook High School sophomore Matt Hall dives into the pool during a December home meet for the Bison. Hall set a school record for 11 dives at a meet in Lincoln Jan. 13.

LINCOLN -- For the third meet in a row, sophomore Matt Hall breaks a school record.

At the Cotter Invitational at Lincoln High Jan. 13, Hall placed first among 13 divers with a score of 325.05.

The score beats the 11-dive school record held by Rick Filon 2002-2003 by 5 points.

Hall took the lead early in the meet and kept it through every rotation.

The closest diver was Lane Kahler of Lincoln High who had a score of 256.45.

Most divers throw their best dives in the first six dives.

"Matt still had some of his best dives to go after other divers had thrown their best," said coach Jim Brandt, a volunteer coach who donates his time to coaching diving for McCook High School.

"We really appreciate having such a high caliber diving coach here at McCook," said McCook High School swim coach Lori Jumps.

Seniors Alyssa Cook and Rebecca Rawlings finished 5th and 8th respectively with scores of 255.30 and 216.10.

Both divers improve their scores every week.

"Our goal is to qualify all of our divers for state," Brandt said. "They will have several opportunities to qualify for state. Divers have six more meets in which to qualify."

Two of the meets are diving only.

They are the Lincoln High Invite on Jan. 28 and the Kearney Diving Invite on Feb. 4.

Bison swimmers will compete at the Twin Cities Invite in Scottsbluff this weekend. Divers will compete Friday and swimmers on Saturday.