New Trier’s Jessie Creed performs a dive at the state meet. The freshman placed third. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Jessie Creed, wearing a third-place medal and waiting to be photographed with 11 other medalists, held a bouquet of white roses in her right hand and her score sheet of dives in her left at the state swimming and diving meet at New Trier last weekend. She stood and stared at the numbers on the sheet for a good 20 seconds, her nose resting squarely on one of the roses during her pensive review.
The New Trier freshman got a good whiff and an eyeful, all at once, on Nov. 21.
“They smelled good,” the 5-foot-6 Creed, a Northfield resident and former resident of Southampton, England, said of the flowers she had received after climbing a start block to bow for a medal, a pair of prizes — one dainty and aromatic, the other hard — for her 11-dive score of 459.6 points. Naperville Central senior Sydney Dusel (490.6, fifth best in state meet history) finished first, Evanston freshman Lucy Hogan second (463.15).
Better than good were the two 9s Creed had earned on her ninth dive. Judges’ grades on some of her other dives caught her attention, made her pause.
“I was thinking, I can definitely do better, a couple of times, as I looked at my scores,” Creed, owner of the state’s best sectional score this fall (548.7 points), said.
Creed was not upset after her first state meet in front of a vocal contingent of Trevians fans, on deck and in the stands. Creed was not satisfied, a healthy reaction from an elite athlete who finished seventh in the 1-meter and seventh in the 3-meter in the 14-15 age division at USA Diving Nationals last summer.
“Jessie has a go-get-it attitude,” New Trier diving coach and former U.S. Olympic diver Bruce Kimball said. “She enjoys getting out there and performing. You saw her smiling on the board, as her teammates cheered for her before her dives. Today [Nov. 21, during the finals], when she was slightly off on a dive, it was because she went for it. That’s her attitude — go for it. I like that attitude; it’s the best. She stayed positive, kept fighting … qualities of a champion.”
Spectators saw more than Creed’s sheer talent off a board last weekend. They also watched her dance, hard and energetically, alongside senior teammate Sophie Conley in between dives, right there on the deck. Conley (10th place, 404.15 points) swayed and bobbed, too. Each wore headphones. Creed’s music: Christian pop. It relaxed her. It pumped her up.
The most grateful person in New Trier’s natatorium last weekend was Creed. Had to be Creed.
She thanked her parents, Terri and Rich, a swimmer, after posing for that photo with 11 other divers. She thanked and praised her coaches and teammates (especially Conley) and Grandma Mary from West Virginia and her grandparents in Idaho. Grandma Mary’s favorite saying is, “I can, and I will.” Creed remembers it, uses it, at meets.
“I’ve received so much support from so many people,” Creed said. “My Grandma Mary, my other relatives, they all pray for me before meets. I wouldn’t be able to do anything without the people I’m fortunate to have around me.”
Born in Washington state, Creed took her first plunge off a “little diving board” in her family’s backyard pool in The Evergreen State. It became her thing in no time. Her family moved to England when she was three and returned to the U.S. when she was eight. Creed worked with a Great Britain Olympic diving coach during her years in Southampton.
Kimball helped a pre-New Trier Creed hone her craft at a public pool in Wilmette. The Trevians’ diving coach also teaches yoga and self-defense. Breathing properly is critical in yoga. Breathing properly buoys divers. Kimball’s divers spend time on yoga mats throughout a season, their stationary springboards to higher scores.
Creed, a Windy City Diving club member, had quite a rookie season at the prep level, taking more than a few breaths away along the way. She set the freshman school records for six and 11 dives. She set the varsity school marks for six and 11 dives. She won the Central Suburban League South Meet. She won the Glenbrook North Sectional Meet, where she produced that resplendent score of 548.7. She bronzed at state.
New Trier placed fifth (81 points) at state, getting three other top-six efforts. The 400-yard freestyle relay of sophomore Sophia Girgenti, junior Lydia O’Connell, sophomore Vivian Wu and senior Julia Green finished fourth in 3:28.22. Trevians senior Emily George placed fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:0424), and Green touched sixth in the 200 free (1:50.82).
Green woke up on the second day of the meet thinking she’d swim in the 200 free and both freestyle relays. She had finished 13th in the 500 free (5:01.98) in the preliminaries on Nov. 20, one spot shy of a berth in the finals session. Green, on Nov. 21, overhead a conversation between a meet official and one of her coaches during the diving segment. The official informed the coach that Chatham Glenwood senior Alexis Preski would not race in the ‘A’ Final of the 500 free, giving Green — the next racer up — the green light to compete in the ‘B’ Final of the 500 free; Barrington sophomore Maggie Emary moved up to the ‘A’ heat.
“Excited,” Green said of her response to the news. “My distance coach [Josh Runkle] told me, as I prepared for the 500, ‘You’ll be fine; you’ve been doing this all year. Get up there and race.’ ”
Green got up there. Green raced. Green finished ninth in 5:02.21, good for four team points. Green, in the next event, then anchored the 200 free relay to a ninth-place showing (1:36.27), good for eight more team points. Girgenti, O’Connell and sophomore Olivia Lantry preceded Green in the relay.
NT’s 200 medley relay of junior Kathryn Tao, George, O’Connell and Girgenti connected for a ninth-place 1:46.22. O’Connell added 10th-place points in the 50 free (23.79), and NT junior Sara Nicholas finished 11th in the 100 breast (1:05.1).
“These girls, all of them, are great competitors,” Trevians coach Mac Guy said following the prelims on Nov. 20. “Getting all three of our relays [to the finals] … great. That was great to see.”
Jessie Creed and teammate Sophie Conley rock out at state meet. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER