Kelly Walsh diver Nick Stone has yet to find a true rival on the springboard, so his arch-nemesis is a dive: the back 1.5 pike.

At last year's state swimming and diving meet, Stone needed 23 points on the last dive to win. He chose the back 1.5 pike, a dive with a high amount of difficulty but one Stone was confident he could execute. He didn't. Laramie's Brock Weitzal won the closest diving competition in state finals history by 0.65 points.

On Friday at the Kelly Walsh High School Pool, in the middle of the Fish Bowl swim meet with Natrona County and Cheyenne East, the dive slapped Stone on the back again. He did it on the second dive this time, but the result was the same, and it was the only one of six dives he couldn't execute.

But Stone isn't too worried about it. He's got the whole season to perfect the dive, and besides, he still won Friday's diving competition. And there was another bonus for Stone: The Trojans handily won the Fish Bowl and look poised to make another run at the state title.

"In practice, I keep nailing that dive," Stone said. "Now it's just, 'do it right, stop messing around.' The motivation is that today, I missed the (pool) record because I didn't get the dive right. I've got to make sure I do it right tomorrow."

Six Kelly Walsh individuals won their events on Friday, and the Trojans took all three relays. East won the remaining three events. KW defeated East 110-76 and defeated NC 142-47.

Between the green-and-yellow lane markers, Kelly Walsh received sterling performances from sophomores David Schmitt and Ben Jensen, who had a "career day," according to KW head coach Dean Hawks. Schmitt won the 100-meter freestyle by almost 8 seconds, and swam the breakaway legs on all three relays.

"He can swim anything," Hawks said of Schmitt. "And he's smart to boot."

NC head coach Robert Johnson was pleased with how his team competed, even if the effort didn't show up in the final scores. He said only one Mustangs swimmer had competed before high school, and half the team is completely new this year. With all that in mind, he was satisfied with four top-three finishers.

"Those new guys, some of them are knocking huge amounts of time off," Johnson said.

But Stone was the story of the meet. Despite scoring all zeros on the second dive, he still won the competition by 133 points and shattered the state-qualifying mark by 50 points. The dives he attempted were all moderate to tough difficulty, and he executed most of them.

"He'll probably be an All-American this year," Hawks said of Stone. "And he might even challenge for the state record."

Stone fueled his fire with last year's close finish, and attended diving camps at Nebraska and Indiana over the summer. At Indiana, which has one of the most storied swimming and diving teams in the country, he honed his technique and is ready to use that to finally win a state title this year.

Indiana is also the new home of Alec Haley, the former KW standout who signed with the Hoosiers last year. In Haley's freshman season, Indiana is off to an impressive 7-2 start in dual-meet action. Haley's brother, Trevor, is a junior at Iowa.

Stone and Schmitt are part of the squad that needs to replace Haley's presence on the team this year, if KW wants to be successful at the state meet.

"We didn't swim particularly well tonight," Hawks said. "But the guys competed well. The effort was definitely there."

Sports reporter Peter Hockaday can be reached at (307) 266-0615 or peter.hockaday@casperstartribune.net