With no board for practice, Poplar Bluff's divers have had to do more with less time.
Paige Bradley and Peyton Moore traveled to Cape Girardeau, Missouri to get 90 minutes of practice time for between one to three days a week this season as they attempted to master their pikes, twists and flips.
Both will be competing at the 43rd annual MSHSAA championships Saturday as Poplar Bluff's first state qualifiers.
"I think we do pretty good for what (practice time) we get per week," said Bradley, who set a conference record in winning the event last week.
Poplar Bluff is one of five schools with multiple divers in the Class 2 field of 32 which will compete at the St. Peters Rec Plex.
The pair have come a long way in a short amount of time. Bradley, a sophomore, is in her second season diving while Moore decided to give it a try for the first time this winter.
"I didn't know if I would like it and didn't know if I wanted to give up my time for it," said Moore, a junior who is also a cheerleader.
It's a 169-mile round trip from Poplar Bluff to practice at the Central Municipal Pool in Cape Girardeau. Poplar Bluff coach Beth Lewis-Muse estimated the divers have traveled over 5,000 miles this season for practices and meets.
"Before, we could only practice when I could get over there," Lewis-Muse said.
This season Bradley's father, Shannon, was able to become a volunteer coach for the team and take the divers while Lewis-Muse ran the swim practices at the Black River Coliseum.
Bradley said she and Moore work well together and try to squeeze in as much practice as possible in the time they have at the pool.
"It helps me really take advantage of those practices because I don't get to every day," Moore said of the limited practice time.
Even without a diving board in Poplar Bluff, the Mules have had a handful of divers in the past.
Senior diver Kaylee Harris suffered an injury and did not compete at the conference meet. She had previously set the six-dive team record in 2016.
Mallory Dye's score of 232.45 points at the 2015 conference meet set the 11-dive record for the Mules. Bradley eclipsed that for the first time last season and scored 349.2 at the conference meet.
This year, Bradley qualified for state with a 271.45 on Feb. 1 then scored a conference-record 415.4 to win the event.
Moore scored 366.95 at the conference meet to place third, falling just 18.05 points short of an automatic state cut. She learned that she was one of 32 divers Thursday.
"I was really surprised and really excited at the same time," Moore said. "It didn't really seem real. I just started this year."
Bradley first dove into the sport prior to her freshman year when she attended a camp, learning the basics.
Both divers came with a long history in gymnastics. Moore said that background helped with the flips but learning the approach on the board and how to get the maximum height off of it was the hard part.
"You have to find the sweet spot on the forward approach and the back approach," Moore said of utilizing the spring board.
A forward dive features an approach with at least three steps, a "hurdle" in which one leg lifts to right angles at the hip and knee, before planting into a takeoff at the end. A back-facing dive starts at the end of the board, which springs the diver into a back or inward dive.
The diver must complete certain moves such as a pike, tuck, flips or twists before entering the water in a vertical position. A splashless entry into the water, or a rip entry, scores the most points but the takeoff and maneuvers are just as important to the overall score.
"You want to complete the dive fully, straight up and down and enter the water cleanly," Bradley said. "That's why height is very important."
Judges score a dive on a 1-10 scale and take into account the difficulty of the dive attempt.
"It's a horrible math problem," Lewis-Muse said of coming up with a dive sheet. "It's one of those things when you're sitting in math class in junior high and it's a word problem that's how many combinations can you make out of these objects.
"You say you're never going to have to use this in life. Dive sheets, that's where it comes in at."
Lewis-Muse said having the ability to do more than two dives in a particular group has helped reinvent the dive sheet each meet.
Moore said adding a reverse 1 1/2-flip dive was the difference in her making state.
"Every time I would get around, I would open too soon so I would flat on my back every time," Moore said. "I finally got the timing down."
Bradley and Moore will get five dives each before the field is cut down to the top 20 scores. There's another cut after eight dives to the top 16 scores before the final three dives.
Last year the winning score was 451.05 with only three divers finishing above 400.
Bradley is one of 12 underclassmen in the field and will be the sixth to dive while Moore will dive in the middle of the group.
Bradley will also swim Friday in the preliminary heat of the 200-yard medley and 400-freestyle relays. She said the moments before a dive are more stressful than prior to swimming.
"You only have one chance (to dive)," Bradley said.
Bradley's trip to swim a pair of relays at the state meet last year set the tone for this season.
"She's so goal-oriented," Lewis-Muse said. "She knew last year this time she wanted to make it to state meet for diving this year."