Huron's Wasiniak wins NCAA Div. II diving title

Max Wasiniak was in first place heading into the final session at the NCAA Division II diving championships last month. The Wayne State University junior had to wait more than four hours to perform the final six dives that would determine his spot on the podium in the 1-meter competition. The finals couldn't come fast enough. "I was nervous as soon as I saw my name in first place (after the preliminary round). I was in a panic," Wasiniak said. "I got back to the room and didn't want to lay down because I felt like I would've fallen asleep and I didn't want to tense up my body. I stayed standing or sitting upright so my legs wouldn't get tired. "When we got into the van to go back to the pool I was shaking like crazy. I had my headphones on blasting music. My leg was bouncing; I was in my head." Wasiniak, a 2023 Huron graduate who was a two-time state diving champion for the Tigers, regrouped and let it rip on his way to winning a national championship at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Indiana, on March 11. He finished with 536.25 points — 5.25 better than the runner-up. On his last dive, Wasiniak scored 55 points with an inward 1 1/2 to clinch first place. "My second-to-last dive I hit really well," he said. "Then the guy who got second place absolutely smoked his last dive so I needed 50.15 to win. I'm really bad at inwards. It was a very low (degree of difficulty) dive. But I've gotten 50 before." Wasiniak was a bit concerned because he didn't hit the dive a month earlier at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet, which he still won. "I did really bad and got like 30 points on it," he said. "I was thinking, 'I need to do this like normal.' As soon as I hit the dive I got out and stared at the scoreboard. As soon as it hit I knew I won." In the stands, his parents — Rob and Erinn — were celebrating. "One of the videos I have on my Instagram, they were recording my inward 1 1/2," Wasiniak said. "My mom was panning over to the scoreboard to see if I won. They already started celebrating and she dropped her phone and you hear the stands go crazy. It's one of my favorite videos." Wasiniak, who placed fifth in the 1-meter finals in 2025, didn't do a ton of celebrating because he was looking ahead to the 3-meter event. He ended up placing third in the 3-meter finals, making him a six-time All-American. Wasiniak, who competed much of this season with tendinitis in both wrists, said it helped that his dives were more difficult this year. His hardest dive is a back 2 1/2, which has a 3.0 degree of difficulty. "My dives were a lot harder so I was able to score a lot more points," he said. "Just hitting them got me the points I needed." Wasiniak had to make it past "Black Tuesday" just to get into the preliminary round at nationals. That's the day when all divers perform their six hardest dives to set the field. "It's the worst day. I really didn't have a good meet on Black Tuesday, I got ninth on 1-meter and fifth on 3-meter," he said. "I was getting warmed up. I knew I had to hit my first dive. It's always the hardest." Wasiniak has always taken a daredevil approach to entering the water, which no doubt helps him when he's on the board. "When I was younger I used to throw myself off diving boards at Valley Beach (in Norwalk)," he said. "They had diving boards, rope swings, all of that. I loved going there. I loved the freefall and height." Wasiniak got into diving by following the lead of his older brother Nick. "I don't know why I stayed with it," he said. "The first day I smacked really hard and gave up." The "smack" is something all divers must experience. "Diving takes bravery, skill, dedication, consistency. You're gonna smack a lot and it's not gonna feel good," he said. "A couple of my teammates have had concussions this year. I've had shin splits and obviously my wrists. "Freshman year, I was on 3-meter doing a back 2 1/2. I opened up really early and just 'plank of wood' to my back, straight water. We call it 'bacon strips.' It's when your body changes colors in a certain pattern and it looks like bacon strips. That happened that day." This year, Wasiniak took a hard shot when a dive from 3 meters went wrong. "I was doing front 3 1/2 on 3-meter and I slipped out of my tuck and landed straight in a cannonball," he said. "That took me out for 30 minutes. I was sitting down until it stopped hurting." Wasiniak keeps coming back for more. He will graduate next year after studying marketing and cyber security at WSU, which is located in Detroit. After that, he will try to land a spot on the 2028 U.S. Olympic team. "It's a lot of work. I've gotta lock in and train a lot harder," he said. "My legs might be strong, but they need to be stronger. "As soon as I hit college I was thinking (the Olympics) would be really cool to put on my résumé."