Albino ready for one last plunge at state

NEW BERLIN – Dailey Albino is on the verge of wrapping up her days of competitive diving and it is getting to her more than she thought.

“I’m starting to realize now at the end of the season that I’ll actually miss it,” the New Berlin West senior said. “In the beginning I was ready for this season to come and go, so I could focus on pole vault, but now I’m holding on to it because I know I’m going to miss it.” Albino is a rarity.

Being an all-state performer and state champion in one individual sport is hard enough. Albino has a chance to do it in two disciplines.

A three-time state qualifier in track, she won the Division 1 title in the pole vault last spring. Friday she’ll make her fourth appearance in the diving competition at the state meet, one last chance to become a two-sport champion.

Albino is the No. 2 seed in the event, which is scheduled for Friday afternoon at the UW Natatorium in Madison. She took sixth as a freshman, second as a sophomore and third as a junior. Her scores rose each year, though, going from 385.05 to 458.70 last season.

To win this year, likely will mean that she’ll have to outperform what has been her top score this season to date, 436.25. Albino and Monona Grove’s Nikki Benedict have waged friendly battles over the years as they’ve climbed the ranks in Division 2. Freshman year Benedict took fourth (395.16) and Albino sixth. The next year Albino jumped to second place about 10 points ahead of Benedict, and last year Benedict took second, about 20 points ahead of Albino.

Wherever Albino finishes this year, the performance will cap a season that has been more challenging than her others. Pole vault took up her time in the off-season and she came into the season rusty. And during the season, she missed time due to recruiting.

She has managed to add two new dives, though, including one she hopes to use at state.

“It’s more about the consistency of them and I’m still working on that,” she said about the new dives. “I’m really crunching it into the last week of trying get them as good as they can be.”

Then it will be back to the pole vault at Wisconsin next year.