Kluth dives onto USD swim team

COLUMBUS - School size and proximity was enough to sell Emilie Kluth on the University of South Dakota.

The Columbus High senior diver signed a national letter of intent recently to attend the Vermillion, S.D., school and join the Coyotes swimming and diving team.

South Dakota is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II school and a member of the North Central Conference.

Kluth said she selected South Dakota over Gustavus Adophus College, an NCAA Division III school in St. Peter, Minn.

"I stayed with a girl on the swim team at both colleges, and I just felt more at home (at South Dakota)," Kluth said. "It's closer to home, which was important, and I also like that it's a middle-sized school. There's not a ton of kids there, but there's not 2,000 either. There's a good amount of students."

Kluth, who qualified for the state diving competition twice during her high school career, finished 12th at the state meet in February. She came up with clutch dives to survive two cuts during the competition, reaching the finals.

She finished the state meet with a score of 324.65. It was there that she met the person who would eventually become her college coach, USD coach Ron Allen.

"I was surprised that he would want to talk to me," Kluth said.

Kluth also won the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference diving competition as a junior and took third in the conference meet as a senior. She set the school diving record of 358.95 during a triangular meet with Norfolk and Fremont at the Norfolk YMCA on Jan. 13.

Kluth was one of five girls signed by USD recently and one of two divers. Jill Smolczyk of Omaha Marian also signed with South Dakota.

Others signing with the USD women's swimming and diving team are Leita Rolfe and Jenny Kohlbrand of Newcastle, Wyo., and Megan Gordon of Grand Rapids, Minn.

The Coyotes lose one of their two divers in senior Lindsey Schafer, an Academic All-American who holds the USD school record in three-meter diving (six dives for 263.25 points) and has the highest score in one-meter diving in school history at 269.70.

USD lists one returning diver in Amy Eskelsen, a junior-to-be from Everett, Wash.

Kluth is uncertain about her major, but she hopes to minor in Spanish.

Besides diving, Kluth was also a standout track and field athlete during her high school athletic career. She placed fifth in the Class A girls 400-meter dash at last year's State Track and Field Meet.