Kendall Rummel had never competitively dived before her freshman year at Milwaukee’s Divine Savior Holy Angels High School.
Two years and a few months later, Rummel had the best day of her diving career in winning the WIAA Division 1 state individual diving title.
“Just that whole day was kind of a God moment,” the junior said of that day last fall. “I was just being watched over that day.”
“The Lord kind of decided it was Kendall’s day,” added her coach at DSHA, Caitlin Locante. “She always had it in her. She was always capable.”
Such a thought might have seemed incredible when Rummel, of West Bend, began her diving career after eighth grade. She had one advantage, however, with skills carrying over from a 10-year sport that she had to give up following a foot injury — gymnastics.
“One of my friends, Fynn Langley (the 2023 WIAA Division 1 diving state champion, from Germantown High School), was in diving — and gymnastics with me. She kind of told me about diving and I just thought it sounded interesting, so I joined,” she says.
Locante said that Rummel took her gymnastics skills and opened them to her coach’s new foundations in diving.
“She had the fearlessness, she had the motivation, and she had the ability and talent,” Locante said, and she put in the time.
Rummel finished sixth in her sophomore-year competition at the WIAA state championships. One week before the state meet in November, she finished second to Langley at the Greater Metro Conference championships.
The WIAA state championship meet followed seven days later, and it turned into the second-closest meet in Division 1 state competition in the last quarter-century.
“After eight dives, I and two other girls were at the same whole number, and it was just hundredths of a point that were (the margin of competition),” Rummel says. “That was really crazy.”
She followed her routine of eating a pair of peanut M&Ms, drinking water and singing a song before each dive — including the final dive of the competition.
“I was doing a back two-and-a-half twister,” she says. “I got up on the board and I kind of blacked out. I don’t really remember doing that dive, but I did it … I remember I got out of the water, and it was dead silent. Everybody was waiting for the scores.”
Those scores put her 4.1 points ahead of Langley in the final standings — making her a state champion.
“(God) helped me a bunch,” Rummel says. “He was always just guiding me along the way.”
Now, as she prepares for her senior season at DSHA, she sees how the school has brought her closer to God in countless ways.
“DSHA has grown me a lot closer in my faith. It’s taught me that God has a plan for everything,” Rummel says. “I shouldn’t stress too much about worrying about ‘How I can do this?’ or ‘How I can do that?’ Things will pan out. Everything has a plan.”
Rummel will pivot to a new coach with Locante moving away from Milwaukee.
“Kendall is a phenomenal athlete,” Locante says, but then pivoting to Rummel, “But as a person, Kendall, you are incredible to coach.”
There was yet another God moment in that exchange. All part of the plan.
Kendall Rummel captured the WIAA Division 1 diving title as a junior at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, Milwaukee, last fall. (Photo courtesy of DSHA and Visual Image Photography)
