Ithaca’s Payne breaks Section IV record

Kailee Payne has been a force in Section IV diving ever since seventh grade when she won the Class B Championship for Owego Free Academy. She then moved to Ithaca, where she had been training up to that point, before her junior year and has won the Class A Championship the past two seasons.

This year, she did it in spectacular fashion, setting a Section IV record with a score of 539.10. The previous record of 532.00 had stood for 12 years until last week. The goal of setting records was present all along this year for Payne, but she couldn’t ignore the uncertainty of performing during a pandemic.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Payne said. “I wasn’t sure how the officials would do because I know they had time off. I didn’t know if the rules had changed. I didn’t know what my competitors would look like. The big thing was everyone’s training totally got all mixed up and all messed up. Some people weren’t at the normal pools and other people had different coaches. So, this year was really just a year of having fun and saying, ‘let’s just go with the flow of things.’”

She is one of the athletes whose training was altered due to the pandemic, forcing her to make the most of a less optimal scenario than she’s used to.

“Normally, I’m practicing up at Ithaca College with the college coach there, and that was a fantastic facility,” Payne said. “But unfortunately, I lost all of that, so [there were] a lot of at-home practices. Thankfully, we were at the swim clubs. We did get to do some outside diving. The boards weren’t great, and that’s a huge thing that I think hurt me personally was that the boards weren’t great. I still had a great coach and I still had great teammates.”

The boards may have slowed her down, but Payne still improved greatly over the past year, as evidenced by her record-setting dive last week.

“Personally, I will admit I’ve been surprised with the progress I have made this year,” Payne said. “I haven’t added any new dives to my list, but that definitely doesn’t always mean that you haven’t progressed. I think this year, I have grown so much more consistent with my dive. I think my progress has definitely increased with my consistency.”

School records, pool records and now a Section IV record have all come to Payne this year. Her legacy, though, goes beyond the numbers that are attached to her name.

“It’s really important to me to leave behind these great records but also leave behind the impression of the person and the athlete I am,” Payne said. “I go on the deck and I tell the divers, ‘hey, if you’re stressed, do the macarena on the pool deck,’ and leave everyone with a smile. So yes, the awesome records, I’m so grateful for them, but also I want to leave the divers with something to hold on to, and that’s just have fun at meets.”

The love she has for diving has led to friendships and bonds with athletes outside of her immediate teammates. It’s at the point where she doesn’t view the people she’s diving against as opponents.

“The [amount of] divers I’ve competed against in this area around here is relatively small, so you see a lot of the same divers a lot,” Payne said. “They’re not even your competitors at this point. They’re your friends. They’re teammates who practice at other pools. That’s the best thing to me is that you’re not competing against competitors — you’re competing against teammates, even if they’re not actually your teammates. That’s probably one of my favorite memories is the friendships.”

Payne grew up swimming and participating in gymnastics, which helped her adapt to diving quickly. She was introduced to the sport after meeting with a diving coach to see if she’d enjoy it.

“I used to be a gymnast, so I had a little bit of that background left in me when I originally came to swimming,” Payne said. “My swim coach, he pulled me aside and he said one day, ‘hey, we have a diving coach coming to town. Are you interested in going to some of her clinics?’ And I said, ‘yeah, that sounds amazing.’ I quickly grew really close with that diving coach and I came to town.”

From there, she’s grown into a Division I talent. Payne will be heading south to dive for Marshall University in West Virginia in the fall and hopes to continue expanding her skill set. For example, she plans on trying platform diving for the first time after using a springboard throughout her varsity career.

“I hope this means that I will be given opportunities that I haven’t had before,” Payne said. “I hope to work with coaches who have the right mind with these crazy, strange, but really helpful tips for diving. I hope to meet these athletes who have met all sorts of people. I hope to learn from them and learn about their experience. I hope all of these can help me be the best diver and the best athlete that I can be.”

Payne’s diving journey began with a strong connection to a coach, and she felt that again during her college search, leading her to Marshall.

“In my recruiting process, I reached out to the coach, Megan Siford, at Marshall University, and she seemed to have such a fun attitude,” Payne said. “She seemed so bright and optimistic. I reached out to some of the divers, and they seem to have so much fun. But Marshall University, I immediately picked up that it was such a family-based community, and that’s so important to me. I want to feel like I’m at home even nine hours away from my actual home.”

Payne will be leaving the Ithaca area but believes that it is a perfect place for those who want to take up swimming and diving. Citing her own experience, she traveled from Owego to Ithaca for training regularly before moving to the area, which indicates how valuable that was to her growth.