East Ridge girls swimming & diving: Karrow earns All-American honors

A standout diver for East Ridge High School each fall, Jenna Karrow also makes waves during the summer.

East Ridge’s first-ever state champion, Karrow, who will be a senior this year, earned All-American honors for a third consecutive season as announced by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association last week.

“It was definitely my goal to get All-American,” Karrow said. “It was nice to find that out.”

All-American honored divers represent the top 100 divers and the top 1 percent of all high school divers in the United States who compete in high school competition while in grades 9-12. According to the NISC, the selection process involves reviewing submitted applications and videos of competition footage, scoring that competition, and then ranking each of the divers. A committee of up to 20 former divers and coaches reviews the footage, and like actual meets, score the divers over a three-day period.

A diver since seventh grade, Karrow was the Class AA Minnesota State diving champion in 2010 when she was a sophomore. She finished second in the state as a junior in 2011. Karrow was one of only two divers from the state of Minnesota – the other was Forest Lake 2012 graduate Allie Bey – to be named an All-American diver by the NISCA. Kassidy Cook, out of The Woodlands High School in Texas was selected as the NISCA national champion.

Karrow’s coach her sophomore year was Natalie Bonfig and Drew Brown was her coach this past high school season. Karrow also dives year-round for the Minnesota Diving Academy, which operates out of

the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center and is owned by Wenbo Chen - the current head diving coach at the University of Minnesota and former Olympic and Team USA diving coach. There she is coached by Brandon Blaisdell and Mike Hilber.

“We definitely train a lot more during the summer,” Karrow said.

Karrow will re-join her East Ridge teammates when the season starts in mid-August for one last run at another state title. After that, she said she hopes to dive in college.

“I don’t really feel like a senior yet, because it went so fast,” Karrow said. “For now I’m just enjoying the summer.”

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