Nathan Makarewicz could be entering some elite territory on Thursday.

The West junior is eyeing his third consecutive state diving title, and so far this season, he's proven he can win it. But he's not without competition - rival diver Trayton Speth of Jordan will be gunning to play spoiler in his senior year.

"Trayton has won one or two, and I've won three or four," Makarewicz says. "Diving is such a small sport, we've gotten to know each other pretty well. Sure, people expect me to win, but there's a lot of pressure."

There will be other divers in the field, but expect the battle to come down to those two at BYU. Makarewicz won it all last year over Speth's fellow Beetdigger Jordan Tuckfield, while Speth came in third.

The competitors will vault themselves from a one-meter high board and perform eleven dives. Makarewicz says he's pretty confident about his most difficult moves: a backflip with two and a half rotations, and a one-and-a-half backflip with two and a half twists.

"I haven't had too much trouble with those," he says. "I'm feeling good about the season, but it's definitely not certain. Something could go wrong, and Trayton is good enough to beat me."

On the girls' side, Elaina Thomas will be looking to defend her state title that she won her freshman year. In the 2011 final, it was a much tighter grouping at the top - it remains to be seen whether Thomas can stay on her path to becoming a potential four-time champ.

- Kyle Goon
kgoon@sltrib.com
Twitter: @kylegoon