ELWOOD, Ind. — Two days after Mary Beth Dunnichay won her first state diving title, a photographer asked her to cross her arms and “look tough.”

She quickly complied with the first half of the request, but the second was a bit of a stretch.

“I can’t not smile,” she said, proving her point even as the words tumbled from her mouth.

That smile easily could have faded during the past five months.

Dunnichay, who will turn 18 on Friday, has been diving competitively for more than half her life.

But when she decided to compete for Elwood during her senior year, she embarked on a thankless journey that seemed to critics to be a no-win scenario.

An Olympian in 2008 and FINA World Championships silver medalist in 2009, anything short of a state championship wasn’t going to be good enough.

She faced a trial by fire unlike any in her decorated career, but she came through with her trademark smile intact.

And she’s been named The Herald Bulletin’s 2011 Girls Swimming and Diving Player of the Year.

Dunnichay’s state finals score of 544.05 points was nearly 40 points better than the record established by West Lafayette Harrison’s Kelci Bryant in 2005 and 106 points ahead of everyone else in the 32-diver field.

Dunnichay and Bryant were Olympic teammates and have become close friends. A springboard specialist, Bryant won the 3-meter title at the USA Diving Winter National Championships earlier this month in Iowa City.

Dunnichay teamed with Ohio State’s Katie Bell to win the 10-meter women’s synchronized competition at the same event.

It had been nearly five months since she’d competed on the springboard when Elwood’s regular season began in October, but Dunnichay set breaking Bryant’s record as her goal from the start.

After she accomplished her mission, Bryant was among the first people she called.

“It kind of was (a surprise to break the record),” Dunnichay said. “She’s a springboard specialist. That’s all she does. She doesn’t do any tower. So it means a little more because I beat Kelci.”

Asked how Bryant reacted to the news, Dunnichay’s face lit up.

“She was really happy for me,” she said.

Dunnichay ranks her state championship performance in Indianapolis among the top five of her career, conceding it might even break into the top 3.

The silver medal at the world championships is definitely No. 1, and she said her fifth-place finish with Haley Ishimatsu in the Olympic synchronized event is probably No. 2.

Certainly, the state finals held as much meaning as any meet in Dunnichay’s past.

Her brother Caleb won the state diving title for Elwood in 2004, and Mary Beth was “discovered” while tagging along with him as he trained throughout his youth career.

By age 9, she was working out at the prestigious Indianapolis-based Starz Diving Club.

By 15, she was working under USA Diving National Training Center director John Wingfield and was the youngest U.S. Olympian in Beijing. She’s been competing internationally ever since and rarely has performed in front of family and friends.

But her hometown always has remained important to her.

She served as a cheerleader during her brother Jacob’s senior year as a football, basketball and baseball star for the Panthers in 2008-09.

“I knew I was going to be at every one of Jacob’s games anyway,” she said. “So I thought, ‘Why not?’ I’ve always liked cheerleading since I was little. I remember being a cheerleader every year for Halloween.”

The thought of diving for Elwood had crossed her mind even before cheerleading. But the timing never was right.

As a freshman, she was preparing for the Olympics. As a sophomore, it was the world championships.

Last year was filled with more international competition and hindered by a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery.

This year, however, she was determined to let nothing stand in her way.

“I was doing it for my school and the community,” she said. “And to be with my friends.”

She even swam on a couple of relay teams before the pain in her shoulder became too much to take.

She worked overtime in practice all season, lengthening her sessions by an hour-and-a-half to accomodate springboard work into her regular platform routine. While her Elwood teammates were celebrating Christmas break, Dunnichay was hard at work with Wingfield.

The extra effort paid off.

During a seven-day period that ended with the state finals, Dunnichay won four championships.

It started with the sectional at Hamilton Southeastern. The national title in Iowa City followed a day later, and two days after that she won the diving regional at Fishers.

She then had three days to prepare for the state finals, taping and managing her recovering shoulder through it all.

In Indianapolis, she dived in front of a crowd of some 2,000 screaming and cheering fans.

“With a crowd like this, this is one of the larger crowds she’ll see until she gets to London (for the 2012 Olympics),” Wingfield said immediately after Dunnichay’s performance at IUPUI. “And the Natatorium is one of the greatest venues in the world. This is a great experience for her.”

Many of her Elwood teammates were at the state finals, wearing black t-shirts that read I (heart) MB.

“Everyone there supports her,” Panthers coach Tammy Harris said. “We knew from the beginning this is where she’d end up.”

Dunnichay said the pressure at the state finals was tremendous.

Diving in front of family and friends was more difficult than she’d expected.

“There was more pressure at state (than in the Olympics), in a way,” she said. “‘What if she doesn’t win? She’s an Olympian.’”

In the end, Dunnichay silenced all the questions.

Her dives were technical masterpieces, and she lapped the competition during her 11-dive list.

When she stood atop the podium, a gold medal forged into the shape of Indiana was placed around her neck. It didn’t look as impressive as the shiny round medallions she’s received at national and international meets.

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

This medal represented the hard work and determination of an entire school year. It represented the hopes and dreams of a community. It represented a well-deserved reward for taking a risk few would ever have attempted.

But, most of all, it represented a job well done.

And this time her friends and family were there every step of the way.

“I can’t say it means more than the Olympics or more than the national championships,” Dunnichay said. “But, to me, it is.”