Leininger stars at sheep show, gets ready for diving at Franklin

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Gavin Leininger

Gavin Leininger spends much of his life trying to impress judges.

He tries to impress judges while showing sheep at the Fulton County 4-H Fair.

He also tries to impress judges as a member of the Tippecanoe Valley diving team.

He has more experience with the former than the latter. The former is the present. The latter is the future, as the 2026 Valley grad is bound to continue his diving and academic careers at Franklin College.

A 10-year member, Leininger capped his 4-H career by winning County Born and Raised, Champion Pair Market Lambs, Grand Champion and Reserve Grand for Market Lambs at the Fulton County 4-H Sheep Show Monday. He also got fourth overall for ewes.

“I feel really, really good,” Leininger said. “It’s my last year, so I wanted to go out with a bang.”

Leininger said it takes months of practice to prepare for the fair. He said he goes out with the sheep for a little less than two hours every night to work with them to get ready.

“It’s a little emotional,” Leininger said. “I can always come back and watch the shows, but I won’t be in the ring showing my expertise and my experience with the sheep. Other than that, I’m happy it’s over, but I will miss it.”

Leininger has also shown pigs in the past, but he stopped about four years ago. He said he just did not have the passion for pigs that he did for sheep.

He shows Dorsets, Hampshires and Southdowns.

“I’ve always had those three each year,” Leininger said. “It’s either a Southdown, a Hamp or a Dorset. I’d like to keep the trend going.”

While he has been in 4-H for 10 years, he just started diving at Valley in 2023 with some encouragement from his mother.

“So actually my mom was talked to by the head coach,” Leininger said. “He was short on the guys’ team. And my mom kind of signed me up. And I was like, ‘I am not going to swim. I will not swim.’ And so they had a dive team around the same time, and so I was asked to be a part of that. And I really enjoyed it my first year, so I kept with it. And now here I am.”

Leininger said he did some diving at his lake cottage when he was younger. Competitive diving was quite different.

“I always thought diving was simple, but when I got to the sport, my coach Gary Scacco, he was a very great teacher,” Leininger said. “I was kind of scared to learn new things at first, like somersaults and different kinds of flips and twists, and he really helped me overcome that fear.”

Leininger finished third at the Warsaw sectional in diving in February. That earned him a trip to Mishawaka for the regional.

Leininger was asked if a 4-H competition or a diving competition was more stressful. He said he has more responsibility for the sheep, but the mental part of diving is difficult.

“Mentally, the diving is probably more strenuous,” Leininger said. “Sheep, I know I work with them for months, but you kind of grow with them. I dove by myself for a long time.”

Leininger was asked to compare and contrast diving judges with 4-H judges.

“Something similar that they have is they’re always looking for something specific in, let’s say, the person or sheep that they’re judging,” Leininger said.

He also said that 4-H judges are more unpredictable than diving judges.

“They seem like they’re going to go pick one sheep, and then they go a completely different route,” Leininger said. “I’ve had that happen to me one year. I thought he was coming up to shake my hand, but he was coming to feel my sheep. And then walked over to someone else.

“Just a funny memory.”

Leininger said he wants to major in business at Franklin while minoring in either economics or psychology.

Leininger is the son of Greg and Megihann Leininger of Mentone.