Huron High School diver Elena Ghormley has spent her entire life in the Ann Arbor area and, like many high school seniors, she figured she would be moving away from her family for college in the fall.

Those plans changed when the University of Michigan women’s swimming and diving team showed interest in having her join their team next fall. On Thursday, Ghormley signed her letter of intent to stay close to home.

“It was a relief,” said Ghormley. “I was super stressed out, but it was exciting.”

The excitement came from not only attending a good school, but her family will be able to attend her meets.

“My grandparents were definitely excited,” she said.

Huron High School diver Elena Ghormley competes at the Division 1 state championships in November. Ghormley will dive for the University of Michigan next season.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

The fact that she ended up at Michigan was a surprise to Ghormley, who didn’t think she was even going to continue diving after high school. After being encouraged by her coaches at Huron and the Legacy Diving Program at Eastern Michigan University, Ghormley began looking into making the jump to collegiate diving.

“It’s a sport she really loves and I’m really happy for her. I wish her nothing but the best,” said Brad Huttenga, diving coach at Huron.

Ghormley began diving when she was 13 after a broken leg forced her to stop competing in gymnastics. She transferred to Huron from Skyline High School this past year because she wanted to take classes not offered at Skyline. She finished ninth at the MHSAA Division 1 state finals in November.

She was shocked, however, when she got a call from Michigan diving head coach KZ Li asking if she was interested in attending Michigan.

“I was like ‘Wow!’ a coach had never called me before. I always had to call them,” said Ghormley.

Soon after, she made the decision to stay close to home and join the Maize and Blue.

Now that she has committed to Michigan, Ghormley believes she can continue to grow as a diver and help make an impact on the team.

Li agrees with her saying it’s a matter of how she works at improving.

“She has a lot of room to improve. It's not going to be easy, but it’s doable,” Li said. “She has the talent and she knows how hard she has to work for it.”

Luckily for Ghormely, there will be a few familiar faces on the team to help make the adjustment as former Pioneer High School swimmers Val Barthelemy and Ashley Cohagen will be seniors on the squad next season. Something that Li thinks will be a big difference for Ghormley.

“I think it’s good that she knows people around here. She’ll be comfortable,” Li said, adding that the upperclassmen can also help her with things coaches may not be able to.

Having spent her life surrounded by the maize and blue block ‘M’ Ghormley is proud to be joining not just the Wolverines, but the conference as well.

“It’s cool to say ‘I’m a Big Ten athlete,’” she said.

Matt Durr covers sports for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at matthewdurr@annarbor.com.