STATE COLLEGE — Despite lettering three years in high school — including a third-place finish at the WPIAL meet — Butler graduate Meredith Harbison figured her diving career was over.

A concussion had seemingly put an end to it.

“My head hit the board while I was practicing for the Pitt Aquatic Club after my junior year,” Harbison said. “I still dove my senior year, but I was getting migraine headaches.

“I got some offers from some smaller schools, but decided to go to Penn State and just concentrate on academics.”

That changed when one of her teammates with the Pitt Aquatic Club discovered Harbison was coming to Penn State. He was a member of the Nittany Lions swimming and diving team.

He told the Penn State coach about Harbison’s diving exploits.

“Once I was on campus, the diving coach at the time — Craig Brown — asked me to join the team,” Harbison said. “I was hesitant at first, but they talked me into it.”

And she’s been progressing ever since.

Harbison posted the best score for the Nittany Lions in 1-meter diving last year at 277.28. Now a senior, she has the second highest score in 1-meter and 3-meter this year, trailing only MacKenzie Cornell.

For the second consecutive year, Harbison has qualified for the NCAA Zone Championships. From there, she could reach the NCAA Championships.

“My goal is to get there this year,” she said. “I want to do well at the Big Ten meet (Feb. 18-21 at Ohio State), too. I couldn’t compete there last season because I hurt my back.”

It took a while for Harbison to get completely healthy. She suffered through headaches her senior year in high school and freshman year at Penn State.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she admitted. “I love diving, so I pushed those headaches aside and competed.”

Following her collegiate freshman year, Harbison visited UPMC and was diagnosed with post concussion syndrome. She took some time off, did some rehab — then endured a second concussion while sled riding during her sophomore year.

After taking most of that (sophomore) season off, she’s been fine ever since.

“I couldn’t give it up,” Harbison said of diving. “You can’t let anything stop you from doing what you love to do.”

A 2011 Butler graduate, Harbison still holds the Golden Tornado’s school record of 265 for a cumulative diving score.

“I’m not at all surprised by the success she’s having in college,” Butler diving coach Ken Bedford said. “Meredith has always been very determined and dedicated to the sport.

“Her work ethic is unbelievable.”

Harbison grew up as a gymnast, training at Steve Heasley’s facility in Butler for years. She reached Level 9 in the sport before giving it up.

“I literally grew out of that,” she said. “I got to be 5-foot-7 and gymnasts going to states were 5-2 or smaller. I wasn’t going to get any better at it.

“The transition to diving seemed a natural for me.”

It also gave her a head start.

“Gymnasts already have the body tone and they’re accustomed to the twisting and turning that goes with diving,” Bedford said. “Much of the discipline is the same.”

Penn State diving coach Dennis Ceppa is in his second year with the team and is training Olympic hopeful Amanda Burke, a volunteer assistant with the Nittany Lions.

Harbison said she’s learned from Burke as well as Ceppa.

An accounting major, Harbison will graduate this spring and has already been hired by a company in Pittsburgh this fall. Her diving career will thus end this season.

“I’m glad I stayed with it,” she said. “The adrenalin rush I get when I’m in the air executing a dive ... It’s something I can’t explain.”