First-year divers flip, twist, and plunge downward--to success

February 13, 2004
by Ali Seger
Staff Reporter

“You’re flipping and twisting so fast, and there is always that fear that you’ll hit the board instead of the water,” said diver Lindsay Brown, Commerce first-year.

Brown is just one of Albion’s women divers who has overcome such fears to master the art of competitive diving. Throughout the season Brown has finished in first place at many meets, closely followed by fellow diver Katie Lich, Grand Rapids first-year.

At a swimming and diving dual meet there are 13 total events: 11 swimming and 2 diving. It would seem that two events couldn’t have much of an impact on the final score, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Our women divers have helped us to win several meets, including the St. Mary’s, Kalamazoo, Olivet and Alma meets,” said Albion head coach Keith Havens. “They have consistently outscored the women divers from the other teams to help us earn much-needed points.”

In November, the Albion women defeated St. Mary’s College by a margin of 22 points. Brown, Lich and fellow diver Jennifer Smith, Ann Arbor first-year, earned a combined 23 points.

While this is their first year diving at the college level, both Brown and Lich have previous diving experience. Lich has been diving since 7th grade and Brown since 10th grade. However, it is their gymnastics background that has been key to their diving success.

“I’ve been in gymnastics since I was five years old,” Lich said. “That experience has really helped with all the flipping and twisting that is required as a diver.”

Brown’s performance in the pool has also benefited from her gymnastics background. “I’m experienced with being able to tell where I am in the air and that is essential to getting off a good dive.”

All the prior experience in the world couldn’t prepare them for the new diving event introduced at the collegiate level: the 3-meter dive.

“It took me a while to even be able to go off of that board, let alone to start flipping that high above the water,” Brown said. “I don’t like heights to begin with, but I’m a lot more comfortable now. That is, until I have to try a new dive off of it.”

Both Lich and Brown came into the season without much of an idea as to what their competition would be like. They both set goals for achieving individual best scores, without much thought about placing in competitive events.

“I really just wanted to improve on my personal best scores from high school,” Lich said. “Our coach is really good and he’s helped me to reach that goal.”

Brown wasn’t sure what her competition would be like, but knew that she wanted to improve her individual performance. “Basically, I have done that by getting a lot more consistent, thanks to having a longer season than we did in high school.”

Now that the season is nearing its conclusion, Lich and Brown have had the opportunity to dive against all of their Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) rivals and have redefinetd their goals based on their collegiate experience.

“My goals are really straightforward. Based on how well I have done all season, I want to get top two on both of the boards,” Brown said.

Brown said that she’s aiming for a top-six performance in the 1-meter, and added, “Hopefully I will do just as well on the 3-meter.”

According to the MIAA rankings posted on the Internet by coaches, heading into next weekend’s league championship meet Brown is tied for first in the 1-meter with Olivet’s Kristin Bloomquist. She is ranked fifth in the 3-meter. Lich is 9th in the 1-meter and 13th in the 3-meter.

Dual meets for the team have ended and the divers are now focused on practicing for MIAAs. The format of the meet is different than that of dual meets. Instead of performing 6 dives, each diver will complete 11 from each board. The divers and coach are confident that they are ready to finish the season on a high note.

“They have worked hard all season and we expect great things from them at MIAAs,” Havens said.