Sports Spotlight
First-year diver breaks eardrum—as well as record
Fradeneck battles injury, odds to set Albion high mark and make national meet

March 19, 2004
by Mike Moore
Staff Reporter

Freshman year is generally a year of firsts, especially in collegiate athletics. For Dan Fradeneck, Eastpointe first-year, his first season on the Albion College swimming and diving team has been one to remember.

Fradeneck dominated throughout the regular season, breaking the will of competitors in addition to the Albion school record in the 3-meter dive. He continued his success at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) championships Feb. 19-21.

Finishing second at the MIAA competition was just the beginning for Fradeneck. He earned all-MIAA honors and qualified for the NCAA national competition in which he is diving this weekend.

“To be honest, I was surprised,” Fradeneck said of his success. “I really did not expect to go this far.”

Swimmers and divers can qualify for nationals at any point during the season, or at the MIAA meet by obtaining a certain score. Fradeneck qualified during the regular season and at the championship meet.

While he may have been surprised with his own success, diving coach Terry Howard said Fradeneck owes most of his good fortune to his work ethic.

“Dan works harder than anyone on the team,” Howard said. “By the end of the season his teammates were catching on to this work ethic, and that made my job as a coach much easier.”

What many people don’t know, or simply overlook about Fradeneck’s season, is that he broke more then just school records.

At one point, Fradeneck broke one of his eardrums.

“Dan was shattered when he broke his eardrum,” Howard said. “For a while we thought his season was over, but to his credit he never showed any negative emotion. Throughout the whole process he still came to practice every day. About a week after he hurt the eardrum we learned he would be able to dive again, and that was such a relief.”

Fradeneck now has to use special earplugs and duct tape to keep his ear safe from further injury.

“I was off the board for about a week and a half,” Fradeneck said. “Even now that it is mostly healed, it is still a big process for me to get into the water.”

A process he is willing to attend to.

As he prepared for nationals, Fradeneck wasn’t really worried about what place he would finish.

“I will try to do my best, wherever I place is fine,” Fradeneck said. “I don’t know, doing my best is all I really can do.”

So far in his young Albion career, Fradeneck’s best has been just fine.