Sports
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Friendly competition Athletes dive against club teammates
Emma Tomlinson tomliemm000@hsestudents.org
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ivers from FHS often cheer on divers from HSE and Carmel. This is because some divers from different high schools dive for the same club, the Fishers Dive Team. lubs exist for athletes who want to dive year round, instead of ust during high school season. It allows them more opportunities to compete and work on their skills. “ hen we go and compete against club teammates , we treat them like they are part of our team,” freshman retchen smun said. “ e cheer for them and support them ust like we would for any other diver on our team.” Instead of sitting exclusively with their teammates, the competing teams mingle during the meet. efore the teams begin diving, some HS athletes invite the opposing teams to pray with them. “I like how the team isn’t cra y competitive because I feel like it becomes more fun in a sense that you’re not only thinking about winning the whole time,” sophomore aul Kelly said. iving club is a gateway to diving in high school. smun began diving for the club in the summer of 2 1 after watching the lympics. reviously, she did gymnastics for 12 years, until she lost the love of the sport. fter watching the games, smun reali ed she wanted to try something new. Many divers begin with backgrounds in gymnastics and tumbling. This season is Kelly’s first year diving, but he has a background in tumbling and parkour. “My flipping background has helped me dive tremendously because I don’t have that fear of doing the flip or dive for the first time,” Kelly said. “The thing I struggle with the most is the diving form, since I learned how to do flips in a very different style.” racticing safely is a key factor in decreasing in uries. Stretching is essential to both diving and gymnastics, especially for progressing from position to position. ccording to the Seattle ive lub, having a flexible back is considered an asset in gymnastics but unsafe in diving, as it can lead to serious back and spinal in uries. “In gymnastics, the landing is always something you have to be careful about because landing wrong has a risk for broken bones,” smun said. “I think people assume that in diving we don’t have to worry about that because we aren’t landing on a hard surface, but smacking the water hurts and could make your skin bruise for weeks or bleed.” unior Morgan asey believes that this year’s workouts have built up their strength and flexibility so that dives are more clean and consistent. “ ur team looks stronger and more technical and cleaner than in years past,” asey said. “ lus, we have more people so that adds way more points in the ending score.” ccording to Kelly, at least one or two divers consistently place in the top three at meets. “ robably out of all three years I’ve been on the high school team, this year we’ve developed and improved the most with our skills,” unior atalie ryan said. The next girls meet is IHS regionals at ort ayne South Side High School on Feb. 11, and the boys sectionals is Feb. 22 at FHS.
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Junior Ethan Weiss does a back one and a half tuck into the water at a home meet against Carroll High School and Homestead High School on Jan. 24. The boys team beat Carroll 129-106 and Homestead 132-104. Photos by Emma Tomlinson.
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