Divers Are No Joke

By Erin Colton

This past weekend I attended the American East Swimming and Diving Championships in Boston. Our local Stony Brook Seawolves compete in that conference, so I figured I'd widen my sports knowledge and attend an event I'd never been to.

If you didn't know, a diving meet is the same thing as a swimming meet. They go hand and hand. You see some diving.  Then the divers stop and then there's some swimming races.  Then the divers go back on. And by going to the meets, I've learned some of the cliches linked to divers.

Some people say a swimming/diving meet is like a hockey game -- the swimmers are the hockey players and the divers are the figure skaters brought on the ice for entertainment. Other people say the divers are the half-time entertainment. (These are, of course, swimmers talking.) And while diving is entertainment, it's also tough competition.

I get it. Divers are known to be graceful. Their workouts consist of doing flips, twists and turns. While swimmers are doing lap after lap in the pool, divers are jumping up and down on the trampoline. But I have to say, from what I witnessed this weekend -- divers are the tougher athletes.

One of Stony Brook's woman divers was doing an inward one and a half dive (I totally know my stuff now) and hit her head on the board on the way down. She was rushed to the ER in Boston and had to get 6 staples across her head. The year before that, TWO Stony Brook divers hit the board and also had to spend the weekend in the hospital. 

And just minutes after seeing her teammate hit the board, another Lady Seawolf had to do the same exact dive! I didn't know who was more scared -- her or I.

So here's a little message to everyone who thinks divers aren't tough. Think again. YOU try stepping out on that board!

By the way, the Men's Swimming and Diving team Finished Fourth in the Conference. The only men's diver finished 2nd on the 1 meter board and 3rd on the 3 meter board. (The 1 meter is the smaller one, 3 is the larger.)  Women's finished Fifth.

Good Job Stony Brook!