They use a trampoline, a tumbling mat and a harness system to practice. They aren’t gymnasts, although some of them used to be; they are the divers on Kansas’ swimming and diving team. Yes, they spend a lot of time jumping into the pool but that’s not all there is to it.

The Gymnast Turned Diver

Junior Meghan Proehl was a gymnast for twelve years before she started diving. After spraining some of the vertebrae in her neck when she was a freshman in high school, she turned to diving as an alternative.

Proehl said that being a gymnast made the transition to diving easier than starting fresh as a diver.

“The hardest part was trying to train myself to land on my head instead of my feet,” Proehl said.

The trampolines allow divers to practice doing twists and flips before trying them on the diving board, Proehl said. This type of practice creates “air awareness” of your position, which, Proehl said, was crucial to having confidence when doing a dive.

“My favorite dives are from the inward category,” Proehl said. “You jump off the board backwards but you flip forward and it just looks and feels really cool.”

The Thrill Seeker

The divers compete at different heights and on different apparatuses at each meet: the 1-meter board, 3-meter board and 7-meter platform. For senior Hannah McMacken the higher the platform, the better for dives and flips.

“I like the thrill of it and it gives me an adrenaline rush to do more complex dives,” McMacken said.

McMacken’s favorite dive is a reverse two and a half off of the 3-meter board; it’s two and half flips backwards. On the 7-meter platform it’s a different story, McMacken said. The Kansas swimming and diving team practices at Robinson Natatorium, which doesn’t have a 7-meter platform, making training and competing in this event more challenging.

“I don’t get to practice until I actually get to a meet,” McMacken said. “It’s hard to do an event without getting to train for it. I just have to thrive off of adrenaline and hope for the best.”

The Redshirt

The divers have been training all year for the chance to show off their moves at the Big 12 Conference Championships at the end of this week. Junior Allison Ho is just getting into the swing of practice again after redshirting last semester to study for the MCAT, but she said she felt confident going into the meet this week.

“[Coach Elliott’s] not a slave driver or anything when it comes to training,” Ho said. “There’s not all that much pressure to perform perfectly for me.”

For Ho, the competitions are a way to practice and get back into training. At the Iowa State meet, Ho got her only chance this season to dive in competition before the conference meet. Ho’s hardest dive is a two and a half tuck off of the 3-meter board, and she plans to use it as part of her regular lineup at conference.

“For me it’s going to be about trying to stay calm and focused at the meet,” Ho said. “I’m just glad to be making something out of this season.”

The Consistent One

Ho may have just jumped back into the pool at the end of the season, but the other divers have been striving to fine tune and practice their dives as much as possible before conference and NCAA championships. Sophomore Erin Mertz said that consistency can be the difference between winning and losing an event.

“I’m trying to focus on technique and stay positive going into this meet,” Mertz said.

Mertz said that the team has been focusing on repetition a lot more than it did earlier in the season. Mertz added a reverse two and half twister dive to her routine during winter break and plans on using it for these last meets. This dive is two and a half twists and one and a half flips all before hitting the water.

“At a meet I usually listen to music and just hang out with the other divers,” Mertz said. “I just need to not over think things before I dive.”

Mertz was named the winner of the Winter Community of Champions award, given by the Big 12 Conference and Chick-fil-A restaurants for her work with Kansas Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Special Olympics.

The Coach

Coach Eric Elliott said that the team is ready to go in competition and has performed well throughout the season. During this last week before the conference championships the divers will taper their training and try to work on getting out any problems in their routines.

“We had some really great performances early on in the season and now we’re just trying to work on fine tuning our skills,” Elliott said.

All of the divers qualified for the Zone Diving Championships at their first meet. The divers will go to Zone after Big 12 Conference Championships to try to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

“We’re in a really tough zone,” Elliot said. “We just need to get mentally prepared for this level of competition.”

After a season of training, the divers make their way into the “championship” part of the season. The four girls who make up the diving squad will not only be competing for points toward the team score, but also trying to beat their own scores from previous meets. At conference they will have to face tough teams like Texas and Missouri but the team and the coach said they were confident about this meet.

“We can hang with any of them,” Elliott said.

— — Edited by Sam Speer