Girls Swim and Dive had a great season last year, placing third at States, and have recently started training for another awesome season. Although most of the news coverage is on the swimmers, the divers are working just as hard. Junior Lydia Hunt pushes herself mentally and physically every day to improve her dives.
“We’re all getting new dives every single week, and I think that’s huge for us. I’m really proud [we’re all working on them] every meet,” Hunt said. “Sometimes you don’t do very well because you’re doing your new dives, but even doing them in a meet is a huge step for the whole team.”
Grit and determination are necessary for performing new dives.
“Diving’s a mental sport, so it’s hard sometimes to get over [my] mental blocks and not be scared. It takes a lot of courage to do something you’ve never done before,” Hunt said. “There are a million things that can go wrong, but you just have to trust your body and hope for the best.”
Most of the time, doing a new dive results in a painful belly or back flop on the water, often in front of teammates and spectators watching. Hunt has great faith in her training, and she also uses a few other tools to alleviate her fears.
“I pray a lot, and my coach encourages me all the time. He always tells me if I’m worried about something, we can work on dry land a little bit and try to break [the dive] down before I actually do it,” Hunt said.
Hunt’s diving coach, Kurt Mirandette, calls her “extremely dedicated.”
“After practices, she looks for ways to get involved with a lot of heart. She’s progressing [a great deal],” Mirandette said. “She’s putting the time in.”
With all of the progress she’s making, Hunt is excited to meet some of her personal goals.
“We already made it to regionals [at the] Northview invite, and I’m really hoping for my varsity letter. That’s what I’m working on right now,” Hunt said. “But for me, when I’m diving, I don’t really care about place. I like encouraging my team, and we all have different things to work on that all make us different and unique.”
Helping her teammates is something Hunt excels at. Teammate Ava Rapolevich thinks that is one of Hunt’s best qualities.
“[She always] encourages you to do better or congratulates you on things you achieve,” Rapolevich said. “She’s very straightforward. Whatever you ask her, she’ll just tell you, and then she also tells me personally, how I’ve [improved] since I’m younger.”
Just as she helps her teammates, Hunt knows that diving has helped in her own experiences.
“I think that [diving] has definitely given me a lot more courage to do things in my life. I’m not really ever scared to take that next step now,” Hunt said. “It taught me to be strong enough to do the hard things.”
