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Owl Divers Set for NEISDA Championships
KEENE, N.H. 2/10/10 – Keene State College begins defense of its men’s and women’s New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association (NEISDA) championships this weekend. The diving events will be held this Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 12-13, at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. The swimming portion of the championships will take place Feb.18-20 at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River Junction, Vt.
The Owl women will be hunting for their fourth straight championship, and the KSC men will be looking for their third consecutive title.
Keene State has qualified all four of its divers for the championships. Senior Rachael Battis (Beacon Falls, Conn.), junior Derek Peabody (Haverhill, Mass.), and freshman Joshua Tuller (Plainview, N.Y.) will compete in both the one- and three-meter events. Freshman Amber Beam (Keene, N.H.) will participate in the one-meter board.
“It’s the culmination of the season for the divers," said team captain Peabody, who will be competing in the championship for the third year in a row. "It’s our biggest meet. We do twice as many dives and face twice as many competitors.”
The points picked up in diving events will provide KSC with a much-needed springboard heading into the swimming races. Diving and swimming points are combined to determine the champion.
Keene State diving coach Dave Mason has high hopes for his Owl foursome. “Rachael, Derek, and Joshua all have a chance to finish in the top-six or better and advance to the finals in both boards,” said Mason. “Since this is Amber’s first trip, we’re looking for her to gain experience for next year.”
Battis and Beam followed similar paths to the sport, jumping on the board following careers as gymnasts. Forced to switch sports due to a back injury, Battis competed four years at Woodland Regional (Conn.) High, winning the conference championship in her final two seasons. Beam, who won the uneven bars event as a sophomore at Keene High and later attended the Dublin School, began diving this year after sustaining a elbow injury.
When it comes to diving, Battis said having a gymnastics background can be a help and a hindrance. “It definitely helps that you have body awareness, but you have to learn to use the board to get your height,” she said. “In gymnastics it’s all muscle.”
Intrigued by people doing flips as kids, Peabody and Tuller took up diving in high school. Peabody qualified for state meet every season at Haverhill High, placing fifth as a junior and senior, while Tuller earned a spot on the AAU national squad competing for his club team.
Divers do a combined 11 dives (five required and six optional) at the championships. While the required dives demonstrate an athlete’s ability to perform basic skills, the optional jumps showcase a diver's more daring side – the higher degree of difficulty (DD), the higher the point total.
“I encourage them to do the highest DD that they have been performing for me," said Mason. “If they can’t practice it, they can’t perform it at the meet.”
Leading up to the championships, Owl athletes spent the week working on their dives and practicing them in the order they will be performed.
With potential trips to the national meet on the line, the judging is much tougher than dual meets. Both Battis and Peabody have improved every year at the NEISDA meet and are looking forward to strong performances this weekend. “Diving isn’t one of those sports where you can look at the psych sheets and say you want to beat a certain score,” said Peabody. “It really comes down to who’s having the best day on the board.”
