By Emily Coughlin
Contributing Writer
With only three women’s divers— freshmen Izzy Aguilera and Elena Rohr, and sophomore Brittany Hart— the team certainly makes up for the normal, but small numbers.
Some of the women’s diving team’s achievements occurred in a meet on Oct. 14 in the Reilly Center, where Hart came in first, Rohr came in second, and Aguilera came in fourth. In a Dec. 2 meet at Akron University in Ohio, Hart qualified for finals and came in eighth.
Rohr gives full credit to head diving coach Bill Williams for preparing the women to have great success in their meets so far, and for creating a great team dynamic.
“The girls are very close and close in age,” said Williams. “For such a young team, the success is pretty good.”
Williams explained how the close friendships of the women helps with the way practices are run, because they all love spending time together and improving together as a team.
“Having Brittany is really helpful because she’s always there to talk to us and give advice,” said Rohr.
Though Hart is only a year older, she is seen as a leader by both the men’s and women’s diving teams.
“Even if we have an off day, we still come back and keep going, and Brittany is always there to help us through whatever we need,” said Aguilera.
Both Rohr and Aguilera emphasized how we closely with Williams to perfect their dives.
“We all feed off of each other and it’s really positive and we’re all really happy at the end of practice,” said Aguilera.
Practices are hard but they are definitely successful in preparing the women for bigger competition.
“Recently we’ve been learning new dives, going to these bigger meets, and preparing,” said Rohr.
During practices and meets the women cheer one another on.
“We work as a team, it’s not us against each other,” said Rohr. “We make [practice] fun and always work really hard together.”
Williams has been preparing the women by taking each day at a time. He emphasizes that hard work is the key to improvement.
“Bill is definitely a hard coach, but he is very good at what he does,” said Rohr.
He doesn’t put the pressure of the future meets on the women, but rather focuses on what will work for them that day, and what they can improve on during that practice.
“We take practice one day at a time, so overall success is kind of an afterthought,” said Williams.
Williams puts the most emphasis on the practices, because the success that happens during practice is what will be reflected in meets.
“I don’t want them to peak too early; that should happen later in the season,” said Williams.
With more divers, the team can score more points, but Williams and the three women are very happy with the way things have been going, and with the size of the team.
“We are trying to grow the team with new divers that fit the program well, and will give the team their all,” said Williams.
Williams said that as of right now, he is happy with the size of the team. He is looking to recruit, but will wait for divers that are the perfect fit for the team.
“For this school, three is a normal number to have and it works well for us, but we are always looking to grow,” said Williams.
All three divers and Williams agree that the overall dynamic of the women’s diving team and the success of the season is going extremely well.
“I am happy with the way things are going and I think it’s looking good for A10s,” said Aguilera.
coughleg16@bonaventure.edu
