By Matt Petit, Contributing Writer
St. Bonaventure men’s swimming and diving team has an indubitable history for recruiting top athletes, both in the Unites States and abroad.
Michael Bruno, a freshman undeclared business major from Scranton, Pennsylvania, is among these top athletes.
Bruno has made sizeable improvements throughout the 2017-18 season. The climax of his efforts came to fruition last Saturday against Canisius College with bests in both his 1-meter and 3-meter diving scores.
Bruno scored a 237.60 during the 1-meter competition and a 261.60 in the 3-meter, placing fourth in each event, respectively.
“It was great to make progress,” Bruno said. “The judging has been more difficult compared to high school, so it’s nice to see improvement.”
However, one unconventional aspect of Bruno’s training environment is that he trains alone, as he is the only men’s diver on the team. However, there is some overlap, as Bruno does occasionally train with the women’s diving team.
Bruno said there are a fair amount of challenges in training alone, namely the fact it makes highest-capacity performance even more difficult.
“I’m very critical of myself,” Bruno said. “A big challenge for me is trying to score at meets when I’m the only diver on the men’s team. It’s kind of a lot of pressure.”
Stephanie Fleming, the men’s and women’s diving coach, shared her opinion on the challenges Bruno faces as the only diver for the men’s team. She explained one of these challenges is that Bruno does not get the luxury of internal competition on a team, something that many athletes believe to be a key part of a healthy training environment.
“It can be tough not having any male teammates to work with,” said Fleming. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself because he wants to get points for the team, and when you’re the only one, there’s no wiggle room.”
However, Fleming has found a method that allows Bruno to be trained to overcome this pressure in a way that is contingent with success during meets.
“We do a lot of mock-meets,” said Fleming. “So, just about every week this year, we’ve done a mock-meet in practice, the day before an actual meet. That kind of puts you in the pressure situation, and by making those mock-meets and some of our practices a little bit tougher mentally and physically, so when they get to the meet situation, that’s a little bit easier.”
So far, however, the pressure has not phased Bruno to a fault, as he has been fulfilling his role on the team as a scorer. Bruno scored two points in his 1-meter dive and two points in his 3-meter dive last Saturday.
“He’s made a ton of progress,” Fleming said. “He’s made a huge leap from 1-meter to 3-meter.”
This is one of the more difficult transitions in the sport of diving, as high school is only competed on a 1-meter diving board. Bruno described some of the difficulties in making that transition.
“It takes some getting used to,” said Bruno, “To be aware of timing and how much space you have.”
Coach Fleming shared her insight on the components that are necessary for orienting new divers to a 3-meter board.
“It’s just about having some patience and getting the experience,” said Fleming. “He hasn’t had a lot of 3-meter experience.”
This will be a big component this year at A10s, as diving can prove to be a large factor for many teams that intend to create large point swings during finals.
“It’s a smaller conference of divers,” said Fleming. “So, there’s a chance to always get points. It’s all about consistency, which is what we work on every week.”
Fleming showed optimism, though, noting Bruno’s work ethic.
“He’s such a hard worker,” said Fleming. “I see nothing but good things in the future, it’s just hard to step outside and see the bigger picture.”
