Senior Austin Howlett embodies grace on the diving board. The Hawaii native has been blazing through SCAC competition all season, and this path of domination led Howlett to the NCAA Diving Regional qualifying meet in San Antonio, TX. On Feb. 27 and 28.
Howlett (Sr.) was joined at the Regional Qualifying meet by Mary Rose Donahue (Fr.). Both divers entered the meet on the heels of impressive showings at the SCAC Championships. Howlett swept the men’s events and Donahue placed third and fourth in the 1-meter and 3-meter events repsectively.
The two divers were locked in fierce competition as they throw their most complicated dives yet.
“I didn’t know what to expect because it was based off of select numbers so it was a lot smaller than I thought. I was relatively nervous, but ready to have some fun,” said Donahue, a first-time competitor.
Donahue placed 12th in the three-meter event and seventh in the one-meter event. These scores show a promising future for the freshman diver with the rest of her time at CC. Three-time Regionals competitor Howlett said, “It is a very tense meet and a big component of that is not having the swimmers there. We were lacking the rowdy and camaraderie component.”
This weekend, Howlett impressed his competitors by earning his third consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III National Championship. He won the three-meter event and placed third in the one-meter event. “It wasn’t a big deal winning because I just wanted to qualify, but winning was a nice bonus,” said Howlett.
Off the one-meter board, Howlett performed his hallmark front two and a half pike. Donahue threw a new dive off of each board that she had never done before at the Regional meet. She threw a front double twisting one and a half on the short board and an inward two and a half off of the three-meter.
Both Donahue and Howlett enjoy rocking out to Taylor Swift before they step up onto the board, and Donahue commented that the divers usually just “goof around with each other and dance around on deck before they start to dive.”
Not only do they share their love for Taylor Swift, but Donahue and Howlett both have specific routines they do before they complete a dive.
Howlett will outstretch his arms and snap on a back takeoff and will shake out his quads before a forward takeoff. Donahue takes two short breaths and one quick breath right before she takes her plunge.
Howlett is preparing for his appearance at the NCAA National Championship and he said the preparation “is similar to prepping for Regionals, just more detail-oriented.
It is a refining game to correcting muscle memory and looking for consistency of each dive.” He is planning to throw a new dive for Nationals by changing one of his dives from Regionals from a tuck to a pike.
“I am most excited about having an official last meet,” said Howlett, whose goal is to perform better than he did last year on the one-meter dive.
Diving Coach Ellen Walker has been a driving force for keeping diving fun. Howlett said, “She is more on the side of self-motivation by creating the mentality that you are doing this because you love it. She eliminates the competition and makes the sport fun.”
Austin Howlett will compete at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships March 18-21 in Shenandoah, Texas.