High school swim and dive is one competition. Thus, both the swim and dive teams compete against the same schools in the same meets. The season begins with seven dual meets, six other Patriot District rivals as well as one out of district team. Depending on where the meet is being held, diving is conducted either before or during the swimming competition, based on the size of the pool. Swim and dive points are added together for each team to determine the meet scores for both the girls’ swim and dive team and the boy’s swim and dive team.
Dual Meets
The format for dual meets can get a bit confusing. Divers are required to perform one voluntary dive and five optional dives for a total of six dives for each meet. Voluntary dives are the simpler ones, such as a front dive, a back dive, a reverse dive, or an inward dive. Optional dives can be any dive except the one performed for the voluntary dive.For example, if you perform a front dive for your voluntary dive, you may use a back dive, a reverse dive, or an inward dive for your optionals, as well as any other dive that is listed in the Virginia High School League list of dives. If you thought that part was confusing, just wait. Each week, the voluntary dive that must be performed changes. The first meet, a front must be done for the voluntary; the second meet, a back; the third meet, a reverse; the fourth meet, an inward; the fifth meet, a twister; and that cycle continues until the dual meet season is over. If you've been thinking hard about this format, you might have realized that there are only five groups but the divers are required to compete six dives. What is nice about this format is the voluntary dive is counted completely separate from the optional dives. Therefore, the divers must perform five optionals from only four groups, without repeating the dive they did for their voluntary. While this can be confusing, the coach understands the format and continues to teach the divers throughout the season.
For
those who are familiar with the judging format of NVSL diving, it is
the same in high school diving. There are five parent judges, two from
the home team, and three from the visiting team. For each dive, each
judge throws one score. The high score and the low score are dropped
in an attempt to eliminate any biases. The three remaining scores are
added together and multiplied by the dive’s degree of difficulty. Each
dive, no matter what it is, is assigned a degree of difficulty based
on how difficult the dive is to perform. There is a very long formula
to figure out each dive’s degree of difficulty, so it won’t be covered
here. Just know that, the more difficult the dive is, the larger multiplier
will be applied to the judge’s scores. This gives the divers an incentive
to perform the more difficult dives.
Each dive’s total score is added up to get a final score, which then determines the final ranking of the divers. Unfortunately diving counts as only one event in the meet, so the placings are scored the same way as an individual swimming event.
Championship Meets
The
format for the championship meets are completely different than the
dual meets, yet they are scored the same way. In districts, regions,
and states the girls perform 10 dives and boys perform 11 rather than
the six performed in dual meets. Of the 10 dives performed by girls,
five are voluntary dives and five optional. Thus, divers must do two
dives from each group — front, back, reverse, inward, and twister. The
format for the boys is the same, but they must do three dives from one
of those five groups and two from the others.
Robinson Diving Tradition
Robinson has a
long-standing tradition as dominating force in diving — not only in
the patriot district but also in the state of Virginia. Between 1998-2001,
the Robinson Men’s Dive Team, apart from the swim team, were Patriot
District, Northern Region, and Virginia State Champions. With the help
of state record holder Andy Bradley, who is currently qualified for
this summer’s Olympic Trials, and John Appleman, the team’s current
coach, the Robinson Men’s Dive Team was unbeatable.
The next season, the Robinson Women’s Dive Team had their turn at success
with a 4th place finish at states by freshman Lina Tichamirova. Unfortunately,
she moved out of the area after that season.
Last year, the men’s team was able to return to prominence with a third
place finish by then sophomore Michael Papageorge. Hopefully he will
be able to continue his success this year as a returning junior.
