April 17, 2008 at 2:30 pm | Doria | Uncategorized | 2 Comments |
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Well, it was quite the competition. I ended up 20th on 3 meter and 22nd on one meter. Even though I didn’t get into the semi-finals, I was so close on both boards. The difference between 8th and 20th on 3 meter was 10 points, which is so little. It was amazing to be in a competition where for the first time, I really felt like I deserved to be there. It was such a great meet.
I guess this means the end to my blogging as my Olympic hopefuls are over for this year, but by no means is diving over for me. There were two masters divers at this meet, one in his forties and one in his fifties who were still diving at the level that I am today. Just one more example that my career is by no means over. I am going to keep at it and see what happens with summer nationals. I’m just not quite ready to give it up.
Thanks for being a part of my adventure. I hope that you have enjoyed following along just a little bit. Take care!
April 9, 2008 at 4:02 pm | Doria | Uncategorized | No Comments |
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I have been really bad about blogging…. sorry. Anyways, I leave on Saturday for the U.S. Spring Nationals meet and I am more nervous than ever. Training has been going really well, although doing it by myself has been a bit of a challenge. I have definitely been struggling with ganors. I haven’t been able to just relax and go after them. It’s a confidence thing. Hopefully, things will come together by the end of this week.
I compete on Monday. One meter first and then three meter. Five dives on each board. On one meter, there are 17 open spots in semi-finals and 48 girls competing. On three meter, it’s worse-11 spots and 54 divers. There are 24 divers in semi-finals, some of those spots, though, are already taken by pre-qualified women. So, provided everything goes well, I’ll be amongst those top 24 women in the country. That is truly my goal. At the semi-finals, 8 women on 1 meter go on to finals and 12 women on 3 meter. The top 8 women from the finals event in 3 meter qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
This is what it all comes down to. Well, not really. This meet is by no means the end of my career. I’ll dive as long as I possible can. Who knows, maybe I will qualify and do well at the U.S. Summer Nationals, only time will tell. Wish me luck!
March 16, 2008 at 5:40 am | Doria | Uncategorized | No Comments |
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I put it all on the boards last night. I literally threw every dive without fear and with everything that I had. Unfortunately, freak accidents happen. I was on track to winning the meet and breaking the National record until my knees buckled during my fourth dive. From a stand, without a jump, I had to throw a reverse 2.5 somersault-nearly impossible. I threw as hard as could and waited and waited until the dive came around, trying to salvage anything I had left. I got 3.5’s on the dive. It would have taken 5.5’s and 6’s to win the meet.
These things happen. I didn’t do anything wrong. My knees just gave at the bottom of my press. The same thing that happened and caused me to hit the board. The weird thing, though, is that I am okay with it. I’m okay with how everything came out, because I held nothing back.
I ended up fourth in the meet. It was the closest meet the NCAA has ever seen in diving and I can tell you, it was truly amazing. Kendall won the meet and broke the national record. She was named Diver of the Year and our coach, Brad, was named Coach of the Year. As I saw them standing on the podium, I was a mixed state of proud and utterly dissappointed. The selfish part of me wanted to be up there with Brad and the teammate in me was so proud of Kendall. She had a fantastic meet and she deserved that recognition.
So fourth it is. I’m an 8 time All American and that certainly isn’t anything to be ashamed of. My lowest finish at the NCAA’s has been fourth and I have had the honor of being a champion twice. All of those things, I will never forget!
March 15, 2008 at 3:17 pm | Doria | Uncategorized | No Comments |
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Well, it went pretty well. My optional dives yesterday were so so, but enough to get me in first place. The good thing about that is that I can only move up! My voluntary dives today didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped. I still won preliminaries, but am third going into tonights final. Kendall is in first, by 10 points and Erica Deur is in second, by 4 points.
Last year, I was 18 points down going into finals and managed to win the meet, so I have a lot of confidence that I can do that again. I realized yesterday that I wanted to win so badly that I ultimately made it impossible to relax and just dive. In order to do well, I have to give myself the liberty of failing. I have to be able to take risks.
Tonight, I am not going to watch the scoreboard or listen to the points. I am just going to dive. One dive at a time and I am going to go big. I realize that I run the risk of missing big, but it’s only one meet in my diving career and ultimately doesn’t define my success as a diver. Tonight is my last meet as a collegiate diver and I want to be in the moment and enjoy all of it. No matter what happens, I want to know that I left it all on the boards and truly did the best that I could. I’ll post after the meet, so wish me luck!
March 13, 2008 at 10:00 pm | Doria | Uncategorized | 2 Comments |
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I got third. I am not even ready to deal with the dissappointment. Tomorrow is a new day. 3 meter is a new event.
March 13, 2008 at 10:13 am | Doria | Uncategorized | 4 Comments |
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I only have about 5 minutes before I head to the pool for warm ups, but I wanted to quickly fill you in. I am at Miami University of Ohio in Oxford, Ohio competing in my fourth and final NCAA National Championships. I am excited and nervous. I have already been to the pool for a quick touch on the boards, but am heading back to have my scheduled warm ups. The actual competition starts at 1:30.
I will do all 11 dives on 1 meter today. After preliminaries, the top 8 divers will return to repeat their 6 optional dives. The optional scores for the morning session are dropped and the combination of tonight’s 6 ops and this mornings 5 voluntaries make up the total score. The person with the highest points win.
For me, step one is getting into finals. All my energy will be focused on staying calm and composed. One dive at a time. It’s going to be one heck of a weekend and I can’t wait to get started.
I’ll post after prelims and finals, so check in later today to find out what happens!
March 10, 2008 at 10:44 am | Doria | Uncategorized | 1 Comment |
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I hit the board last Tuesday. It was kind of a freak accident. I was just warming up and doing some front hurdles. It was all pretty standard-the same thing that I do every single day. Tuesday, though, I was just a little more fatigued than usual. I could feel the lactic acid in my muscles, the dull ache in my back, and the general hazy tiredness well-known to MIT students. The combination of physical and mental exhaustion caused my knees to buckle at the bottom of my press. Here I am, a mass sitting on top of a loaded spring unable to move. As you can imagine, the spring unloaded tossing my body back up into the air. I didn’t have enough forward momentum, though, to get me out over the water, so I had to put my feet back on the board. My center of mass was right on the line coming up from the tip. As the board unloaded a second time, I was like the stick with a force being applied to one end. As the board started flipping me over, my shins and my feet had not yet traveled out over the water. As a result, I took a nice clip to the shins and slid down the board, getting cut up on the way, until I was tossed completely over onto my back in the water.
Needless to say, the smack was definitely a bit of a sting, but the sand paper on the board had left my shins and feet with board burn. Blood poured out and ran down my legs as I sat shivering on the deck. It just happened so fast that I didn’t really have time to take it all in. My legs were green and yellow and the cuts were a bright red.
The lifeguards started bandaging me up and the trainers checked out my legs to make sure there were no breaks. Thankfully, everything was fine and I just needed some gauze and ice. The freak accident has kind of startled me, but I have spent the week building my confidence back up.
I leave for nationals tomorrow and the scabs are starting to heal on my legs. It seems that everything is going to work out fine. My skin is still on the board-I haven’t had time to scrub it off yet, but maybe next week. Stay tuned for the nationals update. I’m going to try to write to you everyday while I am gone so that you can follow the play by play and the emotional roller coaster that I am about to hop on. Wish me luck and stay tuned!
The News Office blog is currently featuring reports from MIT senior Doria Holbrook, above, who is chronicling her attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic diving trials in June.