Spring Break
The Daily OrangeSwim | Pitt's Volovetski proves why Panthers still Big East's best
By Tyler Dunne
Posted: 10/29/07, 12:51 AM EST Section: Sports
During the first round of dives between the Syracuse swimming and diving teams and Pittsburgh Saturday, not much distinguished one diver from another. The scores read like a broken record: 6, 6.5. 5, 5.5. 5, 4.5. 6, 6.5.
Then the eighth and final diver, Pittsburgh's Alex Volovetski, exited the adjacent hot tub and slowly made his way to the 1-meter diving board. He walked the plank, tilted his head down, tipped his toes together at 45-degree angles and raised his arms parallel to the ground. When the announcer stated the dive he was about to attempt, even someone foreign to diving jargon could understand that Volovetski was entering uncharted waters, at least compared to everyone else.
"He was doing dives that regular, everyday divers just don't do," Syracuse diving coach Tom Skuce said. "They were the exceptional, most difficult dives."
Diving events usually have little impact on a swimming meet as a whole. They compose only two of the 26 total events. But now and then, the hour-long segment offers a spectacle worth complete attention. Volovetski earned at least an eight on half of his 1-meter dives, and he was the only diver to attempt a dive with a degree of difficulty 3.0 or above. The junior from Seffner, Fla., earned 392.02 points in the 1-meter - 127.27 more than the next-best diver. In the 3-meter, he finished with 357.37 points - 74.32 more than the next competitor.
Volovetski's two wins were more like extra points in the Panthers men's 154-89 win over Syracuse. But these two PAT's ripped through the field goal netting. His performance was rare.
"It's a joy to watch. All of the divers look up like, 'How did he do that?'" Skuce said.
Skuce, a Syracuse diving alum himself who once swam against Pittsburgh's diving coach Julian Krug, said Pittsburgh is a haven for the nation's best divers.
"The big diving schools have two or three (great divers)," he said. "Nobody around has that caliber. Pitt has a tremendous diving facility. So that's the drawing card. They have a 10-meter tower, a 5-meter tower, two 3-meters - I mean, it's a diver's heaven."
Then the eighth and final diver, Pittsburgh's Alex Volovetski, exited the adjacent hot tub and slowly made his way to the 1-meter diving board. He walked the plank, tilted his head down, tipped his toes together at 45-degree angles and raised his arms parallel to the ground. When the announcer stated the dive he was about to attempt, even someone foreign to diving jargon could understand that Volovetski was entering uncharted waters, at least compared to everyone else.
"He was doing dives that regular, everyday divers just don't do," Syracuse diving coach Tom Skuce said. "They were the exceptional, most difficult dives."
Diving events usually have little impact on a swimming meet as a whole. They compose only two of the 26 total events. But now and then, the hour-long segment offers a spectacle worth complete attention. Volovetski earned at least an eight on half of his 1-meter dives, and he was the only diver to attempt a dive with a degree of difficulty 3.0 or above. The junior from Seffner, Fla., earned 392.02 points in the 1-meter - 127.27 more than the next-best diver. In the 3-meter, he finished with 357.37 points - 74.32 more than the next competitor.
Volovetski's two wins were more like extra points in the Panthers men's 154-89 win over Syracuse. But these two PAT's ripped through the field goal netting. His performance was rare.
"It's a joy to watch. All of the divers look up like, 'How did he do that?'" Skuce said.
Skuce, a Syracuse diving alum himself who once swam against Pittsburgh's diving coach Julian Krug, said Pittsburgh is a haven for the nation's best divers.
"The big diving schools have two or three (great divers)," he said. "Nobody around has that caliber. Pitt has a tremendous diving facility. So that's the drawing card. They have a 10-meter tower, a 5-meter tower, two 3-meters - I mean, it's a diver's heaven."
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