In addition to the nerves and anxiety that always accompany a big competition, diver Kristin Davies also had to deal with loneliness.
Davies, a fifth-year senior in psychology, was the only member of the women’s swimming & diving team to compete at the NCAA Championships last season.
“It would have been a little bit nicer if there were some other swimmers or a diver to come along with me, but unfortunately I was alone,” Davies said.
According to Davies, her NCAA coming-out party almost took a turn for the worst.
“At NCAAs, I remember having a really bad warm-up,” Davies said. “I remember going over to Ted [Hautau], our coach at the time, afterwards and freaking out, saying ‘my body feels so heavy — I can’t spin,’ and he said ‘calm down — it’s going to be great, I feel it.'”
Davies earned All-ACC and honorable mention All-America honors and set a new school record in the platform dive with a score of 309.95 at the NCAA diving zones, and finished No. 13 overall in the platform dive at the NCAA Championships, just out of contention for the finals.
“I had one really big miss, and that’s what kept me out of the finals,” Davies said. “That’s something I want to go back and change for next year. But it was still a really good experience.”
One person that is focused on helping Davies return to Nationals in her final year with N.C. State is new diving head coach Jenny Keim Johansen. Johansen, who was hired during the summer, is the diving team’s fourth coach in three years.
“These guys have been through a lot of changes, so they’re used to having to adapt,” Johansen said.
During her collegiate career, Johansen was a three-time All-American for the University of Miami and competed for the United States in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Davies said she is excited to learn from someone with such a wealth of knowledge.
“It’s nice to have someone who’s been there before,” she said.
Davies has not disappointed early in the season, earning a new personal best in the 3-meter with a score of 306.15 on Oct. 25 at Virginia Tech and West Virginia. The following week against Duke and Maryland, she set a new personal best and achieved an NCAA diving zone standard with a 274.85 in the 1-meter dive, good for fourth place in the meet. Along with junior Chelsea Ale and senior Alex Dambly, Davies is helping Wolfpack diving move into the national spotlight.
“She had a great year last year,” Johansen said. “As far as this year, as long as I’ve been working with her, she’s been really adaptive to the changes in technique and coaching style. She’s had a great couple of springboard meets, and she’s on the right track.”
“She’s continuing on the same path, and I could see her doing well again.”
Like all seniors, Davies is starting to look toward life after college. Davies, a Winnipeg, Manitoba native, said her performance in this year’s NCAA Championships will help determine whether she continues to pursue diving.
“If I do well in nationals, and if I make a grand prix team and am able to travel for Canada, I’ll stick around a little longer,” Davies said. “That’s pretty much my goal.”
However, if diving with a professional organization is not in the cards, Davies said she will be able to let it go.
“If things go well, I’m not opposed to keeping going, but I’ve been doing competitive sports since I was eight,” Davies said. “It’ll be a nice break.”
