Brian Blum is a freshman in the NYU men's swimming & diving team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the season.
Written November 15
Last Friday at 2:00 pm, the NYU men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams piled onto a bus and embarked on a journey to Norton, Massachusetts, for the NYU/Wheaton/USCGA double-dual meet. Traffic changed our four-hour trip to a six-hour trek, and by the time we got to the hotel, sleep was the first thing on our minds.
Austen and I shared a room, as we do at every meet, only this time our room had only one bed (Kate found this hysterical). After watching an episode of NCIS in Kelly’s room as a team, we all went to our respective rooms to catch some Z’s before the meet.
The next day began normally. Everyone got up by 9:00am and went down to the hotel lobby to get breakfast. Austen proceeded to inform me that I was sleep talking in the middle of the night. After breakfast we returned to our rooms, packed up our things, and left for the pool. I expected this meet to be like the last two, but I was wrong.
The facility itself was okay. The diving well was sectioned off from the swimming pool by a bulk head. The swimmers had to use the diving well for warm-up, which made diving a little unnerving, but it was manageable. I ran through my list during warm-up and spent the rest observing the competition.
The men’s event began with the three-meter. I didn’t have an amazing meet, but I didn’t have a bad one by any means either. I came in third place. Austen threw a great gainer 2.5 (305C) for sevens and came in first.
The one-meter event came next. I was competing two dives for the first time: gainer 1.5 pike (303B) and inward 1.5 pike (403B). The gainer was connecting fine in warm-up, but the inward was worrying me. The one I threw in the warm-up was so slow that I had to come out at a flip; I would have failed the dive if it were in competition. When the event began, I realized that I didn’t know my dive order. I wouldn’t know what dive I was doing until it was my turn to get on the board and do it. My fifth dive was my inward. I wasn’t feeling confident in my inward pike, so I changed it to tuck on the board. I sacrificed difficulty for confidence, and it paid off; I scored sevens across. All in all, I had a great one-meter performance. I came in third again. Austen also took first again, scoring 307.
After the diving event ended, we went to cheer on the swimmers. At this point, NYU and Coast Guard Academy were tied for the lead. It was the final heat, and we needed two swimmers in the top three to take the meet. I screamed my lungs out to cheer the swimmers on. It was a close race for most of the relay, but NYU emerged victorious.
I have to give you a little back-story here. For the majority of my high school career, I was my school’s sole diver. In those four years, we won the state championship title twice. Both of those times we took the title by storm. In fact, the swimming team scored so many points that me not showing up at all wouldn’t have made a difference. Diving wasn’t necessary to them. For some reason, many of my teammates took it upon themselves to make me painfully aware of this fact. It’s because of those moments that I hesitate to say I feel proud to have been a Panther.
Back to the meet….
Everyone in the building wearing purple cheered. I cheered too. I was happy for everyone. Then the swimmers walked by and something strange happened…something that never happened to me in high school. The swimmers, many of whom I had never spoken to before, high-fived me. They congratulated me on my performance. And it wasn’t just one or two, it was most of them. I didn’t know how to react at first. I felt oddly happier then I did when we won the meet.
As I walked back to the locker room, I realized that for the first time I felt truly appreciated by the team I was on. And now I sit here on the van ride back to the Big Apple, proud to be a Violet.
Brian Blum is a freshman in the NYU men's swimming & diving team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the season.
Written November 13
Forgive me for starting this blog late. I’m a freshman and I’m still trying to get the feel of things. My name is Brian Blum. I hail from a small, unheard-of town called Miami, Florida, and I came to NYU for film & television production in Tisch.
College is hard; I figured that out pretty fast. When I’m not in class or practically living out of Bobst, you can find me in the diving well at Coles. I’ve been diving for six years now, and I couldn’t imagine my life without the sport.
The great part about being on a sports team as a freshman is that you already have a network of friends when you’re thrust into the confusing, unfamiliar world of college. It was so helpful to know that I could always count on my diving team friends being there through the chaos of figuring out my schedule, learning to live with my roommate and getting used to long nights at Bobst that end when morning practice starts. The diving team has become as much a family to me as it is a team.
Austen and I are the only two male divers. We’re friends when we’re not on the pool deck. But, once we set foot on those aluminum fiberglass diving boards, the competition is on. We’re at similar skill levels, so the friendly tension between us only motivates us to get better and better.
While there are only two male divers, there are several female divers on the women’s team.
Kate, another freshman, wins the award for most outgoing. Whether she’s awkwardly dancing on the pool deck (an activity that I often partake in as well), rocking out to Queen on the radio, or smacking and laughing at herself, she always finds a way to make diving practice a riot.
Oytun is both a crouching tiger and a hidden dragon. She’s a beast in the weight room who can bench press herself. But she’s also a beast on the diving boards. She probably doesn’t even realize it herself, but she has more than enough power to throw dives the likes of which our women’s team has never seen before.
Marina is the thinker of the team. She doesn’t get silly like Kate and I; you won’t find her on the pool deck awkwardly dancing with us. But, if it’s an intellectually stimulating conversation that you’re looking for, look for her in the hot tub between her dives and she won’t fail to deliver.
Andrea has only been diving for a few months, and Liz is returning from a long diving hiatus due to injury. Together, Liz and Andrea are the warriors of the women’s team. These two girls don’t hesitate to attack new dives every week.
Finally there’s our diving addict, Kelly. She eats, sleeps and breathes diving. She loves the sport so much it’s admirable... and a bit scary. But her passion comes hand in hand with skill. The only senior, Kelly leads the team towards victory at every meet.
That’s the diving team. We’re a weird group of kids, but we love what we do and that brings us together.
