SMC diving team ends season at championships

The Santa Monica College Corsairs went up against numerous schools in a conference meet at El Camino's enclosed pool complex.
Hot, humid air welcomed people inside the aquatic center on April 22 and 23 as fans and onlookers cheered on from the sidelines, rooting for their respective schools.
Bobby Styles earned seventh place in the men's 1-meter with 323.05 points, and is the first of two reserves for the state championships.
Dmitriy Olshanskiy came in 19th place with 202.80 points, Aric Meyer landed 23rd place with 180.65 points, followed by Robin Daugherty who earned 167 points.
SMC won the men's 1-meter dive for their division conference event, and came in third place on the 3-meter dive event in all of Southern California, but scored first place in the regional district.
SMC's sole female diver, sophomore Wendy Bartos, competed for the first time in the women's 1-meter and achieved a personal best score, though did not dive the 3-meter as she did not feel quite capable of doing so prior to the event.
Each competitor appeared to give their best in the competition as they leapt off their boards and were suspended in the air for what seemed like a few seconds before slicing into the water headfirst and quickly returning to the surface.
Dive Coach Matthew Joscelyne thought the team did very well for having most of them starting only two months ago.
According to Joscelyne, the person who did the most outstanding was Olshanskiy, who "dove better than any of the other competitors, and smashed his own record and got the highest score he ever got - it seems he's a very good competitor."
Bartos thought she did well enough when asked of her performance in the competition.
"I did OK. I'm so nervous, I thought I would flop in my dive," said Bartos, who seemed very proud of her fellow divers. "They're really supportive. I love them."
Freshman Aric Meyers of the SMC men's team also felt a little uneasy over how things went.
"As a team, we did win the Western Conference, however, individually we didn't do as well as we should have," said Meyers.
Meyers went on to comment on Bartos' performance:
She did a really great job for starting out so recently. We're all very proud of her."
When asked of any tension or bad sportsman-ship between the teams during the dives, Meyers replied, "for the most part, most of the teams are really good friends."
Meyers also mentioned how his group later went out to dinner with the team from San Diego Mesa College.
Although the Corsair divers did not make it to the state champion-ships this year, Joscelyne has every intention of doing so in the future.
"We look forward to the team staying together and winning the state championships next year," said Joscelyne. "We all look forward to keep the training going throughout the year and getting Santa Monica to the State Finals in the 2006 season."
Joscelyne also intends to recruit more divers in the months to come with at least six women and another three or four men to make a push at states.