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WEST WINDSOR: Whalers nip LSA for PASDA diving title

Relative newcomer Hathaway wins two golds

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Annie Hathaway was looking for something new to compete in after doing gymnastics for years.
   Diving has worked out perfectly.
   ”The reason why I decided to choose diving was gymnastics was getting a little too intense,” Hathaway said. “Diving, I could still use my skills.
   ”I love competition. I get scared like everyone would, but I love competing and the adrenaline rush. I just love competing.”
   Hathaway has come up a big winner in her new sport and made incredible strides in her first year. She got her start with the West Windsor Whalers last summer.
   ”She was a gymnast,” said Whalers diving coach Alice Eltvedt, who will be a junior at Princeton University. “She quit before coming to diving last year. She has great lines, a lot of natural ability. She’s also able to use the board in ways that most people can’t in the first few years of diving.
   ”As long as she’s enjoying it, I think she could get a lot out of it, and go far in diving. She already is.”
   Hathaway repeated as the Princeton Area Swimming and Diving Association Championships winner at the 12-and-under girls open division with a score of 207.00, more than 20 points better than her nearest competitor. She won the 12-and-under girls open last year with a score of 171.90, 1.5 points better than her nearest competitor.
   ”I scored very, very well,” Hathaway said. “I enjoyed how the coaches scored it this year instead of parents.”
   Though she is just 12, Hathaway also took the 18-and-under open girls division with a score of 282.30, another score that was more than 20 points ahead of the division runner-up. Hathaway had placed third in last year’s 18-and-under open girls with a score of 269.50.
   ”It was great last year as well as this year,” said Hathaway, who will be an eighth grader at Montgomery Upper Middle School. “I don’t think I was considered a favorite. My coaches treat everyone the same.”
   Hathaway was a part of a big day for the Whalers, who topped Lawrenceville by just 2.5 points in the recent Princeton Area Swimming and Diving Association Championships.
   ”It was amazing,” Hathaway said. “It was very cool even that we won by two points. It means a lot to West Windsor and everyone in the township.”
   West Windsor’s only other winners came as they swept the 6-and-under girls division. Wren Williamson won, Maya Eltvedt was second and Alyce Baird placed third. The Whalers scored significant points with their large numbers of divers to swing the title their way.
   ”We dove extremely well,” said Alice Eltvedt, who is assisted by her sister, Louise, a sophomore at New York University. “The Whalers were undefeated in the regular season. We won every single competition we had in the summer.
   ”We didn’t tell any of our divers that we expected to get first. We wanted them to try their best. We wanted as many people as possible to sign up to dive in championships because I think the experience is great. Most of our divers showed up.”
   Lawrenceville Swimming Association gave the Whalers a tough battle for the championship. Ben Franklin was third, Community Park was fourth and Nassau Swim Club came in fifth.
   ”I knew it was going to be close,” Eltvedt said. “I’d rather have the divers be happy with how they did individually. Winning the trophy was an honor and made us extremely proud of all of the kids.”
   The win capped a historic season for the Whalers. They had won every regular season meet, but that didn’t guarantee the PASDA Championship win.
   ”I don’t think we have ever received the dual meet season as well as the PASDA championship,” Eltvedt said. “We have won each respectively in past years, but not both together. So we’re improving.”
   Improvement is a big theme for the Whalers. They saw improvements in the number of divers that came out this year.
   ”We saw a huge increase in numbers,” Eltvedt said. “I think we were the largest team in the PASDA competition. We had 51 entries in the championships, that includes kids that were competing in more than one event, so we had 51 events. On our team, we have 54 kids.”
   Hathaway was one of those new divers last year. It was her first time ever diving with a team. Now she also dives for the Lords of the Boards club team in Bridgewater, and on Thursday she was to compete in the USA Diving Nationals in Tennessee. It’s a meteoric rise that she didn’t anticipate.
   ”I’m a very competitive person,” Hathaway said. “I usually try my hardest at everything. I am very surprised that I made it to US nationals this year. It’s an amazing experience.”
   The experience figures to be motivating for her. Hathaway advanced from regionals with her 14th place finish, then in the zone championships, she placed 15th. Two of the spots ahead of her had already qualified and one person could not go, so she took her spot as the top alternate.
   ”Some of these kids have been doing it for so long, they’re amazing,” Hathaway said. “My goal for this competition is to do all my dives to the best of my ability and figure it out from there.”
   She has already come a long way in a short time.
   ”She actually started diving with me last year,” Eltvedt said. “After the Whalers diving season, she decided she enjoyed diving. She also competed in the 18-and-under last year. She had enough dives to compete with the older kids after one season.”
   Said Hathaway: “My dad takes videos, and we looked back and I was very surprised how I was diving. I thought I did pretty well considering it was my first year.”
   Eltvedt sees improvement in all of her Whalers divers. It’s one reason that they were able to claim both the regular season and championship titles.
   ”They actually change a lot,” Eltvedt said. “Since we practice every day, most of our kids come in with an attitude that they want to get better every day. They ask me every day how to fix their dives. They have goals and if they surpass them, they’re happy and set new ones.
   ”You see a lot of improvements from all the kids, especially the kids that start new. They come in with no diving experience and by the time championships come around, they have enough dives to compete in that.”
   Hathaway’s first experiences were so positive that she was hooked immediately. For the last six months, she has been doing club diving as well. Diving gives her the opportunity to combine some of her greatest passions.
   ”I like diving because I really like the flipping and tumbling aspect of gymnastics,” Hathaway said. “Instead of swimming back and forth, I like a sport where you can flip and get scored and still go to competition.”
   Hathaway loves to perform out of a handstand. She will be moving up to platform diving in the next year, but her focus now is on springboard. She qualified for nationals in the 1-meter springboard, and she is looking to continue her climb in her newest sport.
   ”I feel more confident now,” Hathaway said. “I feel better in all my dives. My coaches, Alice with the Whalers and Fred (Woodruff with Lords of the Boards), they don’t push me to do anything. I feel really confident in all the dives I do compete in.”