GA's Inter-Ac League Girls' Diving Champion Alaina Schumann '17 photo courtesy Germantown Academy Athletic Department
FORT WASHINGTON, PA- Cool, calm and collected, Germantown Academy’s Alaina Schumann ’17 won her first Inter-Ac League title at Monday’s Inter-Ac League Girls’ Diving Championship Meet at GA.
The junior diver posted 248.5 points to best Maia Golub ’17 of Episcopal Academy (242.0) and Willow Tierno ’16 of Penn Charter (240.15).
“One of my goals was top three at Inter-Acs and I got that and I am very happy about that,” said Schumann, who finished in fifth place at last year’s league championship meet and took eighth as a freshman. She also finished sixth overall at the 2015 Easterns Championships.
Possibly one of the biggest differences for Schumann is the arrival of diving coach Tom Henninger ’07, a five time Inter-Ac and three time Easterns champion during his career at GA.
“It's just very helpful having teammates and having the coach support system,” said Schumann, who started diving in seventh grade for a summer team and is now hoping to dive in college. “My confidence level is so much higher now than last year, and again I didn't have a coach, I had the swimmers as teammates, but it's so much better to have the people who do the same sport as you because they know what you are going through and if you fail a dive they can be there for you."
Pictured above(left to right) GA's Diving Coach Tom Henninger '07, Lauren Rajauski '16, Amanda Parker '17 and Alaina Schumann '17 -photo courtesy Germantown Academy Athletics
“Coming in she had a lot of the gymnastics background so she had the attitude and the drive, but we got really into having all the reps with the harder dives and she was able to put them together for the meet today,” said Henninger. “We've been taking little pieces and going along with what she had and fine-tuning everything she had for today."
While Schumann added a few new dives to her repertoire since the beginning of the year, Henninger really has been more focused on her mental approach to the sport.
“A lot of things we are doing are more mental,” said Henninger. “Every day we come in and make her bring in a daily goal. She makes monthly goals and season goals. We've all been very goal-based and going through a process with the routine and building everything up, but we don't want to take our goals into the meet, rather everything that is small in the process that we do, and it worked out.”
Also standing out for the Patriots were senior Lauren Rajauski '16 and junior Amanda Parker '17, who finished in seventh and 11th places, respectively.
"Lauren has been awesome,” said Henninger. “I’m kind of bummed out because she is a senior and she made a comeback to diving this year. She dove her freshman year when she went to Lower Moreland and decided to take a break. She has progressed phenomenally. A lot of her dives she did today were new dives. She has been a very good leader for the Middle School kids, along with Amanda and Alaina, and she has been really enjoyable to coach and I will miss her next year.
“And Amanda, she didn't dive at all,” continued Henninger. “She used to be a cheerleader. She has been diving for two months now and she'll be diving at Easterns too. Amanda has progressed. All of her dives were new dives.”
