The men's swimming and diving team was a little disappointed when only one from their ranks was selected to participate in last weekend's NCAA Championships in Oxford, Ohio. But there was nothing disappointing about the performance of that representative, sophomore diver Rob Matera.
Matera competed in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dive over the four day span, finishing in 14th in both events. Those places were enough to earn him honorable mention All-American status in each, as the ninth through 16th place finishers automatically earned the honor.
The NESCAC as a conference was also well represented, as Amherst junior Kai Robinson placed first in both events.
"Overall I would say I was really satisfied with my performance," Matera said. "I missed a dive or two, but that is expected at any meet. I did better than I expected in both, so I was happy."
Matera posted a solid season for the Jumbos, becoming one of the key members for a team that finished second in the NESCAC. The sophomore's consistency was key to Tufts success, as he finished first in both diving events at the Jumbos' head-to-head meet all but one time. He also had finished atop the standings in both events at the MIT and Middlebury Invitationals, two meets that boasted tough competition.
Matera started the campaign in the 1-meter on Thursday afternoon, an event in which he had finished fourth at the NESCACs at the beginning of the month. With 22 divers competing, Matera managed a score of 381.90 for his 11-dive program. The score was good enough to earn Matera and Tufts three points and also saw the sophomore get the better of Amherst senior Connor Boyd, who had bested Matera in the NESCAC Championship meet.
"I am actually better at 3-meters than 1-meter so I wasn't expecting to place at all in 1-meter," Matera said. "I like the 3-meter because you get to do bigger dives and it's more high risk and more fun, but that was generally how everyone at the meet felt. So I ended up the same because everyone dove better too."
The divers then took Friday off before competing in the 3-meter on Saturday, an event in which Matera shined during the season and that had garnered him All-NESCAC honors. Matera once again delivered a fine performance, posting a 413.55 showing for his dives. That left him just shy of SUNY Potsdam sophomore Nathan Larowe, who finished in 13th place with a score of 414.85.
"I'm very impressed," coach Adam Hoyt said. "I guess I wouldn't say it blew me away because I'm not necessarily surprised. He is a hard worker, a focused athlete, a consistently hard worker and focused diver throughout the whole year. I have seen him dive at two championship competitions and in both cases he has really risen to the highest level of the competition, so I had a feeling he would do really well at the national level because of that."
Despite failing to get any closer to an All-American spot, the performance in the 3-meter dive was impressive. Matera also gained valuable experience to help him in the future, as his strong season attests to the fact that he will likely be back at the NCAA Championships in the future.
"I thought it was a great experience to go, and I wasn't really expecting to see that level of diving in Div. III at all," Matera said. "I saw some crazy divers doing dives I wasn't expecting to do in Div. III, so it showed me the bar is much higher than I thought it would be. It is good to see that level of competition and get to know what needs to be done to perform at that level."
"I think Rob will continue to improve," Hoyt added. "I don't know how much he can improve, but he can improve for sure because he has some great diving coaches and he really works hard at trying to improve himself and be better everyday. I'm excited to see how much he can improve and I think he can learn some new dives and improve on some old dives in the next few years."
