De Anza diving team dominates against Las Positas College
Diver Bella Freed, 20, biomedical major, completes her dive into the De Anza pool on March 3.
March 14, 2023
The De Anza College dive team competed against Las Positas College and won in every division at the De Anza swim and dive pool on March 3.
De Anza’s dive team is made up of four members, which consists of two men and two women. Bella Freed and Alba Onda both competed and placed first and second in the women’s 1-meter.
Freed, a 20-year-old biomedical engineering major, said she felt the front 1 ½ pike was her best dive and scored 170.10. Freed also said she loves the dynamic of her team.
“I think we have a pretty good support system,” Freed said. “It’s pretty small so it’s kind of intimate.”
Onda, a 20-year-old kinesiology major, scored 148.80, which placed her right behind Freed.
Aidan Heilman, 22, psychology major, placed first in both the 1-meter with a score of 264.68 and the 3-meter dive with a score of 282.90, making him the top performer overall.
“I had one dive that I kind of botched, but it was a huge dive with a big degree of difficulty, so if there was only one dive I was going to botch it’s OK that it’s that one,” Heilman said. “I’m just excited to move on up and keep on diving and get better.”
Griffin Jarrell-Desch, a 24-year-old computer science major, is new to diving but was able to qualify for the diving competition instead of only the exhibition dives, which required five different types of dives. Jarrell-Desch said he was convinced by the Las Positas competitors and his peers to do all five different dives to qualify for the competition.
“I wasn’t preparing to do all five categories,” Jarrell-Desch said. “But then these guys, they convinced me to try it after how nice and supportive they were.”
Head diving coach Doug Schwandt said he thought the team performed better than usual and said that they are a “dream team.”
“The divers really have a great attitude,” said Shwandt. “They’re here to learn, they work well together (and) they’re very coachable. They care about what I say to them and they try to make the corrections. It’s a fun team.”
The next swim and dive meet will be on Friday, March 3 at Santa Rosa College.
