NCAA.org: Garcia Flips Gymnastics Into Diving Honors

By Greg Johnson, NCAA News Staff

Indianapolis, Ind. - Imagine earning All-America honors in a sport that you took up for the first time only a few months earlier.

Clark (Massachusetts) diver Eileen Garcia did it, and even she has a hard time believing it.

In 2008-09, as a freshman walk-on who had never dived in her life, Garcia won All-America status in the three-meter springboard at the NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. She's back for more this week at the national meet that starts Wednesday and runs through Saturday in Minneapolis.

Garcia, a sophomore majoring in communications and culture, will compete in the one-meter and three-meter events, just like last season when she was a novice in the sport. If there was a newcomer of the year award, Garcia would have won it easily, considering she was learning while competing at the highest level of Division III diving.

She grew up in Manhattan, New York, competing in gymnastics and soccer until a bout with Grave's disease, a common form of hyperthyroidism occurring when the immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid and causes it to overproduce the hormone thyroxine. It caused Garcia to have an accelerated heart rate and miss out on athletics during her junior year of high school.

Once doctors controlled the illness, Garcia decided she wanted to try intercollegiate athletics. While Clark didn't have a gymnastics team, Garcia met a male diver during an orientation program who suggested she give diving a try.

"I e-mailed (Clark diving coach Laura O'Tell) and told her I would like to try it out for a week or two," Garcia said. "I've never looked back from there."

Garcia believes the years she spent in gymnastics helped her adapt to her new sport.

"It gave me a sense of 'air awareness' along with athleticism," Garcia said. "One of the biggest differences I had to get used to was landing head first. It was weird at first, but I picked up on it pretty quickly."

Another adjustment was learning how to control tempo and balance on her approach to complete a dive. If that part of the sequence is off, the dive will fail.

Mastering the diving lingo also was a challenge.

"I still don't have all the terminology down," said Garcia, the 2010 New England Women'snd Men' Athletic Conference Diver of the Year. "(O'Tell) always has to remind me not to speak in gymnast terms."

Garcia has notched several milestones this season. She became the first Clark diver - male or female - to eclipse 300 points in a meet when she totaled 303.90 at Coast Guard. She also set the NEWMAC meet record in one-meter diving with a total of 464.75.

So there was no sophomore jinx for Garcia.

"I definitely wanted to come back to nationals, because I knew I had the potential," Garcia said. "I also know that I can do well there. As long as I go up with the best attitude and doing the dives like I know how to do them, I will be happy no matter the outcome."

One of Garcia's signature dives is a reverse one-and-a-half straight-line. She likes to perform that early in the competition.

"I love it so much, because it is a rarely seen dive," Garcia said. "It took me two months to get comfortable with that dive. It's my favorite dive, but it's not my best dive."

Garcia said she's better at executing inward dives, where she's standing facing the board, then flipping toward the board after exiting. She admits feeling apprehensive when attempting these dives, but she uses that as motivation.

"It's not always good to be 'comfortable,' " Garcia said. "You have to always push yourself to find the next dive or the next step. I'm always thinking, 'Can I change the position to make it harder?' "

Garcia has two younger sisters, Lizzy and Grace, who compete in gymnastics. Her parents, Beth and Johnny, don't get to see her perform much in college because they work in New York and are still taking care of her younger siblings.

Last year, Beth Garcia made it to the national meet, and this year Johnny Garcia will be there to support her.

"My parents were surprised that I started diving, but they love every minute of it," Garcia said. "I call them all the time after my meets. It's always exciting to know when they are going to be there."

Her parents also know that all those gymnastics classes are being put to good use.