10
Thursday, February 26, 1976
University Daffy Kansan
Consistency is Jayhawk diver's hobgoblin
By KEN STONE
Associate Sports Editor
Photo by WALLY EMERSON
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great 19th century intellectual, said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds and statesmen and philosophers and divines."
"DIVING IS A thinking man's sport," said Hill, a favorite for first-place honors at the Big Eight championship, March 5-14 in Ames, Iowa. "I'm not saying that swimmers are illiterate, but I just don't dig googling down the pool four or five miles a day."
Mark Allan Hill, University of Kansas swim team member, would like to amend that statement to include divers, but to exclude the reference to "little minds."
Instead, the business major from Omaha, Neb. plunges into the pool as many as 300 times a day in practice, nurturing that skill and helping to maintain of a diver's reverence: consistency.
"I haven't done that well this year," Hill admitted. "I've had good meets and bad meet this season. They've either been pretty good or pretty bad."
League favorite Mark Hill
HOWEVER, by Hill's standards, a "good meet" is a first place finish and nothing less. He has placed lower than in first only because he has not succeeded, or happens he still is as well, as second or third.
Hill helped win its eight consecutive Big Eight swim title last year by placing second in both high board and low board diving as a freshman. He qualified for the NCAA championships and placed about 50th among the 100 entered.
Although he said he was certain he had improved this year, Hill returned to his first campaign.
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"I HAVEN'T BEEN consistent this year," said Hill, who qualified for the NCAA meet in his first meet this year. "I don't understand what it was. I wouldn't be inconsistent."
No doubt Hill is applying his penetrating intellect to the question.
"Every dive you do in workout has to be thought out; it must be thought through. You can hurt yourself very easily diving, but your confidence doesn't feel very good when you hit it."
"You have to be totally aware of what you're doing up there, especially on the ceiling."
Hill said he was concerned that he lacked the "edire" need to impress the indere
HILL DIVED OFF the three-meter board for the first time last year, yet it appears to be his forte. High schools in Hill's home state, Nebraska, don't have the high board. His toughest dives have a degree of difficulty. The optional dives include a back-and-dash somersault with a one and one half twist and a sault two and one half off the low board.
Dives of that difficulty are prerequisite
o scoring well in national competition, but
"The name Ohio State" separates divers, along with Indiana and SMU. That's their edge. But there are a lot of other schools, too. And their divers are set apart because they jump a little bit higher and point their toes a little bit more."
WHAT, THEN, would distingush Hill from 99 other NCAA divers?
"I'm probably one of the tallest divers there. I'm 6 feet 1. Divers range around 5 feet 7 of 5 feet 8. Last year, (KU)'s Steve King was 5 feet 5."
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Gene Doane Agency 824 Mass.
Such height was a factor in making Hill a success in another sport, high jumping. In Nebraska, he placed in state competition three straight years, taking two fourths and one third in the final. He faced feet 6 and one half inches, his marks in state meet competition were a little lower.
"I did 6 feet 4 my sophomore, junior and senior years. Every year 6 feet 4. Can you believe that? I didn't improve. It was like pre-destined."
Maybe. But nobody could say he wasn't consistent.
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