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Oregon native Dylan Szegedi, a three-time state placer at St. Francis de Sales High School, is used to diving against top-flight competition.
In March, Szegedi will compete in the one-meter diving event at the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in Dallas.
Szegedi, a freshman at Wayne State University, located in Detroit, qualified to the national meet by scoring 312 points during a diving meet in at Calvin (Mich.) College in November. Szegedi said divers who score 285 points or more during the regular season automatically advance to the national meet.
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| Dylan Szegedi |
“This is my freshman year in college and I know I'm not going to win everything,” Szegedi said. “I've won a couple one-meter events, but I haven't won anything on three-meter yet. I took the mindset of, don't worry about anybody else, just worry about yourself. I dive against the score; I dive against that 285 (cutoff) on the one-meter and I dive against the 295 on the three-meter, which is the national cut.”
Szegedi said scoring 312 points and qualifying for the national meet in March “was a great feeling.”
“The meet at Calvin was a lot of fun,” he said. “It's a Division III school in Michigan and they have gorgeous facilities. They have a great pool and a great team atmosphere. I hit every single dive. It was the meet of my life. I couldn't miss. It was just unbelievable. We dive against really good competition.”
Szegedi, who turned 19 on Wednesday, said he lives about 10 minutes on foot from Comerica Park and Ford Field in downtown Detroit. He chose to dive at Wayne State for several reasons, one of which was the Warriors' men's and women's diving coach, Kelly LaCroix.
“I really liked the campus,” Szegedi said. “It's tight-knit. It's not huge like Ohio State, but it's not too tiny. It's perfect, and the facilities are very nice. I really liked the way Kelly coached and handled herself, and I knew I would respond to her coaching.”
Szegedi had been coached by St. Francis diving coach Scott TenEyck for the past 10 years and placed fourth, 11th and 12th the last three years at the D-I state swimming and diving meet in Canton.
“Scott and Kelly are very similar in the way they do things,” Szegedi said. “Everything Scott's taught me, she's reiterated. The transition went really well. I was a little worried because Scott was the only coach I've ever had, but the transition from Scott to Kelly has gone very well and I could not be happier.”
The 5-foot-9 Szegedi, the son of Jamie and Andy Szegedi, is majoring in education at Wayne State. He eventually wants to teach high school history and become a coach.
“I played football in high school and did diving, so I'd like to coach both or one or the other,” he said. “I realized, in the last year and a half, that it's something I think I would like.”
Szegedi said it took less than two months to get used to college life. Wayne State competes in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
“It was a different atmosphere,” he said. “I had different classes, but diving made it go well because it kept me in a routine. Once I got into a routine, that made it a lot easier.”
Szegedi added that diving in college is a lot more demanding than it was in high school.
“We have five full-hour practices a week,” he said. “We're allowed 20 hours. The meets are different because we do one- and three-meter dives. It's a lot different physically and mentally because I have to stay on an even keel to compete. I didn't dive three-meter that much in high school, so I'm still trying to refine my skills a little bit.
“I've completed the same (diving) list for the one-meter dives for three years. I'm really starting to hone in and and improve from a confidence standpoint and my overall demeanor on the board. I've done it so many times, I could do most of these dives in my sleep.”
LaCroix, who has been a diving coach for 30 years, including the last 16 at Wayne State, said she is “really happy” to have Szegedi on the team. She said she expected Szegedi to qualify for nationals in the first half of this season.
“He's so strong,” she said, “but you want to have strength and finesse. He needed to learn to have a little more grace in his dive, which he has now. He's a coach's dream, a great role model and a great listener as well. His tenacity and his motivation will end up taking him as far as he wants to go in this sport.”
The coach added that she has very high expectations for Szegedi in the years to come.
“He will have a very wonderful career in diving, barring injury, over the next four years.” LaCroix said. “If he sets his sights on getting that national championship, he's going to come darn close or actually accomplish his goal of winning a championship. He's so good as a freshman, I can't wait to see where he ends up in the next three years. He truly has his focus in the right place.”
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