WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Sophomore
Calder Biondi of the Williams College men's swimming & diving team had an outstanding performance on Saturday, Jan. 10, at Samuelson-Muir Pool, breaking the pool record on the 3-meter board with a score of 573.45 and missing the school record by a slim margin of three points.
The former pool record was held by Johann Schmidt '14 of Tufts University, as his record was set in 2012 and has stood since then. The competition against Amherst was the first meet of the season where the Ephs competed an 11-dive list. Williams will compete 11 dives again at the Middlebury Invite on Jan. 30-31, and then again at the NESCAC Championship on Feb. 19-22 and the NCAA Championship on March 18-21.
"I was happy to have the opportunity to compete in the 11-dive list before the NESCAC Championship," said Biondi.
As divers typically compete a six-dive list at dual meets, it is rare to get the chance to run a full list. This competition marked an important time to practice both types of dives for Biondi, including voluntary and optional.
For Biondi, a lot contributed to his success at this meet. Notably, Biondi competed no new dives. Rather, he scored exceptionally high on his existing list. His 5152B dive scored 67.5 points, followed by his 205C that scored 65.1 points. Biondi is typically known for his optional list, as he is a very skilled diver when it comes to the difficult dives.
Importantly, Biondi had a personal record-setting performance on his voluntary list, the five "easier" dives that require being extremely technically sound. His score on these first five dives was 206 points, which blows his typical score of around 170 out of the water. Biondi has been working hard on the details this season under new coach
Trent Makowiec, paying particular attention to his entry work.
Biondi can look to carry a lot of momentum and confidence coming out of this past weekend. For him, the team always comes first and is a huge asset to him. He had some remarks to share some of these sentiments: "I am very excited about this pool record and how it feels to contribute to the team and this record board that we look at every day. For the rest of the season, I think I can go as far as possible with the team I have behind me right now."
Looking ahead, Biondi is looking to compete a new dive this weekend at the competition against Connecticut College on Saturday at 1 p.m. in New London, Connecticut. The real focus for the rest of the season is refining his previous dives, while working to upgrade his list in a minor way.
