Lake Norman Charter gets boost from divers

Despite different experience, a pair of divers has been key to Lake Norman Charter’s recent success in the pool.

Sophomore Adyson Lowe and senior Nathan Lane have played important roles in the Knights’ back-to-back 1A/2A West regional championships, winning the meets’ diving titles the past two seasons. They were also last year’s 1A/2A state champions.

“It is a swimming and diving team,” said Lake Norman Charter coach Kevin Happ. “It’s not too often that a school around here has such a strong diving component. That helps out a lot.”

With their finish in the 1A/2A regional diving finals Feb. 1, Lowe and teammate Erin Lee, who was runner-up, gave the Knights a 37-point head start before the swimmers got into the pool. Lane’s first-place finish gave the team 20 points.

Lake Norman Charter’s girls finished 65 points ahead of Lincoln Charter, while the boys won the regional by 26 points over Shelby.

“You know you’re going into the swim meet already up,” said Happ. “That gives you confidence to go out and perform. ... It takes the edge off a little bit.”

Lane is a relative newcomer to the sport, diving for 1 1/2 years. He won last winter’s 1A/2A boys’ diving title only six months after he began training.

Aaron Hintz, who coaches the divers at Huntersville’s Carolina Diving Academy, said that Lane – a longtime trampolinist – didn’t even start diving full-time until last summer.

“When he won states, he was only diving twice a week,” said Hintz.

Lane said that he picked up the sport because training at Huntersville Family Fitness & Aquatics, less than a mile from Lake Norman Charter’s campus, was more convenient than driving 45 minutes for gymnastics.

“And plus it was a way to get more involved in my school,” said Lane.

Hintz said that Lane’s former sport has helped him make fast strides on the diving board in the past year.

“A lot of his trampoline skills have transferred over,” said Hintz. “His degree of difficulty is greatly improved and his consistency is also greatly improved.”

Lane admits that twisting has been difficult because diving requires multiple twists at time, whereas it’s a single twist in gymnastics.

“I’m still having a little bit of trouble, especially forward-twisting,” said Lane.

Lowe is a more experienced diver. She has been training with Hintz since fifth grade.

Lowe enjoys the rigorous training required to be good at the sport. She said that she also likes being able to conquer her fears by twisting off the diving board in ways she never imagined.

“Diving is very physical, but it’s mostly mental,” said Lowe. “Being able to get new dives makes you feel really good.”

Hintz said that Lowe has shown a big improvement in the past year, having better lines going into the pool and cleaner dives in general. He said that she received several high scores – 8.5 and 9 – at regionals.

“She’s a lot more confident in her dives,” Hintz said.

Although competing for Lake Norman Charter is an interesting dynamic, never practicing with the Knights, Lowe enjoys representing her school.

She recalls having the swim team come cheer on the divers at last year’s state championships.

“My swim team was behind me,” she said. “Seeing everybody happy was really exciting.”

With a long club offseason for diving – between September and February – Hintz likes his divers to compete for their schools.

“It sort of increases kids’ intensity level at practice a little more,” he said. “They know they have a date on the horizon they need to be at their best.”

It’s also a good lead-up to USA Diving season, which kicks off at the end of February or early March.

Hintz added that it’s also a good chance for the divers to get recognition from their peers.

“People know who they are for once for being the top-level athletes that they are,” said Hintz.

This story went to print before Feb. 8’s 1A/2A diving championships. Lowe and Lane defended their titles. For more, visit bit.ly/YRv03u.