Vednesday • February 18, 1998
S The Battalion
PORTS
Come On In,
The Water’s Fine
mior Mark Naftanel a big splash for Aggie Diving Team
Katie Mish
Staff writer
Mark Naftanel is not afraid to dive in head-first, and
Uy is not worried about hitting the board, either.
I “I think it’s something you stop worrying about af
rit happens a couple of times,” Naftanel said.
J Naftanel, a junior at Texas A&M, started diving
Jout 11 years ago, after he decided it was time for
i to switch sports.
1 was in gymnastics, I was
Irrible, and the only thing I
I ed to do was floor,” he said. “My
xt-door neighbor was in a swimming
flogram at Texas Aquatics down at UT, so my
om talked to his mom and found out there
is a diving program down there too.”
I Naftanel immediately enjoyed diving and
[sbeen doing it ever since. He said his parents
illy encourage him in his diving. He looks to
em for direction, but they never hamper him
[mi making his own choices. Naftanel said the
der divers in his program at home also served
la source of motivation.
1 Naftanel chose Texas A&M over the Univer-
ly of Texas and Stanford. He said he chose to
Jan Aggie out of a sense of loyalty and what was
(his heart.
j “My brother and sister came here in the ’80s. I
It hooked on the traditions and the football
lekend experience,” Naftanel said.
| He added that the opportunity to be at such a great
lang facility with a great coach also helped to lure
Inhere, despite the diving team being fairly new.
]“Iwas kind of excited about coming in and sort
[starting a new tradition,” he said.
| Naftanel is currently the only male on the
ving team, due to an injury to red-shirt fresh-
lan lessie Even. Naftanel does not like being the
ply male competing.
J “Jesse’s a great teammate and he’s awesome,” Naf-
nia nelsaid. “I can’t wait until next year. It’s killing him;
it diving, and it’s killing me not having him dive.”
Naftanel said although he is the only male diver, he
gets support from the female divers and the men’s swim
team, even though they compete in different events.
Coach Kevin Wright said he sees Naftanel as an as
set to the other divers despite being the only male. He
said Naftanel’s strengths tend to set a precedent for
the other athletes.
“He’s a good all around student athlete and he’s a re
ally hard worker,” Wright said. “That in itself keeps
the environment good around here.”
Naftanel’s focus has improved from the last two
years now that he is more seasoned to the competi
tion. He said he is gradually lear ning to put away
outside distractions when he is on the boar d.
He even attended all his classes last
year during conference
competition.
“I used to get
real uptight about
it, get butterflies in my stomach and get real
nervous, but now I’ve sort of learned to take
it like a normal day,” Naftanel said.
There are still times when he gets down
on his performance, but he and Wright are
working on it.
“It can get frustrating, working on such minor
things and little techniques,” Naftanel said. “Just
pounding and pounding and trying and you can’t
do it, but you realize it’s part of the process.”
Wright said a strong point for Naftanel is
that he takes criticism well and does not take
it as a personal attack.
“He has the capacity to be honest. If I tell him
something that he needs to improve upon, as far
as a mental outlook, focus or something like that,
instead of taking it personally and considering it
to be an insult, he’ll listen, evaluate, and commu
nicate about it,” Wright said.
Naftanel said he has hopes that his swimming
career will continue after he finishes college. He is
shooting for the 2000 Olympics, but he will not stick
around for 2004.
“I’ll give it my all up to that point, but I have other
goals and I’ll want to move on,” Naftanel said.
PHOTO COURTESY SPORTS INFORMATION
ENNIS
Continued from Page 7
Coach Bobby Kleinecke said the
SU match was a good learning ex-
erience for the women’s team.
“I feel like we learned an awful lot
TlieLSU match,” he said. “It was our
rstbig road matchpJtnd it should
|elp us for the match at Rice.”
The women’s team defeated Rice
on two occasions last year, once in tire
regular season, 8-1, and again in the
NCAA tournament, 5-4.
“The second match (in the NCAA
tournament) was more indicative of
the way a Rice and A&M match is
usually going to go,” Kleinecke said. ,
Sophomore l.isa Dingwall said to
days match is importantforher because
Houston is her hometown and she
would like to have a strong showing tlreie.
“I want to go out there and show
them (Rice) that I’m a good player, es
pecially since I don’t go to school down
there (in Houston),” Dingwall said.
Despite the close match with Rice
in the NCAA tournament last year,
Dingwall said she is not concerned
heading into today’s match.
“I have total confidence in our team
this year,” Dingwall said ‘ T really do believe
that we can go out there and dominate.”
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