Women's Diving Feature
10/31/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Oct. 31, 2002
By John Pizzitola
Media Relations Student Assistant
This season, sophomore veterans Anna Massey and Amanda Maret will lead the Missouri women's diving squad. Massey and Maret are entering their second season as members of Missouri's team, except this year they are the seasoned veterans as last year's lone senior Erin Wilke was lost to graduation.
Despite being thrown into a leadership role usually reserved for the seniors, Massey and Maret are ready to take control of the team.
"There's not much pressure," said Maret. "It's just that we have to come in everyday and be their (freshmen) leader and always be positive. Once you get negative then they'll get negative. Everything you say, they take very seriously. They just feed off of you, so you just kind of try to be consistent in practice and hope they'll follow your steps."
This past weekend (Oct. 26) Massey and Maret helped lead the women's team to a first place finish at the Fall Illini Classic. Massey led the team with a first place finish on the 3-meter board while Maret respectively finished second on the 1-meter. As a result of this win and previous victories, Mizzou's women's swimming and diving team is now ranked No. 21 in the nation.
Such strong performances on the boards don't come easy for Massey and Maret. This past summer, Massey decided to stay in St. Louis and not return home to Springfield, Il. for the summer. She spent the summer training at the Clayton pool with MU diving coach Greg Triefenbach and fellow MU diver Jamie Sweeney. Massey also worked at the Clayton pool as a diving instructor for younger kids. Maret spent her summer training at Clayton pool with Triefenbach as well.
"It (summer training) helped a lot," said Massey. "I got to train on the tower outdoors so I'm not so scared of it anymore. Outdoors it doesn't seem as high as indoors, so I was able to get used to that."
Massey and Maret, although accomplished divers on both 1-meter and 3-meter boards, have their personal preference as to which board they compete on. "For me, probably 1-meter is my strongest," said Maret. "I didn't get to train 3-meter that much in high school since we didn't have the facilities, but I'm more consistent and have more experience on 1-meter." Massey found her diving strength to be on the 3-meter board by stating, "I feel I can be more consistent on 3-meter."
 Anna Massey won the 3-Meter at the Fall Illini Classic  |
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The transition for Massey and Maret to take over as the leaders of MU's women's diving team was made much easier by the assistance of last year's lone senior Erin Wilke.
"Erin helped a lot," said Massey and Maret. "She could answer any questions we had about rules or anything about anything. I don't know what we would have done without her."
Both Massey and Maret were attracted to Mizzou, in part by diving coach, Greg Triefenbach.
"Greg's been coaching me since I was fourteen on my club team. So he's been recruiting me since I was fourteen, and I always wanted to dive with him," said Maret. "He makes you make changes. He's pretty strict on making changes. Every time you set something, you try to focus on that thing. He also likes to joke around and make it fun."
Massey also found several factors to contribute to her decision on attending Mizzou. "I liked the size of the school and I liked how close the team was, how the girls and the guys hung out together all the time. I really liked the diving team and Greg also," said Massey. "He knows when to be serious and when we can joke around. We don't have to be so serious in practice, but when you're on the board you take it seriously."
