TAMAQUA — As the Tamaqua football placekicker, Thorn Devlin knows what it’s like to practice alone.
Kickers, punters and other members of the special teams often practice separately from the rest of the team. There’s no grueling, two-hour practices, but there’s a lot of personal time to think about how to correct mistakes and perfect the craft.
Diving is the special teams of high school swimming. Like missing a field goal or extra point in football, the points accumulated in diving can often be the difference between a team winning and losing a close dual meet.
Devlin understands the analogy. He knows the more time he puts into diving and the more opportunities he gets to challenge himself against other divers will not only help his team, but help him prepare for the Schuylkill League and District 11 diving competitions in February.
The Schuylkill League’s new, expanded dual-meet schedule aids that quest. Thursday’s meet against Blue Mountain was a perfect example.
The Eagles cruised to a pair of victories over the Blue Raiders, with the boys winning 124-32 and the girls capturing a 111-62 victory.
Maddie Krause (200 free, 500 free) won twice for the Blue Mountain girls (3-1, 2-0 SL), while Rebecca Kanaskie (200 IM, 100 breast) and Danielle DeCindio (50 free, 100 fly) were double-winners for Tamaqua (0-3, 0-2 SL).
Nathanael Marino (200 IM, 100 back), Stephen Johnson (50 free, 100 free) and Mark Boran (100 fly, 100 breast) were double-winners for the Blue Mountain boys (4-0, 2-0 SL), who won 11-of-12 events.
Devlin had the Blue Raiders’ only boys’ victory, outdueling Lyle Luckenbill in a matchup of the top two boys’ divers in the Schuylkill League. Getting scores in the 7s on two of his six dives, the 5-foot-10 junior compiled a career-high 196 points to place first.
Luckenbill, the defending Schuylkill League champion, finished with 149.70 points while Blue Mountain’s Josh Sham (133.35) was third. Blue Mountain’s Emma Barrett won the girls’ diving competition with 153.20 points, beating Tamaqua’s Emma Rago and Maizy Troxell.
“I had some good dives,” Devlin said. “I felt pretty good diving. I’m really excited about getting 196.”
In years past, Thursday would have been the only time the two divers would have squared off before the two postseason competitions. Now, with each Schuylkill League team facing the other twice, Devlin and Luckenbill will battle again Jan. 20 in Orwigsburg.
The new schedule also gives each diver a chance to utilize all of the diving boards in the league instead of just a few. And with Mahanoy Area and Schuylkill Haven not having any divers, the new schedule increases the head-to-head competitions that the teams with divers — Blue Mountain, Pottsville and Tamaqua — will have.
“It gives us more chances to get opportunities to dive against other people,” Luckenbill said of the new schedule. “If it’s a close match the first time, then you have a second shot, or vice versa.”
Added Devlin: “More competitions, but the nerves are also higher. That will push me and make me do higher-scoring dives.
“You have to adjust to different boards. When we go to different places, they have different kinds of boards and different springs. It makes you a better diver because you have to adjust to different elements.”
The new Schuylkill League schedule gets into full swing in January, when teams have dual meets every Tuesday and Thursday for four straight weeks.
Both Devlin and Luckenbill said they like more competitions, as it gives them a chance to try a variety of dives in preparation for the postseason. On the flip side, they said the decrease in practice time may hamper them when something goes wrong.
“It changes big time,” Devlin said of the training schedule. “If you botch a dive really bad in a meet, you only have a day (of practice) to make up for it. Last year, we’d have 2-3 days (of practice) we can make up for the dives, getting better dives, get new dives.”
“There’s more meets, but there’s less time to prepare in between meets,” Luckenbill added. “You get more dives in, so you can get more dives qualified for districts.”
Devlin said Thursday’s meet was an example of that. Tuesday, the Blue Raiders faced Mahanoy Area, which didn’t have any divers. He tried some new dives Tuesday, then added two new dives to his regular list for Thursday.
“Tuesday, Mahanoy Area didn’t have any divers. So we were doing a couple of dives just to see what scores they were getting and what we had to adjust on them,” he said.
Meet Summaries
GIRLS
Blue Mountain 111, Tamaqua 62
200 medley relay — 1. Tamaqua (Stanek, Kanaskie, DeCindio, Brickler) 2:04.68, 2. Blue Mountain, 3. Blue Mountain
200 freestyle — 1. M. Krause (BM) 2:20.29, 2. Laubenstine (BM), 3. Freeman (BM), 4. Mena (T)
200 IM — 1. Kanaskie (T) 2:25.85, 2. Bogotuik (BM), 3. G. Krause (BM)
50 freestyle — 1. DeCindio (T) 26.95, 2. Gormley (BM), 3. Brickler (T), 4. Zehner (BM), 5. Fulk (BM)
Diving — 1. Barrett (BM) 153.20, 2. Rago (T), 3. Troxell (T)
100 butterfly — 1. DeCindio (T) 1:06.44, 2. Pascuzzo (BM), 3. Jacobson (BM), 4. Laughlin (BM)
100 freestyle — 1. R. Donohue (BM) 1:00.17, 2. Bogotuik (BM), 3. Stanek (T), 4. Brickler (T), 5. Redanauer (BM)
500 freestyle — 1. M. Krause (BM) 6:24.43, 2. Jacobson (BM), 3. Laubenstine (BM)
200 freestyle relay — 1. Tamaqua (DeCindio, Kanaskie, Stanek, Brickler) 1:51.50, 2. Blue Mountain, 3. Blue Mountain
100 backstroke — 1. Reidler (BM) 1:10.27, 2. Pascuzzo (BM), 3. Stanek (T), 4. Hudepohl (BM), 5. Mena (T)
100 breaststroke — 1. Kanaskie (T) 1:14.14, 2. E. Donohue (BM), 3. Coller (BM), 4. Redanauer (BM), 5. Szabo (T)
400 freestyle relay — 1. Blue Mountain (Gormley, Jacobson, Bogotuik, R. Donohue) 4:27.52, 2. Blue Mountain
BOYS
Blue Mountain 124, Tamaqua 32
200 medley relay — 1. Blue Mountain (Boran, Marino, Johnson, McLaughlin) 1:49.39, 2. Blue Mountain
200 freestyle — 1. Yackenchick (BM) 2:21.56, 2. Boyer (BM), 3. Ramirez (T), 4. Phillips (BM), 5. Castagna (T)
200 IM — 1. Marino (BM) 2:08.53, 2. Wilson (BM)
50 freestyle — 1. Johnson (BM) 23.76, 2. Turrano (T), 3. Wessner (BM), 4. Usuka (BM)
Diving — 1. Devlin (T) 196.00, 2. Luckenbill (BM), 3. Sham (BM)
100 butterfly — 1. Boran (BM) 58.41, 2. Turrano (T)
100 freestyle — 1. Johnson (BM) 52.33, 2. Wessner (BM), 3. Letterhouse (T), 4. Usuka (BM), 5. Castagna (T)
500 freestyle — 1. Hughes (BM) 6:19.49, 2. Ramirez (T), 3. Wilson (BM)
200 freestyle relay — 1. Blue Mountain (Boran, McLaughlin, Johnson, Marino) 1:36.39, 2. Blue Mountain, 3. Tamaqua
100 backstroke — 1. Marino (BM) 58.16, 2. Letterhouse (T), 3. Boyer (BM), 4. Luckenbill (BM)
100 breaststroke — 1. Boran (BM) 1:12.63, 2. Yackenchick (BM)
400 freestyle relay — 1. Blue Mountain (Wilson, Phillips, Hughes, Wessner) 4:22.79, 2. Blue Mountain