Malcolm places in NCAA diving champs

As hundreds of students fled the snowstorm at the start of spring break to find haven in warmer climates, junior Stuart Malcolm did just the opposite. By winning the platform competition at the Zone "A" Diving Meet at Rutgers, Malcolm qualified for the first time to travel to bitterly cold Minnesota to represent Princeton at the Men's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

"What helped me to get to NCAAs this year was the ability to really concentrate at the zone championships and relax and trust in myself to know that I could make it," Malcolm said. "In preparation, more concentration on tower was needed, and I think I was consistently doing a lot more platform diving this year."

Despite qualifying for this prestigious meet, Malcolm's hardships were far from over. Malcolm faced the combination of competing alone and balancing examinations, making the competition one of Malcolm's most challenging in his diving career.

"Traveling without the team was a new experience and made me much more nervous because I was the only one representing Princeton, and I couldn't look to others for support," Malcolm said. "It's always nice to have a familiar face competing alongside you, as well as to share the experience with."

While senior Michelle DeMond also competed alone in diving at the women's championships a week before, Malcolm faced greater difficulties, as the men's competition was held before examinations period had ended, challenging him to balance practicing and studying.

"The meet was really difficult to prepare for because it was at the end of a long season and was tiring," Malcolm said. "I had to reschedule one midterm and write one in my hotel room under my coach's administration, which was difficult because I had to find time to study for it and to take it while practicing and training for most of the day."

Though this amount of stress may have hindered Malcolm's performance, he still dove strongly, placing 33rd in the 3-meter competition and 24th in the platform competition. Despite not qualifying for the finals, which require a top-16 place after preliminaries, Malcolm cherished the opportunity to compete with the best around the country.

"The degree of difficulty of the dives people were performing was also higher than in [either] the Ivy League or the Zone Competition. Being around such talented divers was of course very intimidating, but it was important to not let that mess you up because diving can be all over the place," Malcolm said. "Watching the other divers was very useful because it showed me what kind of dives the top guys do and what I need to learn or continue doing if I want to be competitive with them."

Though not performing his best this season, Malcolm still finished the season on a high note. His performance this year at NCAAs hints at an even stronger senior year.

"Hopefully I'll use these nationals as a way to better perform for next year," Malcolm said. "I know now that had I dove well, I would have placed pretty well, so there is always room for improvement."