Malvern Prep’s Nick Harris is Main Line Boys Athlete of the Week
A sophomore, Harris repeated as National Catholics diving champion Jan. 19 with a score of 292.55. He was a NISCA All American diver his freshman year, as well as Inter-Ac and Eastern Prep diving champion, and has been undefeated as a high school diver (as of Jan. 20). Harris broke the Penn Charter pool record for diving Jan. 9 with a score of 338.55 eclipsing the old record by six points. He holds the Malvern Prep pool record with a score of 340.02, and dives on the USA Diving stage in several different diving events with his club diving team – TNT out of Upper Dublin High School.
Q: What was your best performance of the 2018-19 season and what was the key to your success that day?
A: My reverse twister at Germantown Academy was my best performance and most memorable moment of that season. It scored 74 points. The key was a good rest before the night before the meet .
Q: How do you adjust to different boards, and how important is it to get practice in at different sites?
A: Its not that much of a difference actually. It is very important to get practice in at different pools to make sure you can find your spots for when you come out of your dives before actually competing.
Q: What (in your opinion) has been your best dive so far this season? What was the key to your performance on that dive?
A: My reverse twisters have been looking great this season. Support from my teammates is always great, taking your mind off stressing about a dive.
Q: What, to you, is the major difference between indoor and outdoor diving competitions?
A: When diving indoors, you can see a difference between the diving well and the rest of the pool. When diving outside sometimes it is hard to differ between the pool and the sky which can mess up spotting (because they are both blue).
Q:What are your best dives, in order?
A: On 1m, Front 2 ½ Somersault Pike, Reverse 2 ½ Somersault Tuck and Reverse 1 ½ Somersault with 2 ½ twists.
Q: What’s the coolest place you’ve ever dove from?
A: The 10 meter platform in Greensboro, N.C. back in 2017.
Q: Tell us a little about your pre-meet preparation the day of a meet.
A: Before a meet, I have a light snack. I stretch before meets and visualize my dives in my head. This helps the feeling of muscle memory when actually in the dive.
Q:Take us through a typical workout session, both in the pool and in the weight room.
A: Before getting in the pool I do some dryland work, flips and exercises, mostly core work. Then, I stretch some more, mainly my pikes and splits. After that, I start with a few warm-up dives like front jump and dive, along with back jump and dive, etc. After that, I start my list, which changes every day. This all takes around three hours to complete. Weightlifting I mostly do at home, in between studying
Q:What aspect of your diving have you been working on the most recently? Who have been your biggest diving mentors, and what was the most important thing each of them taught you?
A: Recently I’ve been working a lot on synchro diving, which is when my partner and I dive exactly at the same time. I don’t really have a mentor, I appreciate the work of my high school coach, Zach Burns and my club coaches, Tarra and Todd Michael. I also work a lot with my synchro partner on my club team, we push each other to improve.
Q:What sparked your initial interest in diving?
A: I’ve always liked to do flips and I actually used to be a swimmer. So mixing those two together gives you diving. My parents let me try it and I fell in love with it over time.
Q:What is your favorite academic course at Malvern Prep?
A: Right now it would have to be Spanish.
Fun facts – Nick Harris
Favorite book: Scorch Trials.
Favorite TV show: Friends.
Favorite athlete: David Boudia.
Favorite team:Philadelphia Eagles.
Favorite place to visit: San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Favorite pre-meet meal: Chik-fil-a.
Family members: parents (Jim Harris and Dr. Gwendolyn Niebler) and older sister Gabriella.
(To be selected as Main Line Boys Athlete of the Week, a student-athlete must first be nominated by his coach.)
To view a gallery of the Main Line Boys Athletes of the Week from 2013 to present click here
