Auburn University's divers will compete at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships in Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend.
Head diving coach Jeff Shaffer has been working with the divers to prepare them for the competition and hopes they can keep their focus on what is important.
"The athletes' goal is to compete against themselves." Shaffer said. "They need to focus more on taking one dive at a time to the best of their abilities, because they all have the ability to come out with their personal best and an NCAA championship."
During practices, divers don't mess around. They practice as if it is the real thing.
"We practice like a meet," Dan Mazzaferro said. "We try to focus on lists and only having one shot to do a dive and hit it."
For the NCAA championships, the divers have goals they hope to accomplish.
"I hope to qualify on the first day," Kelly Marx said. "That's my goal. I want to be consistent and increase my scores."
Mazzaferro had similar goals.
"I'm hoping to make NCAA," Mazzaferro said. "I want to go there and get all the stress away in the one meter and push my team and support them to make it to the NCAA team. We need to get more people on the team."
During practices the divers concentrate on doing two lists with only one chance to do them right.
"We have been doing a lot of lists," Marx said. "We do two in a row and then combine the total. We have to be able to hit two in a row."
In the past, Mazzaferro has won title in platform diving and three-meter dive in the SEC, with Marx taking SEC championship in the men's one-meter dive.
"I don't want them to get caught up in the end product," Shaffer said. "It's all about confidence and consistency. I just want them to step up and dive with consistency and confidence."
The event takes place all weekend, and is hosted by the University of Tennessee.
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