Three days, three events and numerous rounds of diving wrapped up on Saturday as the Texas men’s diving team closed out the Texas Diving Invitational.
The Longhorns accumulated 89 points, with top-8 finishes in every event, headlined by senior Nick Harris, who claimed the three-meter title on Friday. The team’s performance was good enough for a second-place finish in the men’s category.
Despite the runner-up finish for the men, Texas women’s diving totaled 102 points to combine with the men for 191 points, giving the Longhorns the overall title. Sophomore Jacob Jones also had a strong performance throughout the meet, leading Texas on day one, placing fourth in the one-meter with 358.15 points, 11th in the three-meter with 330.45 points and closing out the meet with a seventh-place finish with 325.50 points on Saturday.
On Thursday, Harris finished fifth in the one-meter dive finals with a score of 350. Considering his particular prowess in the one-meter event, his performance wasn’t on par with his past outings.
Luckily for Harris, Friday offered a shot at redemption.
After the first half of the competition, it appeared Harris would once again find himself short of the podium, standing in fifth place. However, from that point on, he shifted into a rhythm no one else could match. Closing the event with a meet-best score of 77.90, Harris eked out the University of Miami’s redshirt freshman Jake Passmore by 9.60 points for Texas men’s only first-place finish of the week.
A comeback like that didn’t surprise anybody on deck. As a captain, Harris has learned to shift his attention from outcomes to actual improvement. Now in his final year of eligibility, diving head coach Matt Scoggin said Harris has been training like he never has before.
“More than his entire career, in the last 10 weeks, (Harris) has been training with purpose and focus,” Scoggin said. “These last 10 weeks, he has been all in, and that comes with being a leader and in the maturity knowing that, ‘Hey, I’m at the end of my time pretty soon. I’m gonna go out in style, and I’m gonna come in and make every workout count.’ And that’s what he’s doing.”
It’s that mentality that earned him the right to be named captain: an unmatched level of experience that sets the tone and raises the bar for those around him. But even with the premium title, Harris understands the role isn’t about him. It’s about those who will soon follow in his footsteps.
“Just being named a captain on this team, too, it all comes with responsibility,” Harris said. “You got all these people under you. I got the sophomores, juniors, people under me. I gotta lead. I gotta motivate every day. I gotta make sure they’re achieving their goals as well, not just mine. I gotta put them first.”
Harris and his fellow divers will have a brief break from competition as the Texas Swimming Invitational begins this week. Texas diving will pick up on Dec. 9 with the USA Diving Winter Nationals.
