With unfortunate losses to The Hopkins School on Saturday, January 9, the Kent boys and girls diving teams are focusing on applying what they learned in future competitions.

The boys were outscored 95-88 and the girls went down 106-69. Hopkins brought impressive swimmers and divers making the competition tough. Despite impressive performances by many Kent athletes, the gaps between the teams were still insurmountable.

Diving Captain Brett Cataldo ’16 says, “I’m happy about the heart our teams displayed during the meet. We showed great sportsmanship, cheered on our opponents and we know what we need to do to move forward.” Luckily, the teams were able to look at the positives that came from their meet and truly followed their team motto: “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” The high-spirited Kent athletes exhibited great attitudes and had fun throughout the meet. Cataldo also points out that, “It is important to learn how to lose as a team, because without failure we wouldn’t know what to strive for.”

On Wednesday, January 13, the swimming and diving team will travel to take on Loomis. The competition will again be good but the Kent teams have confidence for a strong showing. Girls diving Captain Leila Sachner ’16 says, “In previous years, Loomis has had a good team, but they aren’t anything we can’t beat. As always we will give it our best efforts and hopefully come away with the win.”

On Saturday, January 16, Kent will have another home meet, this time against Westminster, and should again expect a large audience. Four the last four years, boys swimming and diving have pulled out a New England Championship win, so the team is focused on the end of the season in addition to dual meets. Certainly, the team will improve greatly in the next few weeks, and moral is high as the championship season quickly approaches.