during one of his practices.
Photo courtesy of Jim Fitzgerald
AVRIL KING
Social Media Manager and Assistant Sports Editor
“Every meet is a funeral.”
Those are the words that Christian Krasnek, a sophomore member of the Fredonia men’s diving team lives by. Why?
“Because I’m going to kill it,” he said.
It certainly seems as though Krasnek is taking these words to heart. For the past three weeks, he has been named SUNYAC diver of the week, as well as qualified for the regional competition in Ithaca.
Surprisingly, however, the Springville native was not originally interested in diving, let alone doing so competitively.
Getting his start in gymnastics in elementary and middle school, he eventually began to think about joining the local swim team in order to be with his best friend.
“The water was too cold for me, and I was kind of like, ‘I don’t want to swim,’” he said. “But they mentioned there was a diving board there and there was a previous diver who was about to leave, so I could go and take his place.”
Krasnek began his career without a coach or any sort of background in diving. Instead, he began by “messing around” and testing his capabilities based on what he had learned from his six years in gymnastics.
“I just thought it was really fun. It was something I could do that no one else did,” said Krasnek. “Diving isn’t really a big sport that people talk about that much, so I thought it was really interesting to be doing a sport that’s so unique.”
This passion for diving has continued to show through in his college career. Any student athlete can attest to the difficulties of maintaining their schoolwork while also giving their all to the sport that they love.
Krasnek, a biology major, is ready and willing to put in the time required to be successful in both school and athletics.
“He practices from 7 to 9 a.m. every morning,” said Arthur Wang, head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams.
Krasnek has high expectations for himself for the rest of the season.
Being the only freshman to attend the regional competition last season, he is hoping to make up for the upset he faced when he did not qualify for the national competition. And after a season spent learning from Fredonia national competitors Arron Carlson and Meghan Bartlett, as well as other previous divers Jake Storms and Sam Kowalewski, he feels ready to take on the competition.
“Of course I plan on going to Nationals,” he said. “It’s pretty positive at this point that I will qualify and I will go to Nationals; I’m not sure how well I’ll do there, but I know that . . . I want to win SUNYACS which is really hard.”
And how does he plan to do well at these competitions? The same way that he always does: by staying calm, not looking at any of his fellow competitors, listening to Kanye West and just “sending it.”
“It’s all about just finding a comfort and being nervous,” he said. “If you’re really nervous and you think about it too much, it makes everything so much worse. So, I get on the board and I just send it, and apparently I do really well.”
Overall, Krasnek would like to see improvement not only in his own performances, but in the capabilities of his teammates as well. With a record that is already successful, time will tell if Krasnek sees the continuous development he desires.