Being both a state swimmer and state diver is a satisfying feat for Hazen’s Alex Klemetsen, but it didn’t happen without a boatload of hard work.
“After you swim, you’re very physically exhausted,” Klemetsen said. “Then after you dive, you’re very mentally exhausted.”
In the winter sports season, Klemetsen had swim practice from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m., then straight into dive practice until 5:30 p.m. every weekday.
The junior has been with the swim team for three years, but this year was his first try at diving. And he seems to be a quick study: One day after learning the inward double (what he calls his hardest dive) he pulled the move off in competition.
Swimming and diving may both go on in the pool, but Klemetsen has drastically different approaches to each. According to him, swimmers don’t need to really think during the race because their bodies are already accustomed to what they’re doing. They just have to be strong and capable of swimming fast.
“With diving you have to think about every little part about it,” Klemetsen said.
He qualified for state in diving Jan. 31 at the Hazen Dive Invitational. Divers must score at least a 300 with total degree of difficulty of 11.6 at an 11-dive meet. Klemetsen scored a 343 with a 12.2 degree of difficulty.
The state qualification came as a surprise to him, “I actually thought I did terrible that day.”
Klemetsen made the finals and placed 15th at the 3A state meet in the one-meter dive competition Feb. 19-21.
He was also able to qualify for state as part of Hazen’s 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams.
“It’s a big deal to me to qualify in both,” he said. “It’s a huge accomplishment because I haven’t been to state in swimming.”
Hazen’s 400 freestyle team (Klemetsen, along with Emoniel Isakharov, Jake Johnson and Corbin Kozai) placed 18th in the preliminaries and missed the finals by just over three seconds.
Hazen’s 200 medley team (Klemetsen, along with Nathan Tat, Eric Carlson and Tommy Truong) was disqualified.
As a team Hazen tied for 25th at state, with 17 points.
