Four years ago, a young freshman came in with no expectations and little to no experience off of the one meter board. And on Saturday, February 8, the senior and arguably the best diver in school history landed a spot at Middlebury College and their diving team.
Around mid-January, Ryan Greguski found out that the Middlebury Swim and Dive Coach, Bob Rueppel, would be supporting Greguski’s application.
“I had visited several colleges, being recruited at a few others,” said Greguski, “But Middlebury was my top choice at that time. Knowing they were going to support me was extremely exciting.”
However, it never dawned on Greguski how he might be able to dive in college. In fact, when asked about if he ever had the vision of diving for a college sport, he responded chuckling and a quick, “No, I didn’t.”
He came in as more of a soccer player and never originally saw his path going towards the diving board. Once the college process started for him however, he saw it as a possibility as he continued to fall more in love with the sport.
And with the passion of the sport growing larger and larger, the talent grew along with wanting to get better and better. While he may not have started as a diver, he formed himself into one. He was able to shape himself through the TriSynerg camp at Indiana University and the Longhorns diving camp at the University of Texas in Austin where he was coached by many coaches, college divers, and some Olympic divers.
Greguski constantly feels that diving is “rewarding” in its own way. It’s what always made him want to go back to diving and to get better at it. But that doesn’t disregard the fact that it’s more for him than placing and trophies as he said.
Greguski said, “The way I like to think about it is every meet I want to do better than I did before. I don’t care that much about what place I come in. It’s more just myself and did I dive well.”
While the skill of diving has increased for him, so has his mental strength. For him, it has been possibly the most “mentally challenging sport” he’s played.
“I tend to think too much sometimes,” he said, “Just learning to not think and trust myself sometimes is something I’m always working on. I know physically I can dive but then I put this pressure on myself and it gets in the way.”
Even with this, he’s broken multiple records starting his sophomore year with the 11-dive Canterbury team record towards the end of the season. Following that the next season breaking the team 6-dive record which was at 196. He demolished it with a score of 212. He also just recently broke the 6-dive pool record set by another diver from a different school at 254. He broke it setting not only the pool record but his personal best at 257.55.
You look at all that he’s accomplished from crushing records, securing three NEPSSA titles for the whole Boys Swim and Dive Team, being one of the many strong points of the swim team dynasty, and being a leader on the team, it’s hard to say he isn’t one of, if not the best male diver in Canterbury School history. It’s just as hard to say he’s not one of the best in the division.
“I would say yes based on the scores,” Ryan said humbly, “I do not know who the previous male divers though, so I do not know how accomplished they were.”
And with the New England Diving Championship looming within a few weeks, Greguski is feeling better than ever and feels confident in his ability to take the title as last year he was the runner up to a diver from Avon whom he beat this past week. Not only that, it’s at one of the pools he feels most comfortable at being Westminster.
Regardless of the title this year or not, one can only say he’s made his mark at the hilltop. He was an integral part of the Swimming and Diving Legacy team who took home four championships, three of which he helped secure. He broke records and landed his name on the record board.
Ryan has earned many nicknames throughout his high school career. But “Diveguy”, a playoff of his other nickname “Ryguy”, has shown just how far he’s come in his journey off the one meter board. And thankfully, his career off the board won’t end at Canterbury. Middlebury will be getting a talented diver and someone who will be able to anchor their diving team possibly from his first dive.
Needless to say, the diver has made an impact. He will look to finish off his high school diving career in a few weeks’ time by crowning himself as the best diver in his division and school history.
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