By Steph Wetzel
Sophomore Timmy Finley may be known for his skill in gymnastics; however, gymnastics is not the only activity that he’s accomplished a lot in. He started diving last September for a club team at University at Buffalo. During the swim season of his freshman year, he came in first place at ECICS, second place at the class-a-meet, third at sectionals, and ended up making states at sectionals.
“States was an awesome experience because there was no pressure on me because I was only a freshman,” he stated. He ended up placing thirty first out of fifty two divers. “I practiced over the summer and fall in preparation for the high school season. In just the first meet I had beaten my record from last year by twenty points, and during the third meet, I broke the thirty year old pool and school record by five points,” said Finley. He beat that record yet again, by fifteen points two meets later.
Orchard Park diver Jake Ortiz may be the best diver in the section, according to Finley. “I had beaten him once last year and he beat me once. At the meet I got nines and nine and a halves on pretty much every dive and beat my record by over fifty points. The school record set thirty years ago was 272, and the score I originally beat was 277,” he remarked. At the OP meet, his score was 331. Ortiz ended up beating him at that meet, along with setting a new record for himself. “Now we are competing against each other for the last time at sectionals. This will be the last time because Jake is a senior; however, we’re both heading to states which are at Ithaca college,” he stated. Finley is ranked ninth in the state, while Ortiz is ranked fifth. “We are both aiming for placing in the top ten, and I hope we do well because we are actually friends. We dive together at UB,” he said.
Diving isn’t the only sport that Finley is involved in here at East. Other than diving, he does some events such as the 50 free in swimming, and is associated with the gymnastics team. “I haven’t done club gymnastics since seventh grade, I only do high school now and we just do backflips and socialize, It’s all fun and games there,” he stated. Gymnastics also gave him an advantage when it came to diving because the board was somewhat similar to the floor in gymnastics.
Based on how well the swim team has been doing, he believes that the team as a whole deserves more recognition. “The spectator sports get more recognition than a sport like the swim team,” he remarked. Being the only diver on the team also leads him to believe that the sport should be announced. With or without the recognition, he really enjoys the sport. “I really like diving because it’s so unique and no one else does it,” he stated. Fellow students, Timmy Finley included, accomplish much more then what is said on the morning announcements.
