This year, our H-F boys Swim and dive team sent a diver to state. Junior Max Quirke had the honor of competing in state this year. While he did end up coming in 46th out of 48 divers, it is still, very impressive feat for a junior. The event that Quirke qualified for was one meter springboard diving.
Quirke plans on improving during the off-season and wants to come back next year better than ever. He was extremely happy to make it to state this year.
This year Quirke’s goal was to just qualify for the State Championship. “I saw my teammate Christian Curtis do it last year and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.” Curtis went on to the University of Illinois Chicago and has continued to swim and dive competitively at the Division One level.
Quirke had to make steps since last year to qualify for state. “I had to work much harder than I did last year,” said Quirke. “A big part of that was being able to get more reps this year and having Saturday morning practices to keep getting better.” His determination and drive is what made him able to qualify.
One way he was able to get consistent reps was the fact that there were only four divers on this year’s team. Having such a small number of athletes gives all of them more time to perfect their technique. It helped get Quirke ready to compete with the best divers in the state.
Quirke also plays water polo, so he is very accustomed to the water at this point. He has been on the team since his freshman year, but just moved over to play goalie last year.
The steps that Quirke believes will be a key contributor to his improvement next year would be to continue getting as many reps as he can in. Quirke stated, “Right now, being water polo season, it’s a good time to work on my legs. Over the summer I plan to join Windy City Diving, a club team in Chicago,”
Windy City Diving has been a successful club team at the local, regional and national level since 1997. The club has won 12 team championships since its founding. It seems like Quirke is making the right choice.
Quirke hopes that this team can help elevate his diving to the next level, and hopefully, he can bounce back from this year and compete with the best of the best