BY Marion Chronicle Tribune

After the first meet of the season, Oak Hill senior diver Matt McClain could tell the competition would be tough all season long, and that was only taking into account the divers on his own team.

McClain, who currently owns the two school records for highest scores in six- and 11-dive competitions, has been competing closely with teammates Nathan Boyer and Travis Cardini, both of whom also have broken the original records.

"Without either of them, I probably wouldn't be doing as well as I am right now," McClain said. "They give me motivation to work that much harder. Yeah, they're my teammates, but you never want to lose."

At the first meet of the season, Boyer, Cardini and McClain all broke the school record for the highest score in six dives. Boyer set the record with his first place finish and broke it again later in the season. Thursday, McClain raised the bar to 241.35 points against Northwestern.

The Eagles have competed in only one meet with an 11-dive competition (Oak Hill Invitational on Jan. 12). All three divers broke the original record of 328.75 points set by Corey Key in 1999, but McClain tallied the highest score at 374.75 points to set the record.

"Anything can happen because all three of us have beaten the old record," McClain said. "It just comes down to who has a better meet and how we're doing that day. When I have a good day, it seems like all of us are having a good day."

Breaking a record has always been in McClain's sights after diving for all four years, he said.

"My first couple years, I wanted to break the record, but I didn't know if I could," McClain said. "It was one of those things where I thought if I had a really good meet, I could do it, but I never really had a great meet. This year, I came out and just wanted to do anything I could do to break it."

A big piece of the puzzle to McClain's success has been first-year diving coach Bobby Hart, who came to Oak Hill after coaching 12 years at Marion. Hart replaced Shannon Griffith, who resigned after becoming too busy with her full-time job.

"Having Bobby Hart is a big help," McClain said. "He's taught me a lot of things and helped me out a bunch."

Hart said, when he came to Oak Hill, the divers already had learned most of the necessary things they needed to know in order to dive well. The only thing he had to do was fine tune those skills by perfecting small technical aspects of the dives.

"(McClain's) been working really hard on the small things," Hart said. "Anyone can throw a big dive, but it's the small things that lead up to it. He's been working hard on the small things, which is giving him the better confidence with throwing a harder dive."

With Hart labeling his group as the best divers to come through Oak Hill, he said he wouldn't be surprised if the school records change hands a few more times before the end of the season.

"It's going to come down to the last meet of the year, and someone will have that record," Hart said. "I think it will be broken before the end of the year and all three of them are capable of doing it. All those guys have something they are good at, but Matt's been diving very well the last couple weeks and he's the one that's on top right now."

McClain is no stranger to competition. This year he went to the state finals in cross country where he placed 46th out of 198 runners. Oak Hill swim coach Mark Yordy said a lot of his highly competitive experience carries over to the pool.

"He's very athletic," Yordy said. "He's a very good runner. He's competed at a very high level and he's been to the state in cross country and track. His competitive nature is his greatest strength."

Yordy echoed the sentiments and said Hart has been doing great.

"Bobby has done an excellent job with our divers," Yordy said. "Matt has responded very well to his coaching. So that certainly has been a big factor in it. This is Matt's senior year. It's now or never so he's been really listening to Bobby a lot and trying to do what Bobby wants him to do. He has changed a few things in his approach and really he's done a great job with

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