BY St. Cloud Times

There must be a little something extra put in the water at Sauk Rapids, as it seems the Storm swimming and diving team has a knack of turning out outstanding divers.

While the Storm's previous big star, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay freshman Kayla Deters, was on the girls' side, the latest diving headliner comes from the boys side in the form of senior Wes Schlichting.

While Schlichting did not get involved in the sport until seventh grade through persuasion by his older brother, he has an extremely successful career.

Schlichting has made state four times since he broke through as a top performer in eighth grade.

Schlichting left his mark at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School this season, setting a school diving record Jan. 9 with a 270.30 score in a 98-86 defeat of St. Cloud Tech.

"It was pretty amazing. It was the meet of a lifetime," Schlichting said. "It was just hard to believe and the crowd was excited about it."

The record-breaking performance came at the perfect time as it kept the Storm ahead of the Tigers in the Central Lakes Conference standings.

"It was really hard to take it all in," Schlichting said. "It was just unbelievable."

Schlichting said he had a feeling it would be one of the better days of his career. Stellar opening dives confirmed the feeling, and he built on it.

"It is usually the first two dives when you feel if you're going to get any momentum going," Schlichting said. "You are always thinking about what you just did and I got off to a great start and it carried from there."

Much of the credit for his standout performance and career season can be attributed to a new technique.

While most divers do a forward summersault, Schlichting competes with the reverse two-and-a-half. The technique earns a 3.0 difficulty rating and includes an initial forward motion that is followed by a two-and-a-half rotation.

"Nobody else can do that from what I've seen," head coach and former St. Cloud State swimmer Tom Swanson said. "He is just a very positive kid and he certainly deserves his success."

Schlichting flirted with the maneuver last season in practice, but waited until this season to use it in a meet.

"This year is when I really started hammering down on it and trying to get it at perfection," Schlichting said. "It has now become such a big part of my game."

New diving coach Jon Hazen also has fueled Schlichting's confidence and has him ready to use the two-and-a-half in meet.

"He is more of a go-get-it kind of coach," Schlichting said. "He will push you really hard and is very enthusiastic so that kind of helped out my two-and-a-half."

Swanson said he feels Hazen has had the perfect influence on getting the most out of Schlichting, who already has accomplished a lot.

"He brings in a lot of youth and a lot of fun, but along with that, a lot of passion," Swanson said. "He brought sort of a different outlook to Wes and I think having two perspectives has really helped him."

Schlichting now hopes that his new maneuver and veteran experience at the state-tournament level will lead to an improvement on his 10th-place finish last season.

And maybe the combination will propel him to the top five when the state meet starts Feb. 28 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

Of course, Schlichting must first qualify through Section 4A. Sauk Rapids, Sartell and Princeton are the southern-most schools in a region that includes most of the Iron Range and the Duluth area.

"We know he will continue to have success but it is all about going out there and having fun," Swanson said.

"We try and say, 'Just have fun and enjoy it,' and we know he will."

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