Former Hamline diver Bob Anderson still owns every single diving record in school history with his marks in 1983 and 1984. For over 30 years no one has taken his throne. However, Anderson’s former teammate Deb Murray, Hamline’s current men’s and women’s diving coach, said she believes first-year Skiah Garde Garcia can top his marks.

“I’ve seen Bob dive and I saw Skiah dive. In his time here at Hamline, if he progresses like he should, he should have all those records,” Murray said.

Garde Garcia certified his name in the record books last fall in Riley Pool at Macalester College on Nov. 22, 2014. He scored 273.40 on the 3-meter in six dives to place him third in school history for that category and came close to punching his ticket to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships which he missed by only 1.6 points.

“It’s nice, I want to be first [but] I’ll get there. I just need to continue to work hard and push myself and I know I’ll be able to do it,” Garde Garcia said.

Last  fall, Garde Garcia traveled from his hometown Seattle, Wash. to St. Paul, Minn. to enroll at Hamline University. Garde Garcia said competing against stiffer competition is challenging but mentally he’s been able to overcome it.

“It’s part of just any sport. There’s always going to be someone better than you, but you always have to just push yourself to be at that caliber to get better,” Garde Garcia said.

Since he’s been with the Pipers, Murray said he has been a real “standout” performer.

“I remember the first meet we were at. Just hearing coaches talk about him, he was a real standout,” she said.

During their first meet at St. Thomas, Garde Garcia was faced with one of his biggest obstacles. He was listed to dive off the 3-meter board—something he’s never done before in practice.

“I was scared because I had never done it in practice,” Garde Garcia said. “I did it and I got fairly good scores on it and it felt great.”

Garde Garcia’s confidence grew and at his first scored home meet, the Hamline Invite on Nov. 8, he came out on top in the 3-meter diving event with a 20-point victory, and total of 211 points. He also led the 1-meter event by 38 points scoring 252.75 to help the Pipers place second at the meet behind St. John’s and defeat Carroll and St. Mary’s.

Ryan Hawke, head coach of Hamline’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving program, said that along with his talent, Garde Garcia is overall a great leader for the team.

“He’s a great athlete and he’s the type of person that I’m looking to bring into the team,” Hawke said.

Murray said Garde Garcia has past experience as a coach and uses his past experience to help his current teammates. Murray said Garde Garcia has run drills with the other divers, including a time where he had a respiratory infection and she was out of town. Rather than stay at home, Garde Garcia decided to come to practice and coach the other divers to fill in for Murray.

“His work ethic is great,” Hawke said. “Even outside of practice we see him doing some extra individualized work.”

Murray said she’d like to see Garde Garcia learn some more dives over the years because she thinks he has the potential to do well in other events. Garde Garcia said the only thing that holds him back is his mentality, which is something he’s trying to work on – as Murray put it, he’s very “perfectionistic.”

“Just going for new stuff even if I’m uncomfortable with it,” Garde Garcia said, “learning new dives even if it’s scary. I’ve learned that physically I can do things, but you know, I’m holding myself back mentally sometimes…that’s my main goal, overcoming myself.”

As far as performance goals, he’s setting his sights on placing in the top three in 1-meter and 3-meter at the three day MIAC Championships meet on Feb. 19-21.

Hawke anticipates a strong performance from Garde Garcia at the meet as well.

“I’m confident that he can [place in] the top three if not win the entire conference on both boards,” Hawke said.

Garde Garcia said the main lesson he has learned from diving this season is to push himself, not just in diving but in life.

“For the longest time in diving [I] always held myself back. I was always too scared, always unsure,” Garde Garcia said. “For learning a new dive it was never the right time; but diving had definitely taught me that there’s not always going to be a right time for it you just have to go for it. Not only will that help you in diving, but it’ll help you in life.”

He elaborated on how applying that mentality in diving has helped him with other decisions in life.

“If you get a job in another city you just have to go for it; [for] me, I got accepted into Hamline, it’s halfway across the country. I moved because I figured I had to go through it,” Garde Garcia said. “A lot of people have anxieties and fears about just going for things and I think I’m better off from diving because of that, because I can conquer those fears and anxieties.”