Aug 4, 2007

DIVING DUO

Stanford's Cassidy Krug and Menlo School's Alyssa Robinson take different approaches at national event

By Vytas Mazeika / Daily News Staff Writer

No doubt Cassidy Krug smiled more than once as she cut through the water of the Stanford pool on Friday.

"One of my favorite parts of diving, and it doesn't happen all that often - which is probably why it's one of my favorites - you go through the water and you know you did a good dive," said Krug, a Stanford affiliate competing in the Kaiser Permanente National Diving Championships in Palo Alto. "That feeling is really good."

"You just go, 'Yes!'" said Alyssa Robinson, a senior-to-be at Menlo School and a fellow member of Stanford Diving. "It's like a rush. You go, then you hit the water and it all comes undone."

Thanks to a high-scoring fifth and final dive - a forward 2 1/2 somersault 1 twist pike awarded mostly 8.0s and 7.5s - Krug finished fourth in the semifinals of the women's 3-meter springboard Friday, earning a spot in Sunday's final.

"It's pretty cool because it's national championships and it's right here, in our home pool," said the 22-year-old, who just graduated from Stanford and has her sights set on Beijing and the 2008 Olympic Games.

"At this point, I feel like I have what it takes in me," Krug added. "It's just going to come down to me doing it at the right time, at the right place, at the right moment."

The 17-year-old Robinson and another Stanford affiliate, Sarah Ohr, didn't make it past the preliminaries, with Robinson finishing 24th and Ohr 31st.

"I don't expect that much because these people are really good, they're amazing," Robinson said Thursday before diving. "It's just kind of cool to be around them."

This was a learning experience for Robinson, who shared a room with Krug for part of the summer in The Woodlands, Texas.

"We've gotten to know each other pretty well, but not like too well," Robinson said. "I don't know everything about her."

There is one thing Robinson has noticed about Krug.

"She's always so focused, and it's hard for me to focus," said Robinson, who's been diving since she was 7. "I get distracted. Like with music, I'll dance or something, and she'll be focused. And I kind of need to learn to do that if I want to advance."

"I would feel weird saying, 'Hey, Alyssa, stop dancing. Focus on diving,'" Krug said. "For some people, it works really well for them. They'll focus on the dive when they're doing the dive, and in the meantime relax. I actually probably need to relax a little bit more."

"She's good focused," Robinson added.

Raised by parents who were also her coaches (in high school and at Pitt Aquatics), Krug balanced diving with gymnastics until the age of 15, when she chose the springboard.

Krug, who trained for about 25 hours a week during the summer, flew back and forth from the Bay Area to The Woodlands to practice with Nancilea Foster, her partner in the synchronized 3-meter event. The pair finished third in preliminaries at nationals Tuesday and will compete again Sunday.

Will there be any new adjustments between now and the finals? Not if Krug follows the advice of her coach at Stanford, Dr. Rick Schavone.

"Coach says, 'You have to dance with the girl you took to the dance,'" Krug said. "So basically, the work that we've done has been done in the past few months, it's behind us. At this point, it's just a matter of getting comfortable, getting in the right mind-set."

Time to get focused, in a good way.


NOTES: An English major with creative writing emphasis, Krug would love nothing more than to become the next J.K. Rowling, having fallen in love with the Harry Potter books. "She's an amazing writer," said Robinson, who read Krug's columns in the Stanford Daily, written along with another diver, Kevin McLean. ... Robinson will travel south to Mission Viejo for next week's Speedo Junior Nationals while Krug gets a break of a little more than two weeks in which she plans to travel home to Pennsylvania and New York. "All these things that I can't really do when I'm on a daily training schedule," Krug said.


E-mail Vytas Mazeika at vytas@dailynewsgroup.com.