By Hayden Swope
While swimming has made a big impact on Salina Central’s Caroline Fields, a sport she did when she was younger set her up for recent success, and she wasn’t even expecting it.
“I started swimming and diving for Salina Central High School when I was a freshman, but I did gymnastics for about seven years before that,” Fields said. “Because I did gymnastics for such a long time, I was able to easily pick up diving. I didn’t have to try to learn how to properly flip, twist, and stay tight in the air because I was already familiar with how to do all of that.”
Fields has a list of accomplishments she wishes to achieve in just a short amount of time, and one of them involves a very important state meet in the future.
“One main goal I have for this season is to place in the top five at state,” Fields said. “One of my high school goals has been to reach 400 points at an 11 dive meet, however I would need to compete dives with a higher diving difficulty to reach that goal. Because half of my time goes to swimming, I am only able to work on improving the dives I already have, so the possibility I have of achieving that goal is low. Beating my own record has been a goal of mine ever since I originally broke it, but it isn’t my main focus.”
While improving over the years, Fields is still proud of the finish she had just a few years back, and has grown off of those moments.
“My most memorable moment is probably when I broke the school record for six dives my sophomore year,” Fields said. “That specific meet, I was only trying to qualify for state, but I ended up breaking the school record as well. I never thought that breaking the record was something that I could do, especially not as a sophomore, so I was very surprised when it happened.”
