No depth no problem for divers

There are only three competing members of the men's diving team. But even with a small roster, the Hoosiers have big expectations for this weekend's Big Ten Championship. \n"Our attitude is just to be really focused on the things we really want to be doing," Coach Jeff Huber said. "We need to be ready to dive tough in competition, and I think we are. We don't have as many athletes in the event as the women's (team does), but the depth is still there."\nThe Hoosiers begin competition Thursday with the 1-meter diving competition, followed by the 3-meter event Friday and the platform (10-meter) event Saturday. \nIn the Hoosiers' last meet before Big Tens, a Feb. 9 win against Purdue, the team showed its versatility on the three-meter boards. Sophomore Marc Carlton flirted with the pool record for top individual score, coming up short but winning the event with a 370.58 tally. Teammates junior Adam Hazes and sophomore Alex Burns followed in second and third place. \n"Without a doubt three-meter is our strongest event, and then platform and one-meter is probably our third strongest event," Huber said. "They all look pretty good off of the one-meter, we'll find out at the end of the meet who's got the best dives."\n Carlton, who holds the team season-best scores in both one-meter and three-meter, agreed and said the one-meter is his weakest event, although he thinks that all three divers could reach the finals in it. \n With the one-meter being the first event, Burns said a solid performance could set a positive tone for the rest of the meet.\n "That would be a real confidence booster for me," Burns said. "If I can do well on one-meter, I can do even better on three-meter, because I'll have the confidence in knowing that I've accomplished something before that." \n As for the competition, the Big Ten has proven to be a deep diving conference. Michigan features sophomore Jason Coben, who qualified for NCAAs, while winning both the one-meter and three-meter events, Feb. 9 against Michigan State. The sweep was his sixth of the season and garnered him his second Big Ten diver-of-the-week award. \nThe Hoosiers are all too familiar with the diving squad of Ohio State. Junior Heath Knowling won Big Ten diver-of-the-week in part for his victories in the one-meter and three-meter events against IU Jan. 12. In that meet, Ohio State senior Chris Monson and freshman Mitch Richeson took the second and third spots off the one-meter, and they figure to add more depth to the Buckeye lineup during the Big Tens. \n Iowa also figures to play a prominent role in the diving events. Hawkeyes sophomore Timo Klami and senior Simon Chrisander took the top two spots off of the one-meter boards against IU Jan. 26. Feb. 22, Chrisander set an Iowa pool record for top score on the three-meter boards. \nHuber said all teams feature at least one or two quality divers and that the competition should be stiff. \n"They'll be tough," Huber said. "They know coming into dive against Indiana at Indiana that they've got to dive well. They know they have to dive well if they want to beat us. There's certainly some good talent in the conference, so we'll have to dive well ourselves. If we do the things we want to be doing and dive tough, we should be fine."\nCarlton said, based on what he'd done in practice and what he's seen from his teammates, he is very optimistic about the team's chances.\n"We're all real confident, everyone has looked the best they have all year," Carlton said. "I think we're all going to do really well. I think we all have a good shot at making finals in all events"