Jan. 5, 2005
In order to improve training conditions and allow diving coach Caiming Xie to work with both his men’s and women’s divers for the winter training and competition trip, the Irish women’s divers joined the men’s swimming and diving team on its trip to Ireland. Due to injuries and second-semester travel plans, only two of the five women’s divers – fifth-year senior Meghan Perry-Eaton and freshman Tara Hyer – were able to take the trip, making the duo of Florida natives the only females among 36 student-athletes on the trip.
The following is a Q&A with Perry-Eaton and Hyer about their experiences thus far on the trip, which was punctuated by an unexpected twist when Dublin’s National Aquatic Centre was closed due to damage from a tornado. The senior, an All-American and third-place finisher in one-meter springboard competition in last year’s NCAA Championships, aims to continue her dominance at next month’s BIG EAST Conference meet, where she has been tabbed the Most Outstanding Diver in each of the last two years. Hyer, meanwhile, has shown great promise in her initial collegiate semester, ranking second on the Irish in one-meter action.
How did it turn out to only be the two of you on this trip?
Perry-Eaton: Well, we have five divers, but Sam [Raneri] is studying in Puebla, Mexico, next semester, so she won’t be diving.
Hyer: Tyne [Feheley] was supposed to come with us, but she found out at NDI [Notre Dame Invitational] that she wouldn’t be cleared to train yet after being injured. Laura [Rings] had been hurt, but she had taken December off, and she was going to come here to restart her training, but we found out over break that she wasn’t going to be coming.
Have you been to Ireland before?
Perry-Eaton: I have. When I studied in Notre Dame’s summer program in London [in 2002], I did a lot of traveling, and I went to Ireland. I visited Cork and biked around the south coast with some friends. But I had never been to Dublin or Limerick.
Hyer: No, this is my first time here. The only other time I’ve been to Europe was when I was in sixth grade, and we visited Sweden.
Do you divers usually stick together for the winter training trips, all going with either the men’s or women’s team?
Perry-Eaton: Yes. In theory, we alternate each year going with the different teams. But my freshman year, we didn’t go anywhere, because everyone was injured. So we all just went home and tried to recover. The next year, we were supposed to go to Hawai’i with the women’s team, but it turned out that we would not have gotten much board time, so we instead just went to Purdue to train on a diving-only trip. The next year, we briefly went to Acapulco, Mexico, where both the women and men were training. That year we traveled with the women’s team, but there were some travel complications, so Caiming didn’t arrive until four days later with the men’s team. But, by that time, we had already left; we only stayed for two days, because they didn’t have useable facilities. They had nice platforms, but the pins in the pin joints on the springboards would come out if you bounced on them; we have pictures of us banging them back in with stones! It was a really beautiful pool, but the diving facilities weren’t so great. Last year, we went to Mission Viejo, Calif., with the men’s team, which was really successful. That was a really cool trip, and the training was good. This year, the facilities in Ireland were supposedly a lot better than those in Saint Lucia [where the women’s swimmers traveled to train], and we were really excited to come here.
What did you expect it to be like traveling with the men’s team?
Perry-Eaton: I knew it would be fine, because we are sort of in a different group anyway, as divers. But it is a more laid-back atmosphere when you go with another team.
Hyer: I was kind of intimidated going on a trip with the men’s team, since this is my first time doing that. But I grew up with five brothers, so I have a little bit of experience being around a lot of guys! I also was excited, though, because I like the men’s divers, as well as the swimmers I have met. So I thought it would be really cool.
Perry-Eaton: Yeah, I remember it being really intimidating the first time for me, too. And it is still intimidating, even though I’m older now and have done it before.
How has the trip been so far?
Hyer: It has turned out really well. I have really enjoyed it, and it is great to be in Ireland. We got to see a lot of Dublin, which was really fun. We walked around a lot downtown.
Did you two know each other very well before this trip?
Hyer: Yeah, we have known each other for a long time, actually. We dove together in Florida, so we probably met about eight years ago or so.
Perry-Eaton: When I started diving with my coach in Brandon [Florida], she already was on the team.
Hyer: We had just joined the club, because we had just moved from New York.
Perry-Eaton: So we really both came on the scene at about the same time.
Have the two of you stuck together on this trip?
Perry-Eaton: Well, I’ve been trying to lose her, but I haven’t been too successful! When we were on a bridge in Dublin, I told her to take a photo of me, and then I started running away from her … but she caught up! No, it’s been really fun. Usually it’s easy to get really sick of roommates, but that hasn’t happened.
Has anything surprised you about Ireland?
Hyer: A few people have been mean to us simply because we are Americans.
Perry-Eaton: And most of them were children. We had 10-year-olds threatening to beat us up! I have never experienced any anti-American sentiment before, and I have traveled around a good deal. But, then again, we were a group of eight sitting on a bus, and we were probably being sort of loud and attracting attention.
Hyer: I guess I just wasn’t expecting that. I thought people would be really friendly – and a lot of them have been nice, but I think it’s natural that the bad experiences stick out in your mind. It has been kind of surprising to me, though.
Perry-Eaton: Another thing I was surprised with was that last night we were shopping in downtown Dublin, and the store closed at 6 p.m., and they just told us to leave. They weren’t even concerned with whether we had anything that we wanted to buy. They really prioritize their leisure over providing good service.
Hyer: Plus, when we were shopping, I was in line at a shop and an older lady just moved right ahead of me in line, and she didn’t really care. So I just said, `Okay, you can go first.’
Meghan, have you noticed differences between this trip to Ireland and your first?
Perry-Eaton: Dublin is just more of a city than where I was before, so it is a lot more alive. When I came before, I was there during tourist season, and apparently a lot of natives leave then. So it was more touristy. Otherwise, it has been very similar. The countryside is the countryside, and the city has the same Georgian style of architecture.
What did you think of the National Aquatic Centre?
Hyer: It was beautiful.
Perry-Eaton: Yeah, the boards were great, and the water was soft. Plus, it was really fun to work with the platforms. The people were really nice, too. One day, I forgot to bring my suit, and a guy at the pool drove me back to the hotel, so I could get it!
Hyer: It was great, from the mats that they had to the boards, it was very technologically advanced. They could even move the floor of the pool up and down to adjust the depth! Plus the other facilities were really good, like the weight room and workout areas.
What was your reaction to the NAC suffering tornado damage?
Hyer: Initially, we didn’t really think it was going to be a big deal. We thought that maybe we wouldn’t have practice for one day or something.
Perry-Eaton: Yeah, at first, it was sort of funny that they never have tornadoes, and the one that comes through actually hit the building we were using. But then we realized that it was a more serious issue.
What do you think of spending the rest of the trip in Limerick with no diving boards?
Perry-Eaton: Well, we are obviously disappointed. I really concentrated on school during study days and finals and did not train, and when I was home, I couldn’t train much because my club coach was out of town. I was planning on getting in some great training here – because last year’s trip to California was so great – so when this happened, I was really stressed out. The BIG EAST Championships are in a month and a half and then [NCAA] zones are right after that, and if I am not on top of things there, then my season is over. But I think we are taking what we have for a couple of days, and then we will work on getting stuff done on the boards when we get back. I think we are doing well as a team, though. We all know that no one is really happy with this situation, and everyone is doing what they can to make it as rewarding as possible for us. So we will make the best of it.