Feb. 24, 2004

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Diving coach Wenbo Chen is secretly building a dynasty at Purdue.

A glimpse of the dynasty was first seen during the regular season, when three of Chen's athletes garnered five Big Ten Diver of the Week awards. Then at last week's women's Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships, a large portion of the dynasty was revealed after sophomore Carrie McCambridge won all three diving titles.

McCambridge returned from Minneapolis as Diver of the Year and of the Championships, and Chen was hailed as the conference's Diving Coach of the Year.

Today, as the men's diving team prepares for its conference championship meet at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center, the dynasty is close to being completely exposed.

As the architect of this dynasty, Chen not only needed to bring in strong supporting units like McCambridge, but was required to strengthen its foundation. And the foundation for this up-and-coming dynasty is junior Clay Davis.

Davis has been Purdue's top diver since joining the team in 2001. In each of his first two seasons, he has scored off both springboards at the Big Ten Championships and has qualified for NCAA Central Regional Diving Zones. His scores have been solid at every postseason meet, but nothing that would make the casual fan believe he was destined for much improvement.

However, seasons changed and so did Davis, and this 2003-04 campaign has been nothing less than remarkable for the native of Spring, Texas.

In addition to copping two of the aforementioned conference diver of the week accolades, Davis has collected nine victories and four runner-up showings. He is rolling into the Big Ten Championships on fire, having won six of his last seven diving competitions, a streak that includes springboard sweeps over Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana.

Davis' only setback was finishing second to teammate J.R. Hillis off the 1-meter springboard against the Spartans at home. Hillis scored a 271.27 to Davis' 263.10.

Losing a toenail while slipping off a 1-meter springboard also could be considered a setback, but maybe not after you win the competition. This is exactly what Davis did at the Wisconsin and Minnesota Triangular.

"My footing came out from underneath me, and I slipped right onto my back and onto the board," said Davis. "It was painful, and was made worse when I realized I ripped out one of my toenails."

No toenail. No problem. Davis still triumphed off the 1-meter with a score of 296.05, nearly seven points ahead of his second-place teammate Josh Karshen.

Davis and Karshen, along with Hillis and David Hanisch, are four reasons why Purdue should control the diving competition at this year's Big Ten Championships.

Against six conference opponents at five meets consisting of 12 competitions, Davis has never finished lower than second, while Hillis, a transfer from the University of Alabama, has placed lower than fourth only twice. Karshen has finished below fourth just once, and Hanisch lower than fifth only two times.

It's this type of success that allows Davis to consider his squad a powerhouse.

"As a team, I'd say we are probably number one right now in the Big Ten," said Davis. "We have four really good divers on this team, while most other teams have just one, and that makes us a powerhouse in this conference. Indiana had some good divers, however, most of them are redshirting, and Penn State has two really good divers in Marc Gastaldo and Adam Pierce."

Other individual divers who could split the Boilermaker faction are: Iowa's Timo Klami, who owns a Boilermaker Aquatic Center pool record off the 3-meter, Indiana's Ryan Fagen, Michigan's Jason Coben and Ohio State's Mitch Richeson.

Davis has had two meetings with Klami this season, and experienced mixed results on both occasions. In their first meeting at Iowa, Davis and Klami split the competitions, with Klami winning off the 3-meter and Davis victorious off the 1-meter. A few weeks later at the Purdue Invitational, Klami won two of three competitions; however, it was the depth of the diving squad that propelled Purdue to the team championship.

The Boilermakers' win at their invitational came largely because of the divers. A fact that was readily acknowledged by head swim coach Dan Ross following the three-day meet.

"This is a swimming and diving meet, and yes, Northwestern outswam us in some areas, but our divers did a heck of a job off the boards," said Ross. "Wenbo has been training our guys hard, and I expect they'll be better at Big Ten's."

One of the main reasons why Chen is coaching at Purdue and training his divers hard is Davis.

When former Purdue diving coach Jim Mountjoy moved on to another job halfway through Davis' rookie season, Davis and his teammates, plus the head coaches and other athletics administrators, interviewed five potential replacements. Davis said all five were really good coaches, but none of them had the background or expertise of coach Chen.

Davis was trained by legendary coach Ken Armstrong at the Woodlands Diving Club in Texas, prior to his arrival in West Lafayette. Armstrong recently coached Laura Wilkinson to a gold medal off the 10-meter platform at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Like Armstrong, Chen is a demanding coach. He is tough, but he knows his subject and makes his divers learn to succeed. For Davis, Chen was the perfect choice to continue Armstrong's lesson plan.

"It was pretty simple who I wanted to coach me," said Davis. "I came from a background of tough coaching and I wanted to transfer over the same practice styles and learn a lot of different dives, so I would always be gaining something new. Wenbo is not an easy coach, but he stacks a lot on my plate to prepare me for what is ahead."

What's ahead is the Big Ten Championships, which start Thursday at noon. In the weeks leading into the conference meet, which is the second hosted by Purdue in as many years, Davis and his cohorts completed a tiring 90 dives per day; however, with the meet only a few days away, they are now completing around 25 per day.

Davis is excited to be competing in front of the Boilermaker faithful, and definitely thinks the home-board advantage will come into play.

"Knowing how to work and utilize the boards will definitely give us the advantage," said Davis. "Every board is different no matter where you go, and for some reason a lot of people don't like our boards so much, which will be good for us at Big Tens."

Despite being comfortable with the Boilermaker Aquatic Center's diving boards, Davis admits that he's not particularly strong off the 3-meter or the platform. He won his last four dives off the 3-meter springboard, but got off to a rough start, placing higher than third just once in his first seven attempts. In his lone appearance off the platform, Davis placed 10th with a score of 384.55 at the Georgia Invitational.

Coach Chen was surprised when McCambridge came back to win the platform at Big Ten's last week. Perhaps he'll be even more astonished should Davis accomplish a sweep of his own. Davis, himself, also would be surprised.

"I'm rather strong off the 1-meter, and off the 3-meter I can do some damage, but at times I struggle," said Davis. "Competing on the tower, I'm not quite there, and I have kind of flip-flopped with it over the years. When I was younger and smaller, the tower was much easier, but I couldn't bend either springboard. Now I'm older and weigh more and can actually utilize what the springboard has to offer."

McCambridge was in fifth place heading into her final round of the platform, when Chen told her that he was already pleased with her performances and had done a great job. At ease, McCambridge went into the finals completely relaxed. She not only ended up with a win, but she also placed her name in the Big Ten record books.

Davis said he has gained the same type of confidence McCambridge has because of Chen's emphasis on staying focused.

"He has taught me really how to focus," said Davis. "You can get distracted easily at practice, but when it comes to a meet, he has told us that you can't control what pool you are at or what facility. He says that since everybody else is diving there, everybody else is feeling the same thing. The difference is, we have to ignore it, get through it and get it done successfully."

The focus of the divers and swimmers, and the family relationship between all of them is what might ultimately lead Purdue to its first ever conference championship.

"I think we are one of the only teams in the Big Ten that are pretty close," said Davis. "The divers and I have helped the swim team out this year in some instances and we know that we can do it again if needed. We are very confident as a team heading into this meet."

2004 Big Ten Men's Swimming & Diving Championships


Schedule of Events

Thursday, Feb. 26 - prelims - Noon
* 500-yard freestyle
* 200-yard individual medley
* 50-yard freestyle
* 1-meter diving

Finals - 7 p.m.
* 200-yard freestyle relay
* 500-yard freestyle
* 200-yard individual medley
* 50-yard freestyle
* 400-yard medley relay
* 1-meter diving

Friday, Feb. 27 - prelims - Noon
* 400-yard individual medley
* 100-yard butterfly
* 200-yard freestyle
* 100-yard breaststroke
* 100-yard backstroke
* 3-meter diving

Finals - 7 p.m.
* 200-yard medley relay
* 400-yard individual medley
* 100-yard butterfly
* 200-yard freestyle
* 100-yard breaststroke
* 100-yard backstroke
* 3-meter diving
* 800-yard freestyle relay

Saturday, Feb. 28 - prelims - Noon
* 200-yard backstroke
* 100-yard freestyle
* 200-yard breaststroke
* 200-yard butterfly
* Platform diving
* 1,650-yard freestyle (all but last heat of time finals)

Finals - 7 p.m.
* 1,650-yard freestyle - (last heat of time finals)
* 200-yard backstroke
* 100-yard freestyle
* 200-yard breaststroke
* 200-yard butterfly
* Platform diving
* 400-yard freestyle relay

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