Freshman Heather Markus didn’t originally come to Ithaca College to dive. A dedicated gymnast since kindergarten, Markus had planned to try out for the gymnastics team.

“Looking through the recruitment forms, she didn’t fill out any information for swimming and diving, but she did fill out information for gymnastics,” Head Diving Coach Nate Brisley said.

However, when she didn’t make the gymnastics team, Markus didn’t waste any time contacting Brisley about diving. She started diving as a freshman at Saratoga Springs High School in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and competed all four years, eventually going to the state championship her senior year.

“I honestly think that as soon as she found out, probably within the next two minutes, she sent an e-mail because she really didn’t miss a beat,” Brisley said. “She didn’t miss much practice, it was just, ‘OK, this is done for the year. I’m going to go do this.’”

Markus said her decision sits well with her.

“It was a really good choice,” she said. “I’m really happy with it. I love my team, and Nate is one of the best coaches I have ever had in my life. It’s just awesome to have such a big team too because we’re like a big family.”

Markus’ switch to diving also bodes extremely well for the team. At the William-Smith meet Nov. 10, she won both the 1-meter and the 3-meter events. At the Bomber Diving Invitational, Markus was the college’s top finisher in both events with a third-place finish in the 1-meter event and a second-place finish in the 3-meter event.

“She’s a hard-working and incredibly dedicated athlete who is very supportive of her teammates,” senior diver Naomi Mark said. “She has been a great addition to our team this year.”

Markus said her success this year is because of lots of hard work and her complete dedication.

“I didn’t really have any expectations coming into this season, so I just kind of threw everything out there and gave it my all,” she said. “It turned out really well.”

In the beginning of the year when Markus didn’t have many dives for the 3-meter, she started to try an assortment of new dives, going for each dive without hesitating or balking.

“She’s not afraid to try new things,” Brisley said. “That’s really the most important part of the sport, being able to make adaptations, and she has that.”

Markus’ background in gymnastics also gives her an advantage in diving.

“It’s given [me] a lot of my work ethic and a lot of determination,” she said. “Obviously, it helped with learning how to flip and everything. It’s not too hard to transition from gymnastics to diving. There’s a huge difference between the sports, but they’re pretty well correlated.”

At meets, Markus is incredibly focused. The diver will cheer and joke with her teammates on the bench, but when it’s her turn, she concentrates solely on her dive.

 “At practice she just kind of gets into the environment, and she’s kind of relaxed,” Brisley said. “She has some fun, and she’ll crack jokes every once in a while. Then in meets, she has this complete stone-cold poker face. That’s her game face. It’s not necessarily a 180; it’s just how she competes. It’s really kind of cool to see the two sides.”

Markus’ presence means a bright future for the team, as it will be graduating a number of standouts both this year and the next.

“This team is going to have some work to do with the points that we’re graduating with,” Brisley said. “Senior Carolyn Dartt is leaving this year, and after next year, senior Naomi Mark, and juniors Emily Griffin and Megan Stover are leaving. To be able to train with those four athletes will be very helpful for her to see how she can fit in and how she can really take their leadership styles and run with it and keep the team going.”

Markus also has goals for herself to accomplish during the course of this season and her diving career.

“Someday, hopefully before I graduate, I would like to make it to nationals,” Markus said. “For the rest of this year, I would just really like to do well at states and place pretty well there. I still have a bunch of new dives I’d like to try, and I have a lot of improvements I know I can make in the next couple years, so I’m looking forward to working on those.”

The whole experience with diving has made Markus incredibly thankful.

“I don’t know how it worked out so well for me,” she said. “But I’m really glad it did.”