When the Bowling Green swimming and diving team takes the pool for Saturday’s finals, its quest for a 14th straight region title will already be off to a flying start thanks to Connor Twyman.

The junior diver won his fifth straight region title Tuesday, continuing his success in an event he didn’t even begin competitively until sixth grade.

With each year, Twyman has reached new heights in his event – and continued to be part of Bowling Green’s success in the pool.

“I love it, going really early,” Twyman told the Daily News earlier this week. “We have this winning expectation around Bowling Green – the swim program, the dive program. Getting to go early and getting to set the tone for points and just getting us in a positive, it can seem like a lot but it is also really fun to get it started.”

Twyman said he first got into diving after he took lessons at WKU before joining Bowling Green’s team as a sixth-grader.

Before he got on the diving board, Twyman was more interested in another sport – gymnastics. His gymnastics career started at age 3 and continued until he was 13 – competing in trampoline events the double mini and power tumbling.

He said his time in gymnastics helped him make the transition to diving, although the techniques are a little bit different.

“Doing flips and knowing where you are in the air, a lot of it is pretty easy to transfer over from a trampoline to a board after doing it for so long,” Twyman said. “It also made it easier to try and get myself to improve and do what my coaches were telling me to do and progress that way.”

Former WKU diver Matt Atkinson, who has served as Twyman’s diving coach the past two years, agreed that the background in gymnastics has helped him in diving.

“Those tumbling skills have definitely transferred over to the board work,” Atkinson said. “There are a lot of similarities in the sport. There are a lot of differences, but it has definitely helped him out.”

Twyman finished sixth in his first region meet as a sixth-grader. One year later, his region championship reign in the one-meter diving event began.

“It was one of the greatest feelings ever at that moment,” Twyman said. “I would almost call it a confidence booster – thinking I might be OK at this.”

As the region titles mounted, Twyman’s success at the state tournament continued to climb. He finished 16th as a seventh-grader, and third as an eighth-grader and freshman. Last year he finished second to Highlands’ Finn Murphy.

“Of course it was a little disappointing getting second when you are right there,” Twyman said. “Also it was the best I ever dove. It was a great meet. The guy who did win, he’s great. It was just a fun meet. Going again this year and next year, it’s going to be fun.”

Twyman’s success has continued this year. He holds the school record – which he has broken twice this season – and the Bowling Green pool record in diving.

“His work effort is bar none,” Atkinson said. “Nobody has a better work ethic than Connor. He has matured as a leader and he leads by example. He is the first one on the board and he’s usually the last one off the board.”

Twyman said he still hasn’t decided if he will continue to dive after high school. For now he is just focused on the team’s success – and how he can be a part of that.

“I’m focused on doing what I know how to do, being the best that I can,” Twyman said. “If I go in thinking that I am going to win – I don’t know, that’s not how I like to think about it. I just want to do what I know I can.”

And doing his part to help Bowling Green continue its dominance is reward enough – at least for now.

“Being able to be a part of the team heart is a really cool feeling, doing that every year,” Twyman said. “Every meet you don’t want to go in thinking you are going to win every time. You want to be confident, but you don’t want to be overconfident. You have to do what you know how to do. It’s not necessarily the mindset of winning all the time, it is doing what you know how to do.”{&end}