Penn State's divers are considered part of the swimming team because they compete at the same meets and their scores are compiled with those of the swimmers. The divers, however, consider themselves different.

"They (swimmers) think we're crazy for flying around in the air and we think they're crazy for swimming back and forth in the pool," Craig Flanagan said.

When people ask Flanagan if he is on the swimming team, he says, "I'm not a swimmer, I'm a diver."

"You can't even compare the two sports," Kristin Tressler said. "The only thing we have in common is the water."

Swimming and diving practices are not even always held at the same time and when they are, the teams work out in different pools.

"We don't really have too much contact with the swim team," Tressler said.

"We don't do anything the swim team does," Flanagan said.

Practices for the teams are completely different. Swimmers spend most of their time in the water. Divers do land and trampoline exercises; they do not spend most of their practice in the pool.

"We're not worried so much about endurance as we are explosiveness," Coach Craig Brown said. "We really focus so much on split-second techniques. Swimming seems to be so much conditioning."

The divers also compete in meets strictly for diving. Among those are the Penn State Diving Invitational (held in October), the Indoor National Qualifiers (March) and the Outdoor National Qualifiers at the end of the summer. The team may also attend another diving meet if a school decides to hold an invitational.

The divers are basically one team, although the men are considered part of the men's team and the women are considered part of the women's team. "They're sharing the same experiences," Brown said.

"Pretty much the only difference is the girls go to girl's meets and the guys go to guy's," Mike Westwood said. "It's not really two teams."

Although the divers are separate from the swimmers, the two teams do back each other during competition.

"Competition-wise we think of ourselves as a team," Flanagan said.

"We try and be involved when the swimmers are swimming," Tressler added.

The divers stand by the side of the pool and cheer for swimmers at meets, though at times they do not totally understand much about swimming other than who wins and who loses.

"There's a lot of strategy we don't understand in swimming," Brown said.

The teams will be standing by each other tomorrow at their joint meet against Pittsburgh.

"Our (diving) team is looking really good right now," Westwood said. "I think we're going to fare real well."