Gymnast Pratt now dives at UM Eddington native very successful in new sport

Jessica Pratt didn’t start out as a diver. She started out on the mats and trampolines of the Penobscot Valley Gymnastics School in Bangor, where she excelled in the nearly 12 years she attended and taught classes and camps.

But as a freshman at the University of Maine, with nowhere left to go in gymnastics, the Eddington resident decided to try tumbling – off the diving board. There were times when Pratt struggled. But by the end of the season, it was clear the transition was successful.

In just her first year on the UMaine diving team, Pratt qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships, which were held Feb. 26-28 at the University of Pittsburgh. She was the only female UMaine diver to do so this year.

Pratt didn’t go to the ECAC meet, but was excited to have attained something she thought might take years.

“That was my goal for four years,” Pratt said Wednesday night before a tumbling class at the gymnastics school. “I wasn’t planning on going this year because I knew I wasn’t good enough, but I was really surprised that I qualified.”

Pratt had a successful gymnastics career, culminating with 2003 state championships in vault, beam, floor and all-around and a 2003 Northeast Regional championship in vault.

But there aren’t many options for college-aged gymnasts who don’t compete at the NCAA level. So Pratt started to think about diving, which has a lot of the same natural motions as gymnastics.

She noted her interest in diving on her application to UMaine and started to talk to Chandra Lippitt, another Penobscot Valley gymnast. Lippitt is a senior at Bangor High and dives for the Rams.

Word of Pratt’s interest got to Black Bear diving coach Jaret Lizzotte and his wife Susie, an assistant swimming coach at Maine.

Pratt started diving a few weeks before official practice started. She worked with UMaine diver Justin Alley, who dove at Bangor High.

“I was in there about three weeks early just learning an approach, the basics before Jaret came so I already knew what to do,” said Pratt, who as a walk-on does not receive a scholarship but does get tuition assistance because her stepfather works for UMaine.

It was a slow process, but Pratt improved as the season wore on. It took her time to get used to the board, which is much springier than the floor. And she had to get used to diving into the water hands-first.

But her background in gymnastics was a huge help.

“When I was in the air I knew where I was,” Pratt said. “I knew, one somersault, 11/2, I knew where I was. Flexibility helps too. I’m flexible from gymnastics so I can do things like get my pikes all the way in. A lot of other divers have trouble with that because they’re not flexible.”

Pratt qualified for the ECAC championships during a Feb. 5 dual meet against New Hampshire. Her 228.83 score on the 1-meter board was good enough to get to the championships. To qualify so quickly, after just a few months of diving, was surprising, she admitted.

There was a bit of playful jealousy from teammates who had been diving for years but never got to Pratt’s level.

“I was really nervous about that. I still am,” she said. “But it really helped because I had another girl [Katherine Mullen of Bangor] who started diving with me and she hadn’t ever done it before. She kind of kept my head in line. It was good to have her there. I wasn’t in it alone.”

But Pratt struggled in the final meet of the Bears’ season, which happened to be the America East Conference championship meet at Maine’s own Wallace Pool. She scored 176.20 points to finish 12th – in the consolation finals – on the 1-meter.

“I wasn’t ready yet [for ECACs] and [America East] championships proved that because I got really, really nervous,” she said. “I had two rough dives because I let my nerves get the best of me. My first two dives weren’t as good as they should have been.”

Pratt intends to go to the ECACs next year if she qualifies, and she’d like to finish in the top eight at the conference championships.

Meanwhile, Pratt is taking a tumbling class to stay involved with gymnastics. The success she had in the pool this year has given her even more incentive to keep working out on the mat.

“The awareness that I got from gymnastics, of being in the air, really helped out in diving,” she said.