Diving & Track Q&A: Tori Occhipinti
11/2/2015 9:22:00 PM | Track, Women's Swim/Dive, Competing With Purpose Blog
That's not a typo in the headline! Tori Occhipinti, a junior at Pepperdine, is a standout performer in both diving and track. She's in her first season with the swimming and diving team, and has already been named the PCSC Female Athlete of the Week after winning the 1-meter competition at the PCSC Relays and Pentathlon. In track, she's a two-year letter winner who is the school-record holder in the 100-meter hurdles. She talks about competing in both sports:
Q: What is your background with track and field?
A: I competed my freshman year in high school, and that was the first time I had ever competed in track and field. I then competed again my junior year, which is when I started to get more serious about it. My main event was the 100 m hurdles. I also did club track my junior and senior year and eventually came to Pepperdine.
Q: What is your background with swimming and diving?
A: To start, I have never swam competitively. But with diving, I started in seventh grade, competing both in seventh and eighth grade before I fractured my back. I was healing from the end of eight grade to freshman year in high school, when I competed again, but that was my last season until now.
Originally,I was a trampolinist and gymnast my entire life until I lost my passion for it and picked up diving. I had a lot of mental blocks, I think, because at first diving sort of freaked me out. But my parents both knew that diving would translate really well from that gymnast background, so they encouraged me to dive. Once I started diving, I fell in love with it.
Q: What made you want to do both in college?
A: It's a pretty funny story, actually. My dad thinks that he is funny and it's been his dream to see me dive again, so he sent in my All-American video from high school diving to the dive coach. But he didn't tell me! When I eventually did find out, we started talking to the coaches from both sports, diving and track, and realized that it actually was possible to do both. I did have to do medical checks for my back, but once it actually became a possibility, I got really excited.
Q: Why your junior year, not as a freshman and on?
A: After my freshman year of high school, the doctors and my parents thought that I would never be able to dive again because of my back, which still to this day does have some problems lingering. They have really taken good care of me down in the training room, and my back is actually better than it has ever been! To answer your question, I just didn't think that it was a possibility to dive freshman year.
Q: How do you balance two different sports? Is the training similar?
A: I mainly train with track, especially in the weight room, because I think that is where it counts the most, and I just add in the dive practices. It's very different, because track is so much more endurance and cardio. When I am at track, my focus is solely on track, and the same with diving.
Q: What are your expectations for both sports throughout the rest of the year?
A: For diving, my expectation is to qualify for NCAAs. I believe that I am pretty close, and just want to get there. I just want to improve from where I am right now.
For track, I am really excited because we get to compete in indoor events for the first time. The goal for indoor is to make it to conference championships. And for outdoor, I just want to beat my personal best. I have a goal time, and I want to eventually, but maybe not this year, make it to NCAAs for hurdles.
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