By Pete DiPrimio

IUHoosiers.com

 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Andrew Capobianco could have blinked. He could have frozen under the national spotlight, and an Olympic dream would have vanished amid sloppy splashes from dives gone bad.

Indiana’s junior didn’t, of course.

Nerves, pressure, elite competition and stress from a year-long pandemic delay all merged in a perfect Olympic Trials storm last month that would have broken the less resilient.

Not Capobianco.

When it was over, he had qualified for his first Olympics in the upcoming Tokyo Games in two diving events: the 3-meter synchronized springboard (with ex-Hoosier Mike Hixon) and the 3-meter springboard.

He saw this happening — the North Carolina native is, after all, a seven-time All-America with a pair of NCAA diving titles on his resume — and he didn’t see it.

“In my first few years, I was a bit doubtful of myself,” he says via recent Zoom press conference opportunity. “Now I see I can be one of the best in the world, so I’m excited.”

There’s plenty to excite.Capobianco and Hixon (a silver medalist in the 2016 Rio Games) won last month’s synchronized Trials. In the springboard, Capobianco rallied from a couple of bad dives in the prelims and semifinals to finish second.

Given Team USA’s traditional Olympic swimming and diving excellence (thriving at the U.S. Trials basically ensures Olympic contender status), he’s positioned to win a couple of medals.

“The experience has been a dream,” he says. “We’ve been working really hard. With the extra year, it gave me a little bit more confidence going into it.

“I am one of the younger competitors, so I think that was definitely a good thing for me. It just gives me confidence moving forward.”

It helps to have IU diving coach Drew Johansen working with him. Johansen is the Olympic head diving coach for the third time, duplicating his role in 2012 in London and then 2016.

That’s a lot of wisdom to impart, and Capobianco is a sponge.

“Drew has done such a great job with me physically,” he says, “but more importantly, mentally. I’ve become a very strong competitor and a much more confident competitor.”

Johansen has spent his coaching career getting the best out of divers, and he certainly did that with Capobianco during the Trials’ springboard competition. Capobianco was trying a new dive — a back 3 1/2 (three and a half spins before hitting the water) — and it wasn’t going well.

“I was a little bit tight with it. I was second guessing that it wasn’t the right choice to do that dive.

“After the semifinals, we were talking and (Johansen) said, ‘Trust yourself. Trust what we had been doing back home. This is the right dive you need to be doing.’ The next day, we worked on a few lead ups to it, and in the finals it all worked out.

“Having him there, a three-time head Olympic coach, has been really special.”

The payoff was especially noticeable in synchronized diving. Capobianco had never done the event before coming to IU. He partnered with Hixon for the 2019 World Championships. They finished seventh, a sign of what was to come.

Johansen eased the adjustment by coaching Capobianco’s technique to match that of Hixon.

“Drew modeled my diving around Mike. He taught me the same technique on a lot of dives, so that when we did start doing synchro, the timing was there.”

Then came the mental approach.

“The major thing (Johansen) taught me about synchro is that once you start that first step or dive, it’s all about individual dives. We focus on ourselves.

“When we first started, I was nervous – ‘Oh, what if I mess up?’ or I worried about what (Hixon) was doing. He taught me synchro is a team event, and if someone messes up, it’s the team that messed up, not just on you. That took off some of the pressure.”

Beyond that, Hixon provided much-needed insight.

“He’s taught me how to be a synchronized diver,” Capobianco says. “I had never done it before. I was a little nervous. I’m starting off doing synchro with the previous Olympic silver medalist.”

Hixon didn’t treat Capobianco as an inferior.

“He took me under his wing quick,” Capobianco says. “He trusted me from the start. I had to trust him. It’s been a really special pairing. I’m grateful for everything he’s done for me.”

That includes finding the competitive ferocity crucial in thriving at the highest levels.

“It’s how to compete,” Capobianco says. “In our sport, (Hixon is) known as one of the best competitors I’ve ever seen. No matter how practice goes, you go into the competition with the mindset you have to trust yourself, trust your coach. That’s been really important.”

At the Trials, individual diving followed the synchronized competition. That meant Capobianco had already qualified for Olympics when he began the springboard.

“That took the edge off,” he says. “It was about seeing what I could do.”

Despite his slow start, “I knew I had the potential to put down a pretty big list. I knew I could make up those points (in the finals). I was able to let loose and relax and let my dives speak for themselves. Dive my best.”

Capobianco did. He joins Hixon and ex-Hoosier Jessica Parratto (synchronized platform) on Team USA’s powerhouse diving squad.

“There were lot of nerves,” he says. “I want to show what I can do individually on an international stage. I haven’t gotten the chance to do that much. I’m excited to dive both events.”

The Evansville Otters rode early offense and a fantastic start from Polo Portela to a 5-3 victory over the Joliet Slammers Wednesday, evening the weekday series at one game apiece.

The Otters took an early lead in the bottom of the first, when they set the table for J.R. Davis by putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Davis drove in the first run of the ballgame with an RBI double into the left-center field gap that scored Miles Gordon easily from third.

The Otters would add two more runs the following batter, as Riley Krane drove in Elijah MacNamee and J.R. Davis with a base hit to right center, giving the Otters a 3-0 lead.

Evansville added a couple more runs in the bottom of the fourth, as Davis netted his second RBI-hit of the day with a one-out single scoring Gordon and Dakota Phillips drove in the Otters last run of the ballgame with two outs. The Otters then led 5-0.

Joliet scored their first and only run off Polo Portela in the top of the fifth, when Zack Costello scored Alonzo Jones Jr. from third on an RBI groundout to short.

Portela would end up throwing seven innings of one-run ball, striking out eight while scattering four hits.

Tyler Spring came on to work in his first appearance since being activated off the injured list earlier Wednesday afternoon, giving up two runs in the eighth on a Braxton Davidson home run to right. The Slammers cut the Otters lead to two, but the score would hold at 5-3 for the final.

Logan Sawyer came on in the top of the ninth to nail down the save. After back-to-back leadoff hits, Sawyer struck out Zack Costello for the first out before getting Tyler Depreta-Johnson to ground into a 4-6-3 double play.

Sawyer picked up his ninth save of the season, while Polo Portela (5-0) earned his league-leading fifth win. Tyler Jandron (1-4) took the loss.

Evansville will continue their six-game homestand with a Thursday rubber match against the Slammers on a Jacob’s Village Fireworks Night. First pitch in that game will be at 6:35 p.m.