Diving helps Medina's Ella Bohmer grow

Medina junior Ella Bohmer loves to push herself, break down barriers and consistently prove what she is capable of accomplishing. If those pursuits offer the chance to overcome her fears at the same time, all the better. Those traits make Bohmer and the sport of diving a perfect match. "I like that I can challenge myself and push myself to face my fears," she said. "You're always thinking, 'What if I smack?' or 'What if I hit the board?' It's nice that I can push myself to feel the accomplishment of getting over my fear and achieve my goals." Whether learning a dive or working toward perfection of a familiar one, nothing is going to stop Bohmer from continuing to improve and help the Bees excel. Her desire to succeed recently made Bohmer the Greater Cleveland Conference champion in the 1-meter dive, where she distanced herself from the field with an 11-dive score of 322.20, ahead of Strongsville sophomore Myla Rose (284.65). "Her determination and persistence make her a great diver," Medina diving coach Amy Elmer said. "She comes back year after year looking to learn harder and harder dives. She is always looking to push herself to learn what more she can do." Bohmer's continuous search for perfection does not come without a lot of hard work. Whether its in the pool, weight room or in Bohmer's other passion of CrossFit, her work ethic and desire to improve are tireless. "She is always practicing outside of our practices and looking for dry land workouts," Elmer said. "She really goes above and beyond what a typical high school athlete does to get better." Bohmer, who also competes with the Northeast Ohio Diving Academy club team, credits Medina coaches Elmer and Emma Pierson, along with club coach Taylor Epstein, for their support and guidance in helping her reach her goals. "My coaches push me to my full potential," she said. "They are always super supportive throughout the whole season on and off the board." To show just how far Bohmer has come since picking up the sport going into her freshman year is what she calls her inward 1½ pike, favorite dive. It requires Bohmer to begin by facing away from the pool, jump up and flip backward 1½ times with her legs tucked to her chest before plunging into the water headfirst. The dive forces Bohmer to take on what began as two of her biggest fears — facing away from the pool, which has become one of her favorite skills, and going into the water headfirst. The latter challenge was a major adjustment from Bohmer's previous sport of choice, gymnastics, where the goal is to land on your feet every time. She was a gymnast for 10 years, but mounting injuries caused her to give up the sport before entering the seventh grade. After encouragement from family members and careful consideration, Bohmer decided to give diving a try as she entered high school. The decision has been paying off ever since. "It was definitely a big change and my freshman year I was doing a lot of feet-first dives," she said. "Going in on my head was a super weird sensation to get used to, but once I did I was able to transfer the spatial and air awareness that gymnastics gave me and transfer it into diving. "It just clicked and gives me the same feeling (of accomplishment) that gymnastics did. I've loved it ever since." Winning the GCC championship was a huge accomplishment for Bohmer. "The night before, I was having trouble sleeping and going through all of my dives," she said. "I was nervous. I knew I had a chance, but didn't know how good of a chance I had. Going into the meet, I knew it was everything I'd prepared for and there was nothing I could change now. "Medina has never really been known for diving, so it was nice that I could bring the conference title back for the team." In order to win the championship, Bohmer upped the difficulty of her dives and pushed herself to conquer new skills. "The GCC Meet was an excellent example of her putting together a lot of harder dives," Elmer said. "She had a lot of newer dives in her routine and that can be scary for a diver and make it hard to keep focus throughout the meet." With the GCC championship in her rearview mirror, Bohmer is already focused on her next set of challenges. With two home meets left this season, against Euclid and Archbishop Hoban today and Cleveland Heights and Mentor on Jan. 20, Bohmer hopes to break the program's pool record for six dives and then make it to the state meet. Last year Bohmer made it through two rounds of cuts to reach the finals and perform all 11 dives, bouncing back after starting out with a rough dive in the first round at the Northwest Division I District. She finished 14th with a score of 295.35, with the top seven reaching the state meet. "I was able to pull myself together and make it all the way to the finals," Bohmer said. "That moment has always stuck out to me that I got it together after a disappointing dive that could have ruined my entire competition if I didn't get back into my zone for the rest of my dives." Along with diving, Bohmer is a pole vaulter for the Medina track team in the spring and uses the two sports to help her improve in each. "I go to the gym whenever I can," she said. "Getting that time in the gym makes me stronger and helps me a lot with diving and pole vaulting. Building my upper body strength and my endurance, all of it helps me with my sports." Bohmer credits her fellow divers for helping her keep her spirit up and motivated to perform at each practice and meet. "The dive team, we are all able to lift each other up," Bohmer said. "We help each other when we are down and bring a positive attitude to the meets and practice." When it comes to keeping spirits up, Elmer said that Bohmer takes the lead for the team in that regard, but always knows when it is time to go to work. "Ella loves to have fun at practice," Elmer said. "She does a great job of bringing smiles to her teammates' faces. At the same time, she is really focused and serious when she needs to be." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.