One of the biggest dynasties on the Hilltop is hidden across the other side of the Highway. SMU's state-of-the-art Swimming and Diving facility is home to one of the most successful programs in the entirety of SMU Athletics.
 
Since joining the American Athletic Conference in 2013, SMU has won gold in at least two of the three men's diving events every year, including a clean sweep of all three titles five times. The Mustangs have also won six women's gold medals since 2017. An SMU Mustang has also won the men's American Athletic Conference Most Outstanding Diver every single season since 2014, plus two more Diver of the Year awards on the women's side (2021, 2022), as well as having a total of 46 American Diver of the Week honors across both the male and female categories in that same time span. SMU has also had five different All-American divers since 2015.
 
In mid-February, SMU hosted the 2023 American Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center and Barr-McMillion Natatorium. The state-of-the-art facility gives the Mustangs a significant competitive advantage, thanks to being one of the few schools in the AAC capable of hosting the Swimming and Diving Championships. At these Championships, SMU's diving team won eight of nine podium finishes in the three men's events, and took home the gold medal on women's 1 meter, and third in Platform. Head Coach Darian Schmidt also took home Coach of the Year honors, an award he has won in each of his six seasons coaching at SMU.
 
Next week, SMU divers will head to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to compete in the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships, with the hope of performing well enough to progress to the NCAA National Championship Meet. We spoke to Coach Schmidt, and all four of his talented divers, about how they have been able to have such a successful period in the American Athletic Conference, how the program is being shaped for the future, and their feelings and expectations heading into a massive week of competition to kick off the postseason.
 
Coach Schmidt told me he was happy about how the entire team was peaking now, at the business end of the season: "The good thing about diving is we're all one team. We've really started to dive well. It's all come together these last couple of weeks, it was kinda a slow start to the beginning of the year, but what I've always tried to do is peak for the end of the season. The end of the year is what we work towards."
 
Speaking to me during the American Conference Championships, Schmidt outlined how he's shaped the diving program over the last few years: "This is my sixth year here… We've developed it (the program) really well. The quality… Just the characters… They've been awesome. All great students, all great kids, love to work with them, talented divers that work hard. We've been moving in the right direction. Lost a couple of recruits here and there that we wish we could get back, but we got some really good commits coming in in the next couple of years that we're really excited for. We're gonna keep moving forward with the new crowd; sad to see the old guys leave, but unfortunately that comes to an end."
 
Nicole Stambo, a senior from Tampa, Florida, has been the Mustangs' lone female diver for a majority of the season. She will return next year for her fifth and final year on the Hilltop, and is expected to be re-joined by teammate Jaclynn Fowler, who will also be a senior, and some new recruits. Stambo won the 2023 American Athletic Conference 1 meter Championship with a season-best 307.55, including a 55.90 on her final dive to snatch the top spot on the podium - the fourth such occasion in her career. Stambo was also named the 2022 AAC Most Outstanding Diver.
 
Stambo told me that having her three male counterparts around was helpful and she enjoys being part of a team with them, but acknowledges being a one-woman show has its challenges as well: "Definitely during practice I can feed off their energy, but during the meet there's no momentum from other teammates going before or after me, so I have to keep myself motivated and keep my own energy up. Obviously, it's a little lonely sometimes being the only girl, but we all get along really well."
 
Coach Schmidt praised Nicole's ability to push herself, despite the lack of teammates during her competitions: "Nicole's very intrinsically motivated which is good. She's been great at just working hard, puts her head down every day, comes to practice and works."
 
Schmidt continued to note how Stambo had to fight through some adversity to defend her 1 meter Championship: "She actually lost her lead halfway through the meet, but just stayed composed and dove super well. She had a really big moment - it came down to the last dive - she showed her experience and just how far she's come just to be able to handle that pressure and hit a big dive in the end when it really matters. She can do that dive very well when there's no pressure, but it's another thing to do it when you have to hit it to win and go three for three, and defend her title, because she's won the last two years."
 
Stambo's last-dive heroics helped her repeat as the American Athletic Conference's 1 meter Champion: "I was happy to start the meet off well for the team. One meter was nice to keep my title for another year. I'm excited, coming from that, going into Zones, it'll be a good meet too."
 
The SMU men's diving team is a trio of experienced and supremely talented young men:  senior Peter Smithson, from Suwanee, Georgia, junior Tyler Coffey, from Jupiter, Florida, and senior Dominic Hoefer, from St. Petersburg, Florida. Hoefer joked that "there's pools on every block in Florida - every other person is a swimmer or diver," by way of explaining to me why three quarters of this small Mustang squad is from the Sunshine State.
 
At the American Athletic Conference Championships, SMU swept the medals in both the 1 meter and 3 meter competitions. "The boys showed up great. Getting that 1-2-3 finish is always nice," Coach Schmidt told me.
 
Hoefer spoke about how seeing the positive results of the Conference Championship helps reaffirm the sacrifices and work each diver puts in on a daily basis: "It felt good as a team. We've been working for so long to get to this point, so the fact that we all went 1-2-3 is exciting. Especially because you train together every day, we're in and out of the pool, kind of pushing each other, it's a very mental sport too, so you're constantly relying on other people that you're working with to push each other."
 
Smithson is the first Mustang to win American Conference Diver of the Year four years in a row. He discussed that achievement, and how the competitive nature of the relationship between all three divers helps them reach their goals: "It was really special. These are my two brothers and we all try and push each other day in day out. We try to make it light, make it fun, and that's really the environment. We try and help each other out, and that helps with the success in and out of the pool. It's all in good fun that's for sure."
 
The team camaraderie was easy to see during the men's diving competition, where Coffey, Hoefer, and Smithson could be heard loudly cheering each other on, despite technically competing against each other for individual honors. When chatting with them, you get the sense of a band of brothers who genuinely want each other to do well. Coach Schmidt spoke to me about the complexities of keeping a small unit of individuals motivated - and competitive - against both their opposition, and one another: "I always tell them - kind of jokingly - but they are so close that they sometimes don't wanna do too much better than anyone else. I call them "the three amigos"; I'm like 'hey, three amigos, we're not friends right now, focus on just you.'" That's a struggle that I have with them, but they're just awesome kids, they're all super close, and they're just a pleasure to work with every day."
 
Coffey emphasized that the bond between the three competitors was a strength of this group, rather than something that caused issues between the trio of highly-talented divers: "These are my two best friends. We feed off each other's energy and we compete with each other just on a daily basis, so we're kinda used to that. It's all just friendly competitiveness that really brings the best out of all of us. I think it's just the energy levels; We keep it high, we keep it fun, and then we all just perform the best we can from there.
 
Speaking about the men's postseason aspirations, Coach Schmidt said: "It would be great for Peter to go all four years (to NCAA's). He really has the talent and capability to score (finish in the top 16) this year. And Dominic has come a long way. Nobody knew his name his freshman year, and now he's turning a lot of heads and every meet he's one of the top guys, so that's really good for him. I believe Dominic can make NCAAs, he has all the capability to qualify, and who knows, on that day he might make the 'Top 16' as well. Tyler has the ability to qualify if he can put 12 consecutive dives together. I hope that this year's Zones experience will motivate him to make next year – his senior season – his best year yet!"
 
All of the Divers spoke glowingly about their relationship with Coach Schmidt, praising his knowledge, expertise, and ability to maintain poise in his coaching despite the high-pressure nature of a sport where the outcome rests on individual moments of execution. Coffey said "He knows everything about diving. You can't find anybody that is smarter, or more successful in the diving world as both a diver and a coach. But I also think he's a good leader. He pushes us, and he's hard on us, but we all know that he means the best and he just cares about our diving and ourselves, but he's trying to get the best out of us in the pool that he can at all times, so he expects greatness and us to try our best and we try to deliver as often as we can. It's a good balance of him being a powerful leader to us, but also being a friend and being able to teach us everything that there is about diving that we don't know."
 
Stambo praised Schmidt for his energetic approach, and commitment to the team, despite difficult moments during her career, such as the COVID-19 pandemic: "He's been great. Coming in freshman year, he was very motivated to get me to my goals. Sophomore year we had our COVID year, so that was a little rough, but he was there, always motivated, always wanted to have practice. This year, knowing that the team is really small, and I was the only girl, we got to bond a little bit more on that level, because he knew that I would need more interaction. At meets, the energy is going, and he just says 'keep it up', and if I had a bad dive (I should) 'put it behind me', and he's always there motivating me. It's been great."
 
Smithson lauded the culture that Coach Schmidt has fostered in this program, as a significant reason for the trio's individual successes: "I think it boils down to what the environment we have here is, the culture we have here. We try to feed off each other, they push me, and I know I try and push them as well. Although it's an individual sport, you're still hoping your buddy next to you is doing well too."
 
As the Mustangs head to Minneapolis for the Zones competition, Coach Schmidt is preaching concentration, and not being content with what has been achieved so far this season: "Never be satisfied. Their goals are beyond our Conference Championship. With the boys, they're all super close, so they all push each other day in, day out, at practice, but they sometimes get complacent, and they sometimes like it to be a social event, so that's the challenge on me to keep them dialed in, keep them focused and make sure we're not settling at all, and we're staying hungry to move to that next goal."
 
Hoefer told me he's excited to see where the season can go, and that on any given day the Mustangs have the talent to beat anyone they come up against: "I think we all have a fighting chance. Our Zone is really difficult for sure… so it's always really high-level, intense competition for all of us, but we've been working hard and we all know that we can deliver on our good days. So, we'll see whether the end is Zones or beyond that."
 
Stambo added, "There's a lot of great divers in our zone. I would say our zone is definitely the hardest. But I would say after coming from a good conference meet I have some good momentum. I made three finals last year, so we're hoping for NCAAs this year!"
 
The NCAA Zone D Diving Championships take place March 7-9, hosted in the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, by the University of Minnesota. You can follow the action on the SMU swimming and diving social media pages.