Freshman Hudson Rains from Houston, Tx. has made quiet a splash this season, grabbing quite a few first place titles for the Wolfpack this year.
Rains started to dive after he fractured his back while doing gymmnastics. Once rehabbed, he found he didn’t like gymnastics anymore and decided to make the switch from gymnastics to diving.
Four and half years later, Rains is one of the top divers for State‘s swimming and diving team, taking either first or second place in most of the meets increasing both his confidence and improving his performance every meet.
“I am more confident in being more consistent with my diving,” said Rains. “When I came here if I had a good hurdle or a good press. I could do a good dive but getting that good hurdle or press was kind of iffy. But now [coach] Jenny has really helped me work on getting every hurdle and every press to be a good press or a good hurdle and if not, she has taught me how to correct it in the air, so I can still have a good dive even if I don’t have a good start.”
Teammate Hannah Hopkins, also a freshman, is glad to have Rains as a member of the team and values his attitude.
“He brings a lot of energy to the team,” said Hopkins. “He is always positive; practice is always fun.”
Rains, a mathematics major, chose to come to State because he saw Raleigh as a place full of opportunity. Not only was the area a selling point for Rains, but the opportunities at State for his diving career attracted him as well. Coach Jenny Johansen’s experience both professionally and as a coach also convinced him to join the Wolfpack.
“Coach Jenny Johansen is a phenomenal coach; she has done so much in the world of diving. She has been to the Olympics, she is a NCAA champion, and she was on the world team,” Rains said. “She has done so much. She really knows what she is talking about. She is a great coach.”
When Johansen recruited Rains, she saw him as being the whole package, an athlete who was extremely talented, a hard worker and a great person, something she said is rare to find. Rains has proven not only to be successful for himself but a supportive teammate at well.
“He is super competitive but at the same time he is really supportive of the whole team and he motivates people,” Johansen said. “He is one of those all around really positive people, which is really nice to be around.”
As a freshman coming from a high school level of competition, competing in a Division I school can be challenging. Even more challenging is when there is not just one freshman on the team but an entire team of freshman, a situation the diving team has been faced with this year.
“It’s tough all the time as any freshman coming through this process,” coach Johansen said. “It’s a long season. It’s college and on top of it you have all the pressure of the competition. So it is a tough process for anyone, let alone a freshman who doesn’t really know what to expect as everything starts the beginning of the year.”
“I have been working with them to really stay within themselves and to compete for themselves and not get too caught up in everyone else outside of them, and I think they will handle it well and ACCs should be fun.”
With ACCs beginning tomorrow, Rains, along with his teammates, prepare for a new level of competition.
“At this point coming into the ACCs, they’ve been really good at putting the work into it early in the season,” Johansen said. “They have done everything they can do and I have done everything I can do. Now it is just a matter of letting it all unfold and being confident and positive and being a little more in the competitive mode.”
