COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Cody Watts admits to being more than a little anxious entering his first college competitions. But you’d never have guessed that watching the Saint John’s University freshman diver perform.
The St. Cloud Tech High School graduate won the 1-meter dive with a score of 243.15 points and finished second to sophomore teammate Tim Rotter in the 3-meter competition with a score of 197.70 as the Johnnies defeated Macalester 178-99 in an MIAC dual meet on Oct. 21 at the Warner Palaestra pool. Rotter totaled a 198.55.
Then, after earning MIAC men’s diver of the week honors, he won both the 1- (224.85) and 3-meter (217.80) competitions in a 191-26 conference win over Hamline on Oct. 27 in Collegeville.
If you’re keeping score, that’s three wins in his first four collegiate events.
“I was definitely nervous, especially about competing in 3-meter, because I never did that in high school,” said Watts, who finished 15th in the state in Class 2A as a junior at Tech, but hit his foot on the board the day before the Section 8-2A meet as a senior. “The board in general is different than what I was used to in high school, so that took some getting used to as well.
“To be honest, I had a pretty bad warm-up (before the Macalester meet). But then things started to go my way. I remember my second dive was really good and that helped put me at ease. It showed me I was doing OK.”
He certainly was. And that came as no surprise to his head coach, who has already been impressed with Watts’ work ethic.
“We have one diving coach between Saint John’s and Saint Ben’s,” SJU head swimming and diving coach Ben Gill said. “Last year, we had about 10 or 11 divers. So there was a lot more time between dives in practice. This year, we’re down to six. But sometimes people are having conversations and it will (start to) slow down.
“Cody is always Johnnie-on-the-spot in those situations — to the point that he’ll run up onto the board even if it isn’t his turn yet. He’s really driven to get better. And he’s a machine in the weight room. He works hard and he’s built like a brickhouse.”
Watts is the latest in a string of divers from Central Minnesota to make a big splash at SJU. Sauk Rapids-Rice graduate Jack Grabinski, a 2023 graduate, was a two-time All-American and two-time MIAC champion (3-meter in 2020 and 1-meter in 2023). His younger brother, Eli, now a junior, was the 2022 MIAC champion in both the 1- and 3-meter dives.
Eli Grabinski remembers competing against Watts in high school, and is grateful to have him as part of the team now.
“He was always good, even when he was younger,” Grabinski said. “Cody just has a ton of potential. We’re still competing every day in practice, and that’s a great thing. You always want to have people who can push and challenge you.
“That makes everyone better.”
Of course, the local pipeline works the other way, too. Several individuals with ties to the SJU diving program are now helping coach the sport at the high school level in the area.
Connor Reed, a 2023 graduate who earned All-American honors as a sophomore in 2021, is now in his second season working with the boys divers at Tech. Jon Hazen, the longtime diving coach at both SJU and CSB, worked at Tech (helping Reed), Sartell (girls) and Sauk Rapids (boys) last season, and is now coaching at Sartell (girls) and Sauk Rapids (boys) this year.
And Jack Grabinski is now working with the boys at Sartell.
“All three are great guys who just want to help the local diving community,” Gill said. “If you look across the landscape in Central Minnesota, schools are desperate for coaches. And these are guys who really know what they’re doing. I’m proud of the impact they’re making.”
Watts said having the chance to work with Hazen, Reed and former CSB diver Kylie Egger in high school helped convince him to come to SJU.
“The past three years, my coaches have all been connected to the diving program here,” Watts said. “They’d always talk about their meets and about how much fun they were having. It made me want to be part of that group.
“To be honest, I didn’t really look anywhere else,” he continued. “It was always in the back of my mind that Saint John’s was the place for me. It was close to home. I knew some of the guys on the team and I’d been to campus a few times. The school had everything I was looking for.”
Watts was also inspired by the success he saw Reed and the Grabinskis having.
“I dove against both (Jack and Eli) in high school,” he said. “They were better than me because they were older. But they gave me something to shoot for, and to see them go on to have the success they’ve had out here was really cool.
“It’s fun to see people you know do well. But it also gets you motivated because you want to beat them.”
Watts, who plans to major in exercise and health science, said the early success has changed the goals he’s set for himself.
“My main goal coming into the year was just to get used to (competing in the) 3-meter, and the college atmosphere in general,” he said. “Now, I’m looking more and more toward regions and nationals. I’m not that far off the cuts already, and it would be huge if I could achieve that in my first season here.”
