School vacations are usually a time for relaxation and travel but not for junior Elizabeth Miller. While all her classmates are at home or on a plane, she’s in the pool, diving six hours a day.

Miller started diving her freshman year after gymnastics left her with a stress-fractured back, two sprained ankles and numerous other injuries.

“I knew that many divers are former gymnasts, so I gave it a shot and ended up falling in love with the sport,” Miller said.

With her background in gymnastics, Miller advanced with leaps and bounds. This year, she set a new Wayland girls’ varsity 6 dive record.

“It was really exciting because breaking the record was my goal for next year, so it was nice that I was able to do it this year,” Miller said.

But transitioning sports did not come without challenges.

“Coming from gymnastics, the most difficult thing to get used to was entering the water head first,” Miller said. “It made me really uncomfortable.”

Although Miller says the sports are similar with their flips and twists, they do have some differences, like diving is a lot more technical and, thankfully for her injuries, less physically demanding.

She also loves the diving community much more than that of gymnastics and has made many friends along her journey, but that’s not her only favorite thing about the sport.

“My favorite thing about diving is that I get to spend time with my amazing teammates,” Miller said. “It’s also generally just a fun and exciting sport. It’s always a challenge. There is always a new dive to learn or something to perfect. There can be a lot of risk to certain dives, which is a big reason the sport is so much fun.”

Miller hopes to continue diving in college and get recruited to college for diving.