Selina Arends dove into her sophomore year of high school, literally. She was on the JV dive team for the first time this year.

“I needed a sport to do and it seemed fun,” Arends said. “And practice isn’t as often as swim team.”

Arends didn’t have much dive experience before joining the team, except a few swimming and diving lessons with her dad while she was in elementary school. At her first dive meet she was a little nervous but she ended up having an exciting time.

“It was kind of scary because we had to go off the diving board for the first time and it’s pretty high up,” Arends said. “A bunch of us were scared to go in the water because we’ve never dove before but it was fun though because we all started at the beginning because we were all at the same level.”

Before she joined the team, she knew Kara Marin, Stefany Noakes, Kristen Burns, Lauren Burns and her sister, Sarah Arends. By the end of the season the team became better friends.

When Arends isn’t in the pool, she’s in the kitchen baking. She’s been baking since her dad allowed her to use the oven by herself. Her favorite thing to bake is cakes, even if they don’t turn out so well.

“They usually come out really badly because I’m not very good at it even though I like doing it,” Arends said.

Once, she and her friend Anna Held attempted to make a lemon cake.

“We had to make our own frosting because we didn’t have any and we made it with a ton of butter,” Arends said. “When we put it on the cake it started separating so it was just like a cake filled with butter and it was really gross.”

In the end they were left with a big mess to clean up.

“Our kitchen was destroyed,” Arends said. “There was sugar and butter everywhere.”

By Grace Alcock