MARQUETTE, Mich. - With the 2023-24 swim and dive season all wrapped up, we sat down with senior Logan Boynton to talk about his swim career.

The Cass City native took to the pool for the first time when he was six for swim practices before stepping back for a few years. His departure was mainly because of his determination to only swim freestyle while it was the norm to try every event. Boynton returned to the water around sixth grade and only a few years later, he became one of the top swimmers at his high school.

While deciding on a university, Boynton reached out to Northern's coaches to express his interest in joining the team. After meeting with them and learning that he would need to improve his times to compete in the GLIAC conference, he decided to put in the extra work and prove his commitment to the team. "I do believe that Coach Matt and Coach Heidi made a conscious effort to give me attention… that means everything. I'm forever grateful for them letting me be on this team and all the stuff they've done for me," said Boynton. 

For his first two years, Boynton was involved in the freestyle, backstroke, and occasional relays, but was pushed out of his comfort zone at the beginning of his junior year. In a meeting pointed at creating goals for the year, Boynton mentioned how he wanted to score just one point at the GLIAC Championship meet. In a move that would benefit the team as a whole, the coaches asked him to join the dive team as well. Not only would Boynton be able to rack up more points, but the team had only one male diver at the time and it is advantageous to have at least three. The kicker? Boynton hadn't dove in five years before committing to this opportunity. "I want to score a point and I'll do anything to help the team out," said Boynton. 

Boynton further expressed his appreciation for his coaches, first mentioning diving coach Chris Kelly. Kelly began coaching at NMU in the 2022-23 season right after graduating college and hopping out of the pool himself. "I don't think I would be where I'm at without him," said Boynton. He also mentioned associate head coach Matt Williams, who had him practicing drills every day for two months to help improve his form. "There was no need for him to do that for me. He believed in me and gave me a shot," said Boynton.

Mental blocks are inevitable, especially in a sport where mentality is one of the key components. Boynton mentioned a piece of advice that he received from Coach last year to help deal with this, "If you mess up bad you can kick yourself down bad or you can take your two minutes to really think about it and once those two minutes are up, it's back to business," said Boynton. "You've gotta fail. You only get one shot at a dive and if you're actually doing hard stuff then it's obviously not going to come out perfect".

On a similar note, mental health for athletes is being talked about more than ever before. The stigma that athletes don't deal with mental health has been proven wrong time and time again, especially in these past few years. "I think that's a stigma among non-athletes," said Boynton. "I've been very open about my struggles with mental health, especially when it comes to diving. Diving is a huge mental sport, so the things you do – your body is physically capable of – the main thing is that you have to overcome the fear of it."

Before hitting the diving board, Boynton has a strict routine that he sticks to before every meet. First, he always makes sure that he's wearing the chain that was gifted from his father, kisses it, and then listens to music as long as he has headphones. This is followed by stretching, changing his swim gear, and visualizing the whole dive set. The next step is to do two reps of each jump on the diving board because "I feel like if I do three good ones and do more, then I'm going to waste all of my good ones," said Boynton. After his warm-up, he makes sure not to eat or drink anything until he's between dives. His last requirement is that if it's a home meet, then he will mouth the national anthem. Boynton has done this since he was younger when they had a speaker, what used to be a force of habit ultimately turned into just another step in his well-crafted routine. 

While Boynton is ending his collegiate career with a smile on his face and ready for the next steps, his start was quite different because of COVID-19. "I feel blessed that I can have like 60 friends on call no matter what," said Boynton. "When it was COVID, I didn't know any of those people like that because we had to stay six feet apart and wear masks, so I didn't even know what half of them looked like. I didn't feel any connection to them." 

Boynton hopes that his legacy leaves others to see that you don't have to be the best on the team to still be a good friend and supporter. "Genuinely, I think because I was not that great – it's like okay what can I do for this team?" said Boynton. "As long as I can keep the spirits up, I know I have done my part."