BSU Athlete Spotlights: Joshua Hernandez & Alexa Wilson
The Bridgewater State Bears Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving Teams are nearing the end of their season with the Little East Conference (LEC) Championships this upcoming weekend.
Alexa Wilson is a Graduate Student who is a diver on the Women’s Swim Team. She is currently seeking a Master’s in Elementary Education, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Geological Sciences with a minor in Reading. After transferring from Southern Connecticut State, where she was a college gymnast, she joined the Indoor & Outdoor Track & Field teams here at BSU. She reached out to the Diving Coach Jen Jackson asking if they needed a diver, and then the next thing she knew she was on the team.
“When I first started as similar as diving is to gymnastics the idea of landing on my head did not seem too fun to me but now have grown to love the sport of diving.” Wilson had to say.
One of her goals for this season was to get a higher degree of dives to be more competitive this season. She has been looking to break some dive records that coach Jen Jackson still holds for BSU. In the 1M 6 dives competition, Wilson currently has 252.9 points on the season, Jackson had 263.05 in the 2007-2008 Swim season. In the 3M 6 dive competition, Wilson has 207.85 on the season, while Jackson had 293.4 in that same 2008 season. Wilson’s ultimate goals are to help the team win the LEC Championship, and then qualify for Regional and potentially the National Championship.
Wilson won the LEC Women’s Diver of the Week times during the season in which she said, “I am very pleased with my conference awards this season and it has been an honor to get chosen as Diver of the week after every competition that we have had this season.”
On the men’s side, Joshua Hernandez is a senior swimmer, who is majoring in Biology. He gained his experience with 4 years of being on the High School Swim team. He then went to the Community College of Rhode Island, where he participated in the club swim team that his High School coach at Cranston East High School started at college when Hernandez was there. He then transferred to Bridgewater State in Fall 2020 and is currently competing in his first season.
He usually competes in the 100 and 50-yard freestyle, and 50-yard butterfly competitions. His goals for the season were to break some school records, but more importantly to help win the Bears the LEC Championship.
Hernandez has won the LEC Men’s Swimmer of the Week twice this season. He said that he enjoyed it, but he is more concerned about the end of the season and winning a team trophy.
Hernandez told The Comment, “I am super happy to be a part of the team and blessed to be around a good group of people.”
Both athletes have gone through a long season to get ready for this matchup.
Will they win next weekend?
