Divers constantly strive to improve their list--aerialist jargon for the dives that they perform in competition--so as to incorporate dives with higher degrees of difficulty.

When she arrived in Cambridge, Pam could perform a front two-and-one-half off the three-meter board, but could only do it in tuck (legs bent and tucked tightly against the body during the somersaults) position. To learn to do it in pike (legs straight throughout) would add .2 (the difference between 2.1 and 2.3) to the dive's DD.

Early season attempts were disastrous. "It got to the point where I had to decide whether I wanted to work on it early in practice while I was fresh and might have a chance to get all the way around, or to save it 'til the end when all that crashing wouldn't ruin the rest of the workout," Pam said.

"She looked like the bombadier squad for a while," coach Walker said, "there was a time when we talked about going back to the two-and-one-half tuck just because I was tired of seeing her getting herself smashed up."

Pam desperately wanted to learn the new dive, though, knowing that she would need the higher DD when late-season championship competition began.

Progress was slow but a legitimate breakthrough occurred at the Greater Boston meet. "That had to bolster her confidence when she hit it for fives and five-and-one-halves there, but even I didn't expect what she did with it at the Ivy meet," Walker says.

Performing the old nemesis as the third dive on her list, Pam fully completed the somersaults in the air and knifed into the water nearly perpendicular. The judges' awards of seven, seven, seven-and-one-half, when multiplied with the dive's DD of 2.3 gave her a very respectable total of 49.45 on the dive which had caused so much frustration in the early season. So much for the bombadier squad.

Walker says dedication and extreme powers of concentration are reasons for Stone's emergence as a blue-chip diver. Similarly, Pam's roommates marvel at her ability to drag herself out of bed after a late evening for morning practice and her ability to work through practically any distraction when necessary.

"She's amazing," roommate Amy Walsh said recently. "Practices twice a day, some tough courses (Ec 10 and Math lb among others) and she still has a great time."

For one who says she felt "like a miniant" during the confusion of freshman week, Pam seems to have carved herself a solid niche. Now, how about that kiss from Shamu!