Through his four years on the Varsity Swimming and Diving team, Harris has never lost a meet while representing the Friars. His success is nothing short of greatness, but it has not always been that way. 

Harris began diving at a young age. Fueled by his parents’ interest in the sport, Harris reluctantly began the sport that would pave a path for future success. 

“Pretty much my parents signed me up for [diving] and they just thought it was something good for me to put my energy into,” Harris said. 

Similar to many young kids, Harris was placed into a new sport he wasn’t sure he was going to like. It would prove true that it would take due time before the sport would stick.

“A lot of my early experiences with it, I didn’t really like it at first, to be honest at all. I didn’t really want to do it, but then after a while, I started to really enjoy it and the people around me really helped me out. Then I really started to love it and that’s when I was getting my passion for it,” Harris said. 

Being in the sport for so long, Harris has experienced many highs and lows, but there was one experience in particular that he feels was a turning point in his diving career, taking it to the next level. 

“2014 National Championships on my platform event I actually got fourth place when I was pretty young and that’s when I realized this is something that I’m pretty good at and I think I can really start improving my performance, placing at these meets,” Harris said.

He came to Malvern in sixth grade, where he began his diving career as a Friar. Harris began diving up with the high school in eighth grade, following the team to both Easterns and National Catholics in 2018 getting first place overall in both competitions by a significant margin.

Nick’s dominance in the sport is shown in many different ways; one of which can be shown through the records he holds. Harris holds Malvern Prep’s pool record for six dives (376.73) set in 2022 along with two team records: one in six dives (404.55) and the other in eleven dives (648.55). Harris also holds pool records at Episcopal Academy, Penn Charter, The Haverford School, and Germantown Academy. 

“These achievements motivate me to keep going and do what I love. It makes me realize the hard work is paying off and I will continue to try to keep succeeding and carry the work into college,” Harris said. 

During his time diving for the Friars, Harris has been a five-time National Catholics diving champion, a five-time Easterns diving champion, and has an undefeated record that spans four years of competition.

Harris noted that some of his other accolades include making the US National Team five years in a row, getting two bronze and three silver medals at Nationals, being a National Champion in 2019, and Pan American silver medalist. 

In addition to competing for the Friars and Team USA, Harris dives club for TNT Diving, where he has been since eighth grade. While he doesn’t have any typical superstitions before meets, Harris always eats a unique meal before a big competition. 

“I have a specific meal: normally I eat a banana and a waffle. And then before a meet I normally just stretch and sometimes listen to some music,” he said. 

Harris will be going to The University of Texas at Austin next year where he hopes to elevate his dives and push himself to further greatness. Texas’ Swim and Dive program, arguably the best in the country, will provide Harris with competition against the top divers in America. 

“I’m definitely looking forward to a change in scenery for diving. Definitely looking forward to getting used to a new group of people, just different competitions, like NCAA’s,” Harris said. 

As he looks forward to diving in college, Harris also has even further aspirations, hoping to compete in larger competitions over the next few years. 

“I definitely want to make a lot of international competitions, like Grand Prix, maybe the Olympics one day that’d be cool,” Harris said.

While Harris has been excelling in his current slate of competitions, he notes that there is much more room for improvement and feels that with the more intense practice schedule in college, his dreams of making the team USA Olympic teams may not be such an unreasonable idea.

“I don’t practice a lot right now and at [the University of] Texas, I’m gonna be practicing nonstop, and hopefully I can skyrocket up and it’s definitely been something I’ve hoped for, for a while,” Harris said.

Harris feels grateful for all of the opportunities Malvern has provided him over the past seven years but looks forward to his time at the University of Texas and beyond.