Spieker hosts Westwood’s first diving invitational
Junior diver Laura Winn dives against Kansas and Fresno State Jan. 8. The Bruin Diving Invitational will begin Saturday at the Spieker Aquatics Center.
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 14, 2010 9:36 p.m.
In a year of new stadiums for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, a much smaller team is also boasting a brand new venue to open its season.
It may not be as big or seat as many as the Cowboys’ or Yankees’ stadiums, but the brand-new Spieker Aquatics Center is already making a huge impact on UCLA’s diving team.
The benefits of the state-of-the-art facilities will be felt tomorrow, as UCLA will begin hosting the Bruin Diving Invitational, being held for the first time ever on UCLA’s campus.
Prior to this year, the invitational was held at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena, but from 2004 to 2008, the invitational was on hiatus due to budgetary reasons. The team finally revived the competition in January 2009 in Pasadena, in preparation for hosting it again this year at Spieker.
“Because pool rental became so expensive out there, it became cheaper for us to travel than it was to host,” coach Tom Stebbins said. “We’re really happy to have it back.”
UCLA will go up against a field of five other teams that Stebbins described as “very small, but really high-powered.” The Bruins will compete against Connecticut, UC San Diego and San Diego, along with Pac-10 foes Stanford and USC in the platform, 3-meter springboard and 1-meter springboard.
Junior transfer Karina Silva will look to continue her stellar season on both the platform and the springboard at the invitational. In just her first season at UCLA, Silva has already posted NCAA qualifying scores on the 3-meter springboard and platform, and will look to improve both scores this weekend.
Silva said that her diving routine has changed a lot from the beginning of the year, especially on the 3-meter springboard and on the 10-meter platform, and that she has seen the improvement in her dives.
“My springboard has gone better than expected, so we’re happy about that,” she said. “We’ve been adding new dives to my list and that’s always hard, to improve with new dives.”
As for diving at Spieker?
“It’s the best pool ever,” Silva said. “Nobody can ask for more than Spieker Aquatics Center.”
Junior Laura Winn, who already posted an NCAA qualifier on platform this season, will join freshmen Maggy Boyd and Michelle Vale in trying to get qualifiers on either springboard discipline this week.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how we compete, in particular (against Stanford and USC),” Stebbins said. “I think they have some of the best kids in our conference so I think this bodes well in terms of giving us a measuring stick for the end of the year.”
