Bruins dive into season’s first multiday meet at USC
Junior diver Annika Lenz and sophomore diver Maria Polyakova have led this year’s Bruin squad to successful early-season results. The two anchor a young squad that includes four new divers. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Brent Troop
Nov. 13, 2015 1:49 a.m.
As UCLA enters the homestretch of fall quarter, the UCLA diving team is busy jumping headfirst into its first multiday meet of the year.
Throughout the early portion of the 2015-2016 season, the Bruins have competed only in single-day meets, but have excelled on the boards and positioned themselves as contenders in the Pac-12.
This weekend, the diving team travels across town to the Uytengsu Aquatic Center at USC, where they’ll compete against seven other schools including the rival host school. Despite a successful showing on the road against conference opponent Arizona State, UCLA still has improvements to make in order to maintain the season’s strong start.
“We have some composure (issues) we have to work on,” said diving coach Tom Stebbins. “It’s not something that we’re going to get corrected in a week, but I think we can be better in terms of our overall mechanical discipline.”
Over the course of Stebbins’ 18-year coaching career at UCLA, he said that he’s never had a team with as much youth as this one. Of the eight divers, half of them are freshmen who have competed in three or less meets. Due to a lack of experience, the Bruins were bound to encounter some growing pains as their divers adjusted to the competitiveness of Division I athletics.
For the first time in four years, USC will be without reigning 2014 Pac-12 Women’s Diver of the Year Haley Ishimatsu, who dominated the Trojan Diving Invitational last year by winning the 3-meter and women’s platform dive and finishing runner-up to UCLA then-freshman Maria Polyakova in the 1-meter dive. The Trojans do return one of the top divers in the conference, though – senior Sam Adams, who finished second to Ishimatsu in the 3-meter dive.
The Bruins are confident in their ability to have a successful performance this weekend, as they pride themselves on following their training and avoiding small mistakes such as those they experienced against the Sun Devils.
“We’re not building a game plan around what somebody else does,” Stebbins said. “You have to just worry about maximizing yourself and if you do that, the result takes care of itself.”
Compiled by Brent Troop, Bruin Sports contributor.
