UCLA swimming and diving dominate at meets, standouts shine

No one works harder than UCLA Bruins’ junior diver Annika Lenz.

After a lackluster performance in the Trojan Diving Invitational in early November, where she finished second to Madison Witt of USC, Lenz bounced back in a big way this weekend at the Bruin Diving Invitational, en route to one of the best performances of her diving career.

“I have no question at all about Annika’s greatness,” said diving coach Tom Stebbins. “I have always said that there are very few people in the country who can outwork her. This doesn’t mean she is the best athlete of the group or the most talented of the group, but it does mean that no one is going to work harder than her.”

Lenz was able to win the platform diving event, beating Witt and lapping the entire field in terms of points, finishing with a 90-point margin of victory.

“I’ve known Madison (Witt) for a long time, but I try not to think of other people while I am diving because I cannot control them,” Lenz said. “However, when other people are doing good, it pushes me to do even better because I know what is needed to go ahead. But, I honestly just try and focus on myself.”

The tone for the competition was set early on by Lenz as she held the lead at the end of each of the diving rounds, both preliminary and final. She opened a 27-point gap in the platform event by scoring a healthy 278.25 points over the five preliminary dives, for an average just shy of 56 points per round.

She kicked it up a notch during the finals with a score of 321.95, an average just north of 64 points per round, which left her less than two points off the school record that she herself set last season.

The Bruins also placed two more divers in the top five of the platform event, with freshman diver Éloïse Bélanger and senior diver Montana Monahan coming in third and fifth place, respectively.

Bélanger was competing in her first diving invitational for the Bruins against Pac-12 competition, and pointed out that one of the most difficult aspects of such events is the long wait time between dives. Despite her relative inexperience in this type of environment, Bélanger maintained her position in the top three throughout both the preliminary and final rounds.

“This invitational was a good experience because I am not used to diving when there are that many other divers competing since that means there is a long time between dives,” Bélanger said. “I’m from Canada and in Canada we don’t usually have that many people, so it was good for me. Also, the preliminaries and finals add together so you need to be at your best throughout the competition.”

Two wins from Salt Lake City

The No. 18 UCLA Bruins swim team also competed this weekend as it traveled to Salt Lake City to take on the Boise State Broncos and the Utah Utes. UCLA was able to attain a clean sweep this weekend as they defeated Boise State, 133-128, and dominated Utah, 182-95.

UCLA junior swimmer Madison White was a standout over the weekend as she placed in the top five in four separate events. White was a part of the 200-yard medley relay team that finished fourth, and was part of another relay team that finished second. In addition, White won the 200-yard backstroke by a little over three seconds over the field and was part of a 1-2-3 finish for the Bruins in the 200-yard fly.

“For the 200 back, I really went back to my mental training and I know that I’ve put in a lot of hard work so it gives me confidence once I get into the pool,” White said. “At the end of the day, the 200 back is eight laps, and I know that I’ve done that before time and time again in practice. I really try and not worry about my time or who is in the lane next to me, but rather just being in my own race and in my own lane.”