Swimming and diving heads to Washington for Pac-12 championship
UCLA swimming and diving will head to Federal Way, Washington, to compete in the Pac-12 championship. However, the Bruins’ diving squad will be a bit stunted due to injuries and midterms. (Rohan Kumar/Daily Bruin)
By Gwyneth Teo
Feb. 22, 2017 12:36 a.m.
Sophomore Eloise Belanger won her first senior title in the 1-meter springboard at the Winter Senior National Diving Championship in Canada last Friday but will not have the chance to repeat the feat in the upcoming Pac-12 swimming and diving championship for UCLA.
“She’s got a midterm that runs Thursday night that she couldn’t really be excused for so she’s going to fly late Thursday,” said diving coach Tom Stebbins. “We’ll decide on Friday if she’s going to dive 3-meter or not.”
Coming off of three straight losses to conference rivals, the No. 21 UCLA swimming and diving team will be competing in the Pac-12 championship at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington that runs Wednesday to Saturday.
This would mean that Belanger will certainly miss out on the 1-meter competition in which she is seeded second behind the 2016 Olympics semifinalist and Stanford senior Kassidy Cook. Belanger finished third in the event at the 2016 Pac-12 championship.
The Bruins’ hopes in the contest would then be pinned on junior Maria Polyakova. Polyakova topped the 1-meter competition in the previous year, earning UCLA’s first diving title since 2008.
Polyakova is seeded sixth and first for the 1-meter and 3-meter, respectively. However, physical injury might prevent Polyakova from performing her best at this meet.
“I’ve been injured and my back is hurting right now, but we’ll see,” Polyakova said.
Should Belanger compete in the 3-meter, four out of her six dives will have been newly added since the last championship. Belanger finished fourth in the event last year.
According to Stebbins, Belanger struggled a little with her 3-meter list at the Winter Senior National Diving Championship.
“She’s still kind of in the green phase with all of it- it’s a lot to add and take on,” Stebbins said. “She qualified fourth for the prelims but missed her hurdle pretty badly and ended up 12th on the final.”
On platform, both Belanger and senior Annika Lenz are strong contenders after finishing second and fourth respectively last year. They will be looking to beat Stanford junior Gracia Leydon-Mahoney, who last season became the first member of the Cardinal to win the national title on platform since 2001. Leydon-Mahoney also finished first in the Pac-12 last year.
On the other side of the pool, the swim team will be counting on senior Linnea Mack to lead the charge.
Last year, Mack competed in six unique events and finished no lower than sixth in any of them. In addition, Mack set a UCLA record in the 400 medley relay in which she swam a 51.37 during the backstroke leg.
Mack is most excited for her pet event, the 100-yard backstroke.
“I’m really confident in my race plan,” Mack said.
The lineup for the race includes the likes of California sophomores Amy Bilquist, who has the fastest dual-meet time in the event in the country, and Kathleen Baker, who earned silver in the event at the Rio Olympics.
Another Bruin to watch will be junior Katie Grover who is seeded fifth and eighth in the 200- and 100-yard butterfly races, respectively. In the former, she will be going against Stanford sophomore Ella Eastin, two-time national champion and holder of four Pac-12 titles.
