UCLA swim and dive sees success in Trojan Diving Invitational
Zoe Jespersgaard does a dive. Jespersgaard placed first in the Trojan Diving Invitational 3-meter competition. (Alice Yang/Daily Bruin)
By Sabrina Baker
Nov. 14, 2022 4:54 p.m.
On both days of springboard competition, all UCLA divers finished in the top 10.
No. 20 UCLA swim and dive (4-0, 3-0 Pac-12 ) competed in two days of the Trojan Diving Invitational at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Friday and Sunday. The blue and gold competed with seven other teams, including two Pac-12 foes – No. 8 University of Southern California (3-0, 3-0) and No. 9 California (3-0, 2-0).
Day one, the Bruins saw three divers compete – senior Hannah Butler and sophomores Zoe Jespersgaard and Maya Salvitti. Jespersgaard took home the gold in the 3-meter and was the only diver to eclipse the 600-point mark with 611.90 points.
Head diving coach Tom Stebbins said this performance was a really important step for Jespersgaard moving forward.
“Zoe, yesterday (Friday), found a way to overcome some mistakes and misses, but still be really, really good at so many different points and so many different levels,” Stebbins said. “And having that kind of translate into a win was pretty exciting.”
After their performances on day one, Jespersgaard and Butler both qualified for the NCAA Zone E Diving Championship in the 3-meter diving event. Butler took home fifth place in that event, scoring 539.85 points.
Stebbins said he views Butler and Jespersgaard’s qualifications for Zones as a byproduct of their work throughout the season.
“I am real pleased with where we are at and with some of the limits we have had to overcome just training-wise,” Stebbins said. “I’m excited to see where we can kind of turn on this now. We’ve got a little bit of a break. We have about a month before we head out to the USA diving national meet.”
On the third day of the invitational, freshman Eden Cheng led all blue and gold divers in the 1-meter event, taking home bronze with a score of 556.65 points.
Cheng said she was not expecting to compete in the meet because of an ankle injury, adding that she was simply happy to be competing.
“It was only yesterday (Saturday) after training that I kind of decided I wanted to give it a go today (Sunday),” Cheng said. “I actually hadn’t done any practice specific to this invitational this week.”
Alongside Cheng, Butler, Jespersgaard and Salvitti placed fourth, fifth and ninth, respectively. This marked two top-five finishes for both Butler and Jespersgaard in the invitational.
In the finals of the 1-meter event, Butler’s 288.25 points and Jespersgaard’s 284.35 points represented the two highest scores of the season by UCLA divers in the event. With their results, Butler, Jespersgaard and Cheng all notched Zones qualifying scores in the 1-meter event.
Cheng said she was more focused on the experience rather than attempting to qualify for Zones during the invitational.
“I was more focused on doing some dives in a competitive setting, rather than qualifying for anything,” Cheng said. “I’m obviously happy that I made the score, but I’m more happy that I was even able to compete today.”
Unlike the dual-meet format where divers compete in multiple events on the same day, the invitational format spreads the events over the course of multiple days. Stebbins said the invitationals are a better way for the divers to prepare for the postseason.
“Having a single event on each day, having the opportunity to do a list, kind of have a break, and then do another list in the same event, that’s an important skill to develop over the course of the year,” Stebbins said. “I like the invite format a little better because it’s a little more replicating of what is going to be expected of us when we get to February and March.”
UCLA will return to competition with the Ohio State Invitational at the McCorkle Aquatic Center starting Thursday.
