Diving NCAAsDiving NCAAs

Polyakova, Mack Shine at NCAAs

Swimming & Diving

Mack breaks another school record; Polyakova places 4th in 3-meter.

ATLANTA, Ga. – UCLA junior Linnea Mack and sophomore Maria Polyakova shined bright for the Bruins on day three of the NCAA Championships.  For the second straight day, Mack broke her own school record in an event and Polyakova recorded a top-five finish on the boards.  Through 14 events, UCLA is in 15th place.

100 Butterfly

Katie Grover, Katie Kinnear, and Caroline McTaggart got things started on Friday morning with the 100 Fly prelims.  Grover finished 36th (53.26), followed by Kinnear in 45th (53.74) and McTaggart in 54th (54.71).  All three missed the cut to qualify for the evening session. 

100 Backstroke

Mack posted the 11th-fastest time (51.60) in the 100 Back prelims to advance to the B final.  Teammates Madison White and Emma Schanz placed 39th and 44th, respectively.  Schanz posted a season-best 53.61 in the morning swim.  Rounding out the Bruins competing in the 100 Back, Kinnear finished 51st with a season-best 54.51.

In the 100 Back finals, Mack broke her own school record in the event for the third time in three weeks.  This time, the junior swam a career-best 51.24 to finish second in the consolation final (10th overall).  At the Pac-12s, Mack broke her UCLA record twice in one day—first in the championship final of the 100 Back (51.98) to finish sixth and again as the lead-off leg in the 400 Medley Relay (51.37). 

3-Meter Diving

Polyakova and Eloise Belanger represented the Bruins in the final springboard event of the week.  In the morning session, Polyakova posted a 347.40 to advance to the championship final and Belanger scored a 312.15 to qualify for the consolation final. 

In the evening session, Polyakova improved her score by nearly 35 points to finish fourth overall with a season-best 381.95.  Belanger finished second in the B final (10th overall) after recording a season-high 340.75.   

Championship action concludes tomorrow with the 200 Backstroke, 100 Freestyle, 200 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly, 400 Freestyle Relay, 1650 Freestyle, and platform diving.  Saturday night's finals will be streamed live beginning at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN3. Prelims will be streamed through Atlanta Swimming (the link is available on RamblinWreck.com and NCAA.com).