University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Stebbins Repeats as Diving Coach of the Year
March 22, 2018 | Swimming & Diving
SAN FRANCISCO โ UCLA's Tom Stebbins has been named the Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year for the second straight year, the conference announced Thursday. Stebbins is the Bruins' first two-time winner of the award, which was first handed out in 1994.
Stebbins was without 2017 Pac-12 Diver of the Year Maria Polyakova, who elected to redshirt in 2017-18, but still guided a diver to a championship season. Eloise Belanger won a pair of Pac-12 Championships during the February conference meet, taking the 1-meter and 3-meter crowns. The junior joined Kristen Walls (1993, 1994) as the only Bruin diver to win both events in the same Pac-10/12 Championships. Belanger went on to take fourth on platform and joined Polyakova as the only UCLA divers to earn the conference's Diver of the Meet award.
Belanger would go on to garner three second-place finishes at the 2018 NCAA Zone E Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz. (March 5-7), securing NCAA qualifications for the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform competitions. She went on to turn in a pair of top-10 finishes at NCAAs, placing 10th on 3-meter and 3rd on platform. The third-place showing, which was made possible by a final-round score of 300.65, marked Belanger's best NCAA finish in the event.
Bruin divers Traci Shiver, Alice Yanovsky and Ciara Monahan joined Belanger at the Zones meet. Shiver and Yanovsky made their debuts at the meet after showing marked improvement over the course of the season. Shiver shined brightest on tower, posting her personal-best score of 247.88 against crosstown rival USC on Feb. 10. Yanovsky, meanwhile, turned in 3-meter scores of 286.73 and 289.05 versus California (Jan. 26) and Stanford (Jan. 27), respectively.
Monahan stepped up in her final season, highlighted by a November to remember. On top of turning in a career-best 1-meter result (309.38) at Arizona State on Nov. 4, the senior dominated the Trojan Diving Invitational (Nov. 10-12). The Woodland Hills, Calif. native swept her only two events at USC, winning the 1-meter and 3-meter contests. Monahan went on to earn Pac-12 Diver of the Month recognition. Belanger followed her with December's award and also picked up three Diver of the Week accolades. UCLA divers collected four Pac-12 Diver of the Month/Week honors, while no other Pac-12 school earned more than two.
Out of the pool, each of Stebbins' eligible divers earned Pac-12 All-Academic recognition. Belanger, Monahan, Shiver and Madeline Russell were named Honorable Mention members of the team.
For good measure, Stebbins saw Belanger collect a 1-meter win at the Winter Senior National Diving Championships in Saskatoon, SK, Canada. The January meet, which also saw the Montreal, QC, Canada native take third on 3-meter, features Canada's top diving talent.
Players Mentioned
