LOS ANGELES – UCLA senior Eloise Belanger has been named the Pac-12 Diver of the Week for the period of Jan. 28-Feb. 3, it was announced by the league office on Wednesday morning.
The reigning Pac-12 Diver of the Year, Belanger won three of the four events she entered last week as the No. 20-ranked Bruins traveled to the Bay Area to take on No. 3 Stanford and No. 4 Cal.
This is the fifth Pac-12 Diver of the Week/Month award in Belanger's career. A Bruin has been honored by the Pac-12 three times this year, as senior Maria Polyakova was tabbed the Pac-12 Diver of the Month for November and Diver of the Week on Jan. 23.
Against the Cardinal on Friday, Feb. 1, the Montreal, Quebec native set meet records in both 1-meter and 3-meter diving en route to a pair of first place finishes. She first posted a season-high score of 348.38 in 3M, then battled with Stanford's Carolina Sculti for the 1M title.
Belanger – who overtook Sculti on her penultimate dive to win the 1M championship at last month's Bruin Diving Invitational – defeated Sculti by an ever narrower margin at Avery Aquatics Center, edging her out by just 0.23 points. Her final tally of 314.18 represents a new meet record and is less than a point off her season-high (314.70 in the final of the Bruin Diving Invite).
She followed up her standout performance at Stanford by winning 1M and finishing top-three in 3M at Cal.
She posted a score of 304.88 in 1M, pushing her over the 300-point threshold in every 1M final she's entered so far this year. Her 285.45 mark in 3M, an NCAA qualifying standard, was good for third place.
Belanger has already qualified for all three events – 1-meter, 3-meter, and platform – at NCAA Zone Championships.
She, and the rest of the Bruins, are next in action on Friday, Feb. 15 at crosstown rival USC (platform diving will take place the following day, Feb. 16).