UCLA
NCAA Championships
Polyakova Wins 3M Title on Day Three of NCAAs
March 22, 2019 | Swimming & Diving
AUSTIN, Tex. โ A day after finishing runner-up in 1-meter diving at the NCAA Championships, UCLA senior Maria Polyakova captured the NCAA crown in 3-meter diving on Friday, becoming the program's first-ever individual diving national champion and the UCLA's first individual champion in any event since 1996.
Polyakova captured the title with a final score of 396.00, less than three points behind her program-record score of 398.75. She bested the second-place finisher, Arkansas's Brooke Schultz, by over 15 points.
The Moscow, Russia native was not the only Bruin with a standout day on springboard, as fellow senior Eloise Belanger posted a lifetime-best score of 378.75 to secure fourth place and First Team All-America status.
"I am incredibly proud of Maria, she has slowly and steadily built herself up into the champion she is today," said UCLA head diving coach Tom Stebbins. "While the process hasn't always gone according to plan, she executed in a great manner tonight. I couldn't be happier to have her crowned UCLA's first NCAA Diving Champion."
The last Bruin to win an individual championship was UCLA Hall of Famer Annette Salmeen, who captured the 200-butterfly crown in 1996. No Bruin diver has ever won an individual NCAA Championship, though both Polyakova and Belanger had finished runner-up before Friday's competition.
Polyakova led practically the entire way. She topped the field after the first round - scoring a 66.00 on an inward 2 ยฝ somersault pike (3.0 degree of difficulty) -ย and then pulled away by scoring a day-high 81.00 on her second dive, a reverse 2 ยฝ somersault pike that garnered three 9.0s.
The senior went on to record scores over 63.00 on her final two dives to clinch the result. She wraps up her collegiate career as a seven-time First Team All-American between 1-meter and 3-meter diving.
The last Bruin to win an NCAA diving title was Doug Shaffer, who claimed a pair of individual championships in 1986 for the UCLA men's program.ย
Belanger meanwhile just missed out on a top-two spot, as second place and fourth place were separated by less than two points. She scored between 57.60 and 67.50 points on each of her dives, and recorded 8.0s or higher on each of her first two attempts. The fourth-place finish was the fourth time in her career that she's finished top-five in an event at NCAAs, a figure she can add to on Saturday as she's slated to compete on tower in the final day of the NCAA Championships.
"It wouldn't be right for today's win to overshadow Eloise's incredible PR this evening," said Stebbins. "For Elo to compete her very-best 3M list ever and have that lead to another All-America award and fourth-place finish is a great credit to all of her hard work and determination."
A trio of UCLA swimmers competed earlier in the day in swimming preliminaries.
Junior Kenisha Liu had UCLA's highest swim finish, placing 43rd in the 200 free at 1:47.21. Freshman Claire Grover logged a 48th-place finish in the 100 breast at 1:01.17, and freshman Mara Newman โ making her NCAAs debut โ was 55th in the 100 back at 54.58.
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UCLA concludes competition at the 2019 NCAA Championships on Saturday, with six individuals and relay teams slated to compete: Newman (200 back), Liu (100 free), Grover (100 free), Sandra Soe (1650 free), Belanger (platform diving), and UCLA's 400 free relay team. Prelims start at 7:00 a.m. PT while finals begin at 3:00 p.m. PT.
Here are highlights from Polyakova's finals list.
โ UCLA Swim And Dive (@UCLASwimAndDive) March 23, 2019
With a score of 396.00 - less than three points off her school record - she became UCLA's first individual diving champion ever!#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/ioAqpCGAjC
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