UCLA
NCAA Championships
Bruins Wrap Up at NCAAs, Stebbins and Polyakova Earn CSCAA Honors
March 23, 2019 | Swimming & Diving
AUSTIN, Tex. โ Senior Eloise Belanger secured a ninth-place result in platform diving to finish as the highest-scoring diver at NCAAs on Saturday as the 2018-19 season came to an end with the conclusion of the 2019 NCAA Championships at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
After the meet concluded, UCLA senior Maria Polyakova was named the CSCAA Diver of the Year while UCLA head diving coach Tom Stebbins was honored as the CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year.ย
Paired with her fifth-place finish in 1-meter diving (14 points) and fourth-place finish in 3-meter diving (15 points), Belanger ended the weekend having scored 38 points for the Bruins.
Polyakova, who won 3M on Friday to become UCLA's first-ever diving national champion, was the second-highest scoring diver at NCAAs (37 points) despite only competing in two events. Only three other divers broke the 30-point threshold. With 75 combined points, UCLA led all diving programs and established a new program benchmark.
Belanger placed 13th in the platform prelims, but stepped it up in the consolation round by recording a score of 274.20, just 0.30 points off her season-best.
The Montreal, Quebec native opened up an early lead after posting scores of above 60.00 on her first two dives. Her highest score of the day came on her second attempt, a 205B (back 2 ยฝ somersault pike) that netted her 60.90 points.
The ninth-place finish gave Belanger her fourth CSCAA All-America honor in platform diving and her 10th All-America award overall (four First Team, six honorable mentions).
On the swimming side, senior Sandra Soe was the last to wrap up competition, swimming the mile for the final time in her collegiate career and placing 33rd overall at 16:16.48.
A number of UCLA swimmers wrapped up their seasons with the morning's prelim sessions.
Junior Kenisha Liu and freshman Claire Grover each had solid showings in the 100 free, placing 28th (48.78) and 33rd (48.95), respectively.
Freshman Mara Newman posted a time of 1:57.04 in the 200 back, good for 52nd place.
UCLA's 400 relay team of Liu, Maisie Jameson, Delaney Smith, and Grover posted a season-best time of 3:16.71 to take 25th place.
The final rankings are as follows:
1. Stanford โ 456.5
2. California โ 419
3. Michigan โ 314
4. Louisville โ 235
5. Texas โ 190.5
6. Virginia โ 188
7. NC State โ 187.5
8. Tennessee โ 185
9. Indiana โ 179
10. USC โ 159
17. UCLA - 75
Players Mentioned
