If senior diver Marisa Samaniego was burning and bleeding on the outside, she was fuming on the inside.
Her left ankle had sustained a deep, stinging cut, yet she marched forward, on a mission, and positioned herself three meters above the water and glared down.
It was the 2008 Zone E Competitions and the top seven divers would automatically advance to the NCAA championships.
A day earlier, Samaniego had to pull out of 1M competition because of the injury. Now she reasoned to herself that the cut would be the one thing that would propel her to the NCAAs.
She challenged her ankle, the competition, the water, herself.
She knew that nothing could stop her.
And with a quick jump, she dove in neatly and won the event.
“(Samaniego) is absolutely at her best is when her back is up against the wall,” dive coach Tom Stebbins said.
When Samaniego needed to be great, she found a way, and her toughness has become an endearing quality.
Samaniego, along with the women’s dive team, has experienced her fair share of difficulty, underlined by sophomore diver Laura Winn’s nightmarish accident last season in which she hit her head while executing a dive.
“Marisa felt really devastated by that, but that’s what made her bounce back in the 3M so special,” Stebbins said.
In a sense, Samaniego could have tossed diving to the side on that day and could have easily walked away from the competition.
But she returned, and by the second dive in the contest, it was clear that something special was about to happen.
“I even surprised myself a little bit that I could be that tough,” Samaniego said. “I just got mad and got into that mentality where I’m like, “˜You’re going to have to work very hard to beat me today.'”
Samaniego popped out of the pool with a red-hot lifetime-best score of 632.15.
“Diving has been life-changing because it has taught me so much about myself and about being a good teammate, having determination, and working hard,” Samaniego said.
And she has learned all this, perhaps in a different way than most.
“For Marisa, I would say her path isn’t typical,” Stebbins said. “I would say it requires different pieces for her ““ it’s a much larger jigsaw puzzle ““ and for her to click down the pieces, it comes very quickly at the end.”
Piecing the puzzle together
With observation and attention to detail, the pieces would fall in place. As a freshman, a year in which Samaniego didn’t think she could make an instant impact, she became the sole Bruin representative in the NCAAs.
Nervous, Samaniego believed she was outmatched and consequently did not perform up to her capabilities.
Her competitive fire was still developing.
Samaniego credits Stebbins and a duo of upperclassmen ““ Sara Clark and Amanda Blong ““ as mentors who helped develop a new mentality in her, one necessary to compete at the college level.
“We were very lucky to have these group of seniors during (Samaniego’s) freshman and sophomore year,” Stebbins said. “They were optimal leaders.”
Under the group’s combined leadership, four divers ““ Blong, Clark, Samaniego, and current senior Tess Schofield ““ all advanced to the NCAAs during Samaniego’s second-year campaign.
There, Samaniego nabbed All-American honors by scoring a personal-best 333.25 on the 1M, which placed her sixth at NCAAs.
Yet sometimes frustration still took hold.
According to Samaniego, diving is in many ways an art ““ it takes accuracy, consistency, and attention to detail ““ and as with any artist painting a masterpiece, it can get frustrating.
“I got pretty frustrated easily because so many little things could change the dive,” Samaniego said. But I thought everything in time would come together if I just continued to listen to the corrections and not get too frustrated.”
She knew her competitive fire would come eventually.
Her senior season
Even this past spring and summer have been difficult. But now, after consistent training, Samaniego says she is in the best shape of her life.
Samaniego has now developed an uncanny sense of what she is and how much more work she has to put in to be better than anyone else.
“It has been a pleasure to watch her grow,” Stebbins said. “I think she has grown incredibly over the last four years, and that’s something that I think will continue in her, and I certainly hope so in the future.”
Now, the senior core of Schofield, Hill, and Samaniego want to make sure that the younger divers ““ Morgan Erpenbeck, Alyssa Robinson, and Winn are comfortable and successful in both diving and school.
“I’ve met some amazing friends, people I know will be my friends for the rest of my life, and that’s all you can ask for,” Samaniego said.
Because of the mental pressure she has put on herself every day, to be so precise and so perfect, she has created opportunities in those moments in which she can be great.
One huge opportunity is looming in less than two months.
Samaniego has already qualified for the NCAA Zone E Championships that will be held in Austin, Texas on March 12 and March 13.
For a senior who has learned so much, it’s obvious that Samaniego wants to make one final statement.
“I just need to put six good dives together,” Samaniego said.
Nothing should hold her back.
Just expect that same fire.