Displaying all the confidence and form of a diver prepared for the NCAA Zone meet in March, junior Karina Silva led UCLA in all three disciplines over the two days of the Bruin Diving Invitational, dominating the platform event and picking up two personal-best scores along the way.
Silva, who had already picked up an NCAA Zone qualifier on the tower in November at USC, won the event with a personal-best score of 263.95 over five dives, more than 27 points ahead of second place and well above the qualifying total of 225. Saturday was just the third time Silva was able to compete in a tower event this year.
“I was really excited (to get back on the platform),” she said. “It’s all starting to come together up there.”
Silva also finished third on the 3-meter springboard, finishing with a score of 301.60, just shy of her best score of the year, but she didn’t stop there.
Hitting the springboard once again on Sunday, Silva posted a big personal-record score of 278.85 on the 1-meter, an event she described as “a little harder for me.” The score, above the standard of 265 points, gave her the only qualifier she had failed to already pick up this year.
“We don’t emphasize 1-meter (with her),” coach Tom Stebbins said. “She had never really trained it prior to being here, so for her, every time she has an opportunity to compete, that’s a big step. She had an opportunity to put a good mark up there, so I’m pleased.”
Freshman Maggy Boyd became the third diver to notch a zone qualifier this year, after Silva and junior Laura Winn. On the 3-meter springboard, Boyd finished right behind Silva in fifth-place, posting a personal-best score of 286.20 points over six dives, narrowly eclipsing the standard of 280.
Freshman Michelle Vale rounded out a 4-5-6 finish for the Bruins on the 3-meter, finishing with a score of 262.80.
The event was won by freshman Ariel Rittenhouse of USC, an American Olympian in 2008 and half of the duo that finished fourth in synchronized 3-meter in Beijing. Rittenhouse scored 342.40 points over six dives, easily defeating the rest of the field.
“I love the way we competed, I thought we did a great job of that,” Stebbins said. “The pieces we worked at putting in over break are starting to take hold so we had a lot of really great individual things happen.”
With six weeks to go until Pac-10’s and eight weeks to go until the Zone meet, Stebbins is extremely pleased with the efforts of all four of his divers over the weekend.
“The field was good enough, and I’m really encouraged by how we competed,” he said. “We just attacked it all weekend. We’re going to be right in the thick of it (at the end).”