Sophomore diver Laura Winn suffered a horrific accident at last year’s Pac-10 championships in Federal Way, Wash.
A year later on Saturday, she completed her miraculous comeback.
Diving off the same diving boards and into the same pool that saw her hit her head on a board and be rushed to the hospital, Winn faced her nerves and nailed the two best dives of her life over the weekend.
With scores of 231.10 and 252.05 Winn shattered her previous lifetime-best scores twice, in the preliminary and final rounds of tower, to take second place and advance to the NCAA Zone E Championships.
“It was such a turn around from last year,” Winn said. “Last year was horrible. No team should have to go through that.”
In addition to tower, Winn competed in the one-meter event Feb. 26. She said she had talked to her coach, Tom Stebbins, about having to dive despite lingering fears from last year. The two agreed she would not dive on three-meter, the event in which the accident happened. Yet no amount of mental preparation could fully clear Winn’s mind of memories from 2008.
“My stomach was in knots,” Winn said. “I wasn’t sure how I would feel. It was hard. It was the only thing going on in my mind … looking over at three-meter and reliving it.”
But after getting through the one-meter event without incident, and watching her teammate senior Marisa Samaniego win the event, Winn said she felt some of the weight fall off her shoulders. After a day off, Winn took on the tower with the swim team, dive team and UCLA parents looking on. They all knew about Winn’s accident, and erupted when she hit her dives.
“It really felt amazing to know that all those people were supporting me and how proud they were of me,” Winn said. “They knew what I had been through. Having Marisa run and give me a hug, it really was amazing. It was one of those moments I will never forget, one I will cherish always.”
RELYING ON THE YOUTH: Striving for improvement and perfection has fueled the UCLA women’s swim and dive team all year, and it continues to do so as the season concludes.
Of course the ultimate goal was to come out of Federal Way, Wash. with a championship, but the Bruins just didn’t have that opportunity this year. What has remained from the rough weekend was the staff’s commitment to developing the underclassmen. And thus, as the season winds to a close for the swimmers, there is still a sense of optimism.
The 2008-09 squad, who swim coach Cyndi Gallagher has called one of her “hardest working groups,” has trained incessantly for 20 weeks, and she’s pleased with the results.
Sophomores Dani Milligan and Lauren Hall gave reason for that optimism with lifetime-best digits last weekend.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement about the future, and our focus right now is evaluating what we can improve on and how we can go forward,” dive coach Tom Stebbins said.
Inconsistency has bitten the Bruins at times this season, but Stebbins feels that the team at this point is in prime physical form.
“The group is ready to perform, and their progression throughout their year has exceeded my expectations,” Stebbins said.
SHOWING TOUGHNESS: The dive team has overcome a tough 2007-08 campaign marked by Winn’s shocking accident and has shown incredible toughness, exhibited in Winn’s runner-up finish on the tower.
“For the whole team, it was an emotional year last year and for her to come back shows that we weren’t going to let anything that happened last year affect what we were doing this year,” Samaniego said.
However, Winn’s emotional performance somewhat helped overshadow the subpar dives from seniors Tess Schofield and Brittany Hill in the Pac-10s.
“Our struggles were not physical for sure, and those mistakes are correctable in the amount of time we have,” Stebbins said, “I think they were too focused on the result and not focused on the process on getting to the result.”
NOTES: The divers will head back to Austin, Texas for the NCAA Zone E Championships March 12, and select divers and swimmers who advanced will compete in the NCAA Championships held at College Station, Texas, on March 19.
Bruin sports senior staff writer Matt Stevens contributed to this report.