Éloïse Bélanger spent a year dreaming of using her local pools’ diving boards when she was a child. Divers had to be 7 years old, but Bélanger was only 6 at the time. “I really wanted to go on the boards and jump off, but I wasn’t allowed,” Bélanger said. “So that summer when I […]
Category Archives: Features
UCLA’s only two distance swimmers share unique bond
Margaux Verger Gourson and Sandra Soe have shared classes, a suite on the Hill and even the same major, sociology. As the only two distance swimmers on the UCLA swimming team, they also share a demanding training schedule. Verger Gourson, a senior, and Soe, a junior, begin their practices just like the rest of their […]
Freshman guard Kris Wilkes talks Indiana roots, experiences at UCLA
Rarely had Kris Wilkes struggled to score. A five-star recruit who tore through Indiana high school basketball, the freshman guard started the year looking like he might do the same at the college level, averaging 16.8 points a game in his first four outings. Then the shots stopped falling. Over the next seven games, Wilkes […]
Bruin propels swimming career through motivation, perseverance
When the weather got bad, and practice was canceled, most kids would go home and enjoy the rest of the day. Emma and Dylan Schanz’s passion for swimming kept them by the pool. “If we had a lightning storm or it was too rainy to see the bottom of the pool … we’d be in […]
Senior gymnast earns scholarship after three years as a walk-on
Some collegiate gymnasts get their start in elite clubs when they first start to walk. Others have parents who were gymnasts, so they grow up around the sport. Senior JaNay Honest got her start in gymnastics on a playground when she was 5 years old. “I loved the monkey bars,” Honest said. “I would be […]
Former high school rivals develop chemistry, bond at UCLA
Coach Cori Close received an unusual text message from her freshman point guard in 2015. “I don’t think we should recruit Kennedy Burke,” Jordin Canada wrote. Canada was known to be a quiet player, but she wasn’t afraid of being vocal about Burke, her former high school rival. “I didn’t know her, but I didn’t […]
Softball sisters look to play college game together for first time
During one of Briana and Kylee Perez’s first experiences with softball, then-11-year-old Kylee Perez threw the ball right at then-8-year-old Briana Perez’s face, knocking out a tooth in the process. It might have seemed unlikely at the time, but there was a dream in the Perez family that one day, the two sisters would play […]