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Polyakova, Stebbins Earn Pac-12 Postseason Honors

April 02, 2019 | Swimming & Diving

LOS ANGELES – UCLA senior diver Maria Polyakova was named the Pac-12 Diver of the Year for the second time in her career and Tom Stebbins was voted the Pac-12 Diving Coach of the Year for the third consecutive time as the Pac-12 unveiled its 2019 swimming and diving postseason honors on Friday.

Polyakova becomes UCLA's first-ever two-time recipient of the league's top diving honor. A Bruin has won the award three consecutive years, as Polyakova previously won as a junior in 2017 while Eloise Belanger was honored in 2018.

Stebbins is one of just two coaches ever to three-peat as the league's top diving coach, joining USC's Hongping Li.  

A native of Moscow, Russia, Polyakova recorded arguably the finest season ever by a Bruin diver in 2018-19. The redshirt senior was crowned an NCAA Champion in 3-meter diving (season-high score of 396.00), becoming UCLA's first-ever individual national champion in diving. She also posted a runner-up finish in 1-meter (346.90) and was named the CSCAA Diver of the Year at the conclusion of the NCAA Championships.

Prior to her standout showing at NCAAs, she swept the 1M and 3M titles at both the Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Zone E Championships.

Overall, Polyakova won 3M in seven of the eight meets she competed. She won 1M six consecutive times before her second-place showing at NCAAs. Polyakova was twice honored during the Pac-12 during the season, as she was named the Pac-12 Diver of the Month for November and the Pac-12 Diver of the Week on Jan. 23.

Polyakova ends her career as the UCLA record-holder in both 1M (355.50, set this year against Arizona State) and 3M (398.75) and an eight-time CSCAA All-American.

With Stebbins at the helm, UCLA diving had a historic campaign in 2018-19.

UCLA divers combined to score 75 points at NCAAs, a figure which led all schools and established a new program benchmark. The Bruins produced the 3M champion in Polyakova, as well as the highest-scoring diver of the meet in Belanger, who had 38 points across three events. Polyakova was the second-highest scoring diver at the meet with 37 points over two events. After NCAAs, Stebbins was named the CSCAA Diving Coach of the Year, becoming just the second Pac-12 coach ever to take home the award (Li, 2002 & 2006). 

Senior Traci Shiver and sophomore Alice Yanovsky joined Belanger and Polyakova in Flagstaff, Ariz. to give UCLA four Zones qualifiers. The Bruins came agonizingly close to sending three to NCAAs, as Shiver ended up finishing less than a point short of qualification in platform diving.

UCLA dominated the diving portion of its meets all year, as a Bruin won 21 of 33 diving events the squad entered this year, including 16 wins in 21 events during the 2019 calendar year.

Stebbins has coached the Pac-12 Diver of the Year in three consecutive seasons, while the Bruins have swept 1M and 3M in each of the past two years at the Pac-12 Championships.