Tuesday, March 10, 1998
Just diving around
JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin
Rose Huelskamp (left) and Tracy Wilcox are enjoying their last
year diving together at UCLA.
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
Diver One: Rose Huelskamp is a California girl. This woman from
San Diego has a laid-back attitude and has only been diving for six
years.
Diver Two: Tracy Wilcox is from Ann Arbor, Mich. She’s a veteran
with 12 years of diving experience, but no one could tell that just
by looking at her smiling face.
With their respective backgrounds, these two senior divers have
very little in common. No one can tell at first glance that they’re
the best UCLA divers; nor can one tell they’re the very best of
friends.
"Rose and I are like sisters," Wilcox said. "We pretty much know
everything about each other."
These seniors, along with their freshman teammates, Anne
Baghramian, Delilah Moore and Ami Achrekar, will take off Wednesday
to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for the NCAA Regional.
The regional tournament acts as a selection process that chooses
six divers from each zone to compete in the NCAA championships.
Wilcox has passed the qualifying round; she also made the NCAA
championships in her freshman campaign with the Bruins. She has
been steadily improving, but her competition has been stiffer in
recent years.
The zone in which the Bruins will compete this weekend holds a
bounty of talent. With a field that includes foreign Olympians,
Wilcox says it’ll be a tougher regional this year.
"I’m diving better than I ever have, but the competition is
really stiff," Wilcox said. "That’s a little frustrating but I’ll
try the best I can and show everyone how well I’m doing."
Another factor that increases the difficulty of this year’s
regional is the meet’s location. The Air Force Academy is located
thousands of miles above sea level. Simply put, breathing gets
difficult because less oxygen is available.
"It’s really wild," Huelskamp explains. "There’s this funny sign
in the pool that says ‘The Air is Rare.’ You have to stop for
breath on your climb to the platform. And once you dive in, you
want to come back to surface as fast as possible because you just
want to breathe so badly. It’s nuts."
Huelskamp has also been getting better. Considering she only
started diving her junior year of high school, she has made a giant
splash at the pool, with accomplishments such as competing in last
year’s spring and summer nationals.
The key to these divers’ improvement has been a strong work
ethic. Diving is a sport that especially requires technique
practice sessions filled with repetitions. Under the constant
supervision of diving head coach Andy Kwon, each diver is
scrutinized for every somersault, twist and body placement, head to
toe, dive after dive.
Huelskamp, for one, realizes the importance of work.
"I’m pretty new and still learning," Huelskamp said. "I know
where I want to go in this sport so I figured if I’m going to work
out, I’m going to work out hard. It’s a waste of time if you
don’t."
Sure, they’re used to the training demands now, but they
would’ve answered otherwise had they been asked about it four years
ago.
"It rained a lot our freshman season," Huelskamp said, "so we
had double practice days. It was just nice to have someone like
Tracy to deal with it with because it was all new to us."
"Our freshman year was a big transition," Wilcox adds, "because
we had to get used to having practice in the morning and afternoon,
lifting weights and doing all the regular freshman things on top of
that. It was actually a good bonding experience for the ones who
made it through that year."
Now more experienced and bonded, these seniors give back to the
freshman diving community what they received from their
upperclassmen.
"When I came out here, I was like a wide-eyed little fish in a
big pond," Huelskamp recalls. "My teammates were excellent divers
and it was neat to work with them and be motivated. By the end of
that year, I was able to dive well.
"I know it helped me when I was a freshman to have the
upperclassmen take care of me. I see a lot of potential in all of
this year’s freshmen and they don’t see it sometimes. So I try to
push and motivate them."
Although this will be the seniors’ last year of NCAA
eligibility, Huelskamp will continue diving and train to compete in
the nationals. Since she’s still learning and improving in the
sport, she finds it stimulating and beneficial. Yeah, she still
loves it.
"My experience at UCLA has not only let me grow as an athlete
but also as a person," Huelskamp said. "I learned how to motivate
myself and try to be the best I can be. Being in a sport here has
allowed me to see what I can do and that hard work can pay off.
It’s hard work but it’s worth it."
On the other hand, Wilcox will retire from diving after giving
it her all to compete in the NCAA. Before settling down to her
civil environmental engineering career, she anticipates doing
things she hasn’t done because of her time commitment as a diver,
like studying abroad, joining the Peace Corps, and even simple
weekend activities such as snowboarding.
As excited as Wilcox is about her life after diving, she is
aware that the sport she’s been doing since the age of nine is
still her priority, at least for the next few weeks.
"I’m a senior and I’m looking at only a few more weeks of
competing in this sport I’ve been doing for 12 years," Wilcox said.
"I see it’s all coming to an end. In sports and in life, things fly
by so fast. I realize it’s really important to do the best you can
with every moment you have."