Diving to a Title, Again

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2009) – While the Tiger swimmers spent the morning posting of noteworthy swims in the preliminaries, a pair of Occidental divers prepared for their 11-dive meet schedule as the top two seeds. Things were looking bright for both women, but quickly took a turn towards disaster for one.

It was the sixth dive of the meet for senior Celeste Faber and what seemed like a reasonable dive was not rewarded with cheering and whistles, but rather by an awkward silence. After a moment the referee and judges determined the wrong dive was performed, sending Faber into a moment of disbelief.

Instead of getting down about the remaining rotation, of five dives, the reigning SCIAC Diving Champion, gathered her composure and stepped back on the board. When she surfaced after her eighth dive, a back dive, that was nearly flawless she heard the results, which included a pair of 9.0’s, the highest score of the entire two-day diving finals for both the men and women on both boards. She received no score less than an 8.0 from the panel of seven judges on the dive.

Faber followed up the back dive with a reverse dive that earned her a pair of 8.5 scores, again entering the pool with minimal splash and no obvious deductions for form.

Sophomore Marisa Pulcrano was solid throughout the meet. Her fifth dive, a back somersault with a half twist, was the most memorable of the day as she earned four 7.0 and a 6.5. Finishing with a slightly lower score than she entered the meet with, Pulcrano was the third place finisher today with 298.75 combined points.

When everything was said and done and the final results were in, Faber was back on top, scoring 363.80 points, winning her second consecutive 1-meter diving title. Yesterday she won the 3-meter event, and is now a three-time SCIAC diving champion.

Although there was no qualification for NCAA Division III Nationals, the performance she turned in during her final appearance as a Tiger was a memorable one, after-all it ended atop the podium, with her teammate to her left.

Tonight the Tiger swimmers will dive back into the pool looking to break some more school records and compete with the best in the conference.