March 9, 2011
Lobo Diving Team — at the NCAA Diving Zones (E)
Thursday through Saturday — Minnesota Aquatics Center (Minneapolis)
By Richard Stevens — Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
In putting an accent on a diving season head diving coach Abel Sanchez calls, “the best in the history of New Mexico,” there is one major problem as the Lobos head toward the NCAA Diving Zones in Minnesota.
“We won’t have our top dog,” said Sanchez.
The Lobos’ shot at pushing a diver into the NCAA Championships set for March 17-19 in Austin, Texas, was delivered a serious blow when junior Aubrey Bush took a serious blow to the head while practicing off the platform.
“She has a concussion,” said Sanchez, the Mountain West’s 2011 Diving Coach of The Year. “We tried to wait it out, but she is not going. That hurts, but it’s best for her to play it safe.
“I think she could have placed in the top eight at nationals and now she doesn’t even get to go. She’s taking it pretty hard, but she’ll be fine.”
Bush has qualified for NCAA Zone competition in three consecutive seasons. She was three places shy of advancing to the NCAA finals last year. The talented Lobo was a strong shot to advance out of Zone E this weekend in the meet set for the Minnesota Aquatics Center in Minneapolis.
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All-MWC DIVERS Aubrey Bush, Jr. |
Bush was the MWC champion off the platform in 2010 and finished second in that event this season. She was one of four Lobos named to the 2011 All-MWC Swimming & Diving team as she was joined by fellow divers Melissa Bollig, Ashlee Erickson and Megan Harper.
Erickson, a junior, and freshmen Bollig and Harper will accompany Sanchez to Minneapolis.
“My freshmen are green, but they made a lot of progress this year,” said Sanchez. “This will be a great learning experience for them, but you can’t count them out. They have had a great season.
“It’s extremely difficult to get out of zones because they only take six divers on three boards and the competition we are facing includes Stanford, California, Arizona State, Arizona, Southern Cal and UCLA.”
The Lobo divers paced UNM at the recent MWC championships and had four all-conference divers for the first time since the league was formed in 1999. It was only the third time in MWC Championship history that a school has placed four divers in the finals.
Erickson, Bush, Bollig, and Harper placed fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively, in the 3-meter springboard final. Bush, Erickson and Bollig finished fifth, seventh and eighth off the 1-meter board. Bush and Bollig went second and sixth off the platform at the MWC meet..
“We had four of the eight spots in the conference finals,” said Sanchez. “We swept a lot of teams this season. I think you can easily say this was the best (diving) season in the history of New Mexico.
“Anytime you receive a Coach of The Year award, it’s a reflection of the talent you have and how hard that talent works. I owe it all to the girls and their efforts. They are hard-working girls, who are a lot of fun to coach.”
Sanchez said the recent success of his diving team is turning a few heads in the direction of the UNM pool.
“I think the diving program is getting a reputation as a place divers can come and find success,” he said. “The ball is rolling. We have some outstanding divers here and a lot of young divers are looking our way.
“This is a great school to come to and the goal here is to have a national championship in diving.”
Sanchez’s divers had great success in 2010-11 and he returns all four divers for 2011-12. Bollig and Harper were D-I pups off the board, but both earned spots on the All-MWC squad and advanced to NCAA Zone competition.
The NCAA holds five “Zone” competitions as the door that swings open to the NCAA finals. Even if no Lobos advance, Sanchez still has a high rating for his divers in 2011:
“It hasn’t been a good season; it’s been a great one,” he said.