Pakhalina falls at NCAAs
By Stuart H. Clements
Daily Cougar Staff
The dynasty has ended.
Sophomore diver Yulia Pakhalina lost the
2002 NCAA Championship in the 1-meter springboard event Thursday night.
Pin Lim/The Daily Cougar
Sophomore diver Yulia Pakhalina
lost for the first time in her college career in the 1-meter springboard
Thursday night at the NCAA
championships. Pakhalina will have a shot
at redemption Friday in the 3-meter competition.
Her downfall came to Southern California's
Blythe Hartley.
It was the first time in Pakhalina's college
career that she lost a competition.
Pakhalina competed in the preliminary round
earlier Thursday and qualified in second place with 312.80 points to go
on to the finals.
Hartley completed the preliminaries with
333.95 points to capture the top slot in the finals.
Although only 19, Hartley, a native of
Vancouver, British Columbia, managed to hang on in the final round of the
tournament Thursday to defeat
Houston's reigning champion by more than
30 points.
Pakhalina ended the 1-meter competition
with a final score of 320.40 points compared to the Canadian contender's
350.85 points, putting her in
second place.
But tomorrow is a new day. Pakhalina, a
native of Penza, Russia, has a second title to defend in the 3-meter springboard
competition.
Traditionally, the 3-meter is where she
has the greatest edge. This season, Pakhalina has consistently performed
better in the 3-meter event
than in the 1-meter. She has won every
3-meter competition by more than 118 points as compared to a margin of
75 points in the 1-meter.
At the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka,
Japan, Hartley and Pakhalina met in the 1- and 3-meter competitions.
There, Hartley also beat out Pakhalina
in the 1-meter springboard.
In the 3-meter event, Pakhalina walked
away with third place — 12 places and more than 90 points higher than Hartley.
Although it must have been painful for
her to see her 36-event winning streak come to an end, she still has the
opportunity to hold on to one of
her national titles.
The 3-meter preliminary event will begin
sometime this afternoon, and the final round will continue into the evening.
