BGSU swim & dive star diver Natalia Mayorga won her second Mid-American Conference (MAC) Diver of the Week award after sweeping the three diving events at the Miami Classic on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8.
The sophomore from Leon, Mexico cites Mexican diver Laura Sanchez as one of her biggest inspirations in the sport. She started diving when she was 10 after beginning her youth as a competitive gymnast.
“I first started in gymnastics so I didn’t know about diving. One of my coaches convinced me to try it and I fell in love instantly,” Mayorga said.
Her love for the sport combined with her undeniable skill caused her to be one of the most impressive divers this year for Bowling Green. This was evident more than ever in the Miami Classic where she started by winning the three-meter and one-meter events.
The wins came despite Mayorga finishing in third and fourth place in the preliminaries. Bowling Green diving coach Mike Retcher said Natalia’s performance in the preliminaries worked to her advantage.
“It’s almost worse to win the prelims when you have a final coming up because you know that now everybody’s chasing after you,” Retcher said. “Finishing in the middle of the pack allowed Natalia to be coached and see what things she could improve on from the prelims to the finals.”
Retcher said he wasn’t surprised Mayorga bounced back from her average preliminary performances.
“One thing that you’ll notice about Natalia’s performances over the last two years of her time at BG is that she is definitely a star in the spotlight,” he said. “When the pressure is on, you’ll see that that’s when she does her best.”
Mayorga said she approached the 10-meter tower event with a confident attitude.
“It’s really hard mentally,” she said. “You need to stay focused and just keep doing what you know.”
Mayorga’s tower event victory completed the sweep and made her the obvious choice to win the MAC Diver of the Week award. She scored 234.08 on the tower, which is the first-ever NCAA Zone Diving cut on the tower in Bowling Green history.
“I wanted to do that for a long time because I have been working so hard to have a zone cut on the platform,” Mayorga said.
The tower is an especially difficult event to perform well in because teams practice it less since the MAC doesn’t recognize it as an official event,” she said.
Retcher said preparation is key for this particular dive.
“When you are throwing your body off of a stationary concrete platform over the water and you’re that high up, there’s a very small margin for air and the risk for injury is pretty high,” he said. “There’s a lot of prep work, drills, and mental and physical conditioning that goes into how to execute the dive.”
Mayorga executed it perfectly and has received high praise for her overall performance at the Miami Classic.
“To have a diver who’s continuously achieving the success that Natalia has because of her work ethic is inspiring. She inspires the girls on the team to continue to strive to be the best that they can every day,” Retcher said.
Mayorga said she is happy, but “in shock” after getting her second MAC Diver of the Week award. She will now turn her attention to competing in the MAC Championships.
The team chemistry is something Mayorga said will be a major advantage for the Falcons for the postseason.
“We are all unique and we take care of each other. I came here to BG because of the team,” Mayorga said.
Swim and Dive’s MAC Championships take place Feb. 26 – Feb. 28 in Amherst, N.Y.
