Sports Editor
CSU Bakersfield women’s junior diver Carlee Burks has burst into the spotlight this year by setting new CSUB records and putting other schools on notice.
“People know who she is now” said director of swimming Chris Hansen. “I’m getting text messages from athletic directors knowing what she’s doing so that’s pretty cool for our sport.”
Photo by Karina Diaz/The Runner
In the swim meet, at UC San Diego, Burks broke the CSUB record in the three-meter board with a score of 337.28. The previous record was held by Laura Lafranchise, whose previous record was 310.80, and stood for 11 years before Burks broke it.
“It’s nice to see the work pay off,” said Burks. “It’s like an upper climb, but there’s definitely some ups and downs and to see that pay off in the meet is really rewarding.”
“My reverse two-and-a-half on three meter that really was a dive that made me realize that it was a chance to break it,” said Burks. “Whenever I came out the water I really wasn’t sure how well it went, but then hearing the scores it made me realize how close I was to breaking the record and it was really exciting.”
Burks’ record dive is also has the highest score this season by over 55 points.
At the UCLA Diving Invitational on Jan. 16, Burks posted her second best score (313.50) and she qualified for the NCAA Zone E Meet Diving Championships, which are in March.
Burks is not only a great student athlete for the team in the pool but also away from the pool.
“She’s a beautiful person inside and out,” said sophomore Audrey Willoughby.
“She’s very caring. She will do anything for you. She is very hard working. I know that she sets an example to all the girls on the team, swimmers and divers.”
Burks also placed fifth in the three-meter and 13th in the one-meter at the UCLA Diving Invitational on Jan 15.
Burks is definitely making her presence felt by other competitors and uses a pre-dive ritual to help her in every meet.
The answer to Burks’ record-breaking success may be due to candy. Burks said that she eats a sour punch straw before every dive as it lets her walk through and assess each attempt.
“I think she has a very unique skill set and the way that she can flip and twist is very very quick twitch,” said CSUB diving coach Ben Herboth. “Even against this past weekend at the UCLA invite a lot of these better girls can’t spin as fast or flip as fast as Carlee can.”
