Cavalier Corner

February 2015

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cavalier profile JB KOLOD Fourth-Year • Swimming & Diving Fourth-year JB Kolod is the first diver to earn multiple All-America honors for Virginia. The fact that the Pittsburgh native has excelled on the college level is no surprise, but the sport he did it in is. Growing up, Kolod's first love was gymnastics. "It definitely was my favorite sport," he said. "I was a gymnast from age 6 or 7 until I was 14. It was like a full-time job in that I trained after school six days a week. My life definitely was all gymnastics." During his sophomore year in high school, however, Kolod's club team dropped the sport. "It seemed like it was too late to start something new," he said, "but I switched to diving and found it really was an easy conversion." In addition to his All-America accolades, Kolod holds school records in one- and three-meter dive, and last season he captured the three- meter at the NCAA Zone A Championships. His seventh-place finish in the three-meter at last year's NCAA Championships was the highest placement by any UVa diver in school history. Also, he placed 10th in the platform with a career-best score of 389 points. "I would give my [Pitt Aquatic Club] coaches [Julian and Doe Krug] credit because they helped me fall in love with [diving]," said Kolod, who also earned a bronze medal at the 2014 USA Diving National Champion- ships in the three-meter synchronized event. "They saw the potential in me and that I could become very good. I was really successful in gymnas- tics, but they did a good job of letting me know I was on the right track." Kolod also is thankful that Virginia came knocking when recruiting time rolled around because he still wasn't a completely polished diver. "I wasn't recruited by a lot of the top schools in the country," Kolod admitted. "And Virginia didn't have a history of good diving. But they were taking in a lot of big recruits. I took Virginia seriously because it had a good reputation and I loved the school." Suffice it to say, other schools' loss was Virginia's gain. "I'm trying to continue the progression when I first came here in terms of doing as well as I can in the ACCs and represent my school," Kolod said. "I really want to do well at the ACCs because it's something we want to win. But the NCAAs are where I want to be, be an All-American and have the team do well." — Mike Scandura ◆ Photo by Jim Daves/courtesy UVa

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