Marilias "Mari" Kwak wakes up on competition days and tries not to think about the upcoming meet. She focuses on having fun because that’s when she dives her best. The awards just come with it.
“I typically dive the best when I’m having fun and distracted almost, so I do kind of need that social aspect,” Kwak said.
In high school, the Pennington, New Jersey native was a two-time USA Diving National qualifier, a three-time USA Diving Zones qualifier, and was the 2019 New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Diving State Champion.
She received Mid-American Conference (MAC) Diver of the Year 2023-2024, after winning two gold medals at the MAC Championships.
Her one-meter score (313.00) was a personal record and ranks third in UB’s all-time women’s diving history. Those two gold medals added to the gold medal she received the year prior, for her three-meter dive (342.10) in the 2022-2023 MAC Championships.
But her proudest achievement was being named the State University of New York Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for swimming and diving in July, which she said she didn’t know existed until she received it.
“If I’m doing well, I’m really enjoying it. Happening to win or do well at a competition is just a good side effect of that.” Since the start of this semester, Kwak has placed first in the one and three-meter dive at every competition she has attended and has received Mid-American Conference (MAC) Diver of the Week honors twice so far this season.
Outside the pool, Kwak is pursuing a degree in chemical engineering and has learned to balance athletics and academics with a time-consuming major. Kwak chose UB over other schools because it had a good balance of strong academics as opposed to strictly a strong swimming and diving program.
“At the end of the day, I know a lot of schools, [...] like BIG 10 schools or SEC schools, they’re not as lenient with their academics and with their athletes trying to pursue harder degrees,” Kwak said. She says that her “coaches are very accepting,” and that if she needed to miss a practice because of an exam, they’d let her.
The balance hasn’t always been easy on her, and neither has the sport. Although she has been lucky to not experience any injuries, starting on the diving board at age 11 with minimal breaks has taken a toll on her..
“[Diving is] a lot of commitment and my body hurts,” Kwak explains, “It’s been rewarding, it’s just not something I can have a long-term career in.”
But Kwak is ready for graduation and her future. She plans to go to graduate school to get her master's degree and wants to use those years to help her figure out what she wants to do in her career.
As she looks forward to the rest of her senior year, where she can hopefully find her way to the MAC Championships once again, Kwak looks back and is grateful for her time as a UB Bull.
“I’m really lucky to have gotten this opportunity on this team.”
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