By
Lindsey Manroel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Best friends Vaca, Ojeda lead Wildcats to prominence
For 13 years they have been practicing their dives to perfection. Today, practice has paid off.
As juniors on the Arizona men's diving team, Omar Ojeda and Ruben Vaca have raised their diving to the next level - proving that no competition is too challenging.
According to the two men, the key to their success has been a lifelong friendship that carries over into the pool.
"We are practically brothers," Ojeda said. "He knows everything about me."
Born and raised in Mexico City, the two took up diving by accident after they noticed how much they enjoyed the water.
"I just went to the pool to play for fun and liked it so much that I knew I wanted to dive," Vaca said.
Thirteen years later, the two have managed to break a number of school records and stand as key assets to UA's swimming and diving success.
"The Omar and Ruben combination has been a nice asset to our team because it's a one-two punch," head diving coach Michele Mitchell-Rocha said.
The strong combination has more than paid off for Arizona, a team that quickly established itself as one of the nation's elite diving programs.
As the Wildcats' No. 1 diver, Ojeda has already broken three school records and left an impressive mark on the 2001 Pacific 10 Conference Championships, where he swept the one-meter, three-meter and platform events.
The duo then went on to dominate the 2001 Zone E Diving Championships - taking home all three top finishes between them.
With a first-place performance by Ojeda in the one and three meter, Vaca picked up where his friend left off, taking home a win on platform.
Leaving yet another mark in diving - breaking an Arizona school record on the 10 meter - Ojeda impressively captured third place at the 2001 NCAA Championships, giving Arizona a sixth-place team finish.
Despite their dominance on the diving board - both at Arizona and around the country - Ojeda and Vaca are modest.
"We don't think we're leaders," Ojeda said. "I do this more for the team than for myself. I don't care about the records. I just try to do my best diving in the meets for the team.
"I enjoy diving all of the time and am always thinking about my next dive."
Vaca agreed.
"We both feel very proud and excited that we are doing our job for the team," he said.
And while the best friends are battling it out for the meet's top position, neither feel their friendship is being strained.
"Our rivalry is only in the pool," Ojeda said. "I always support Ruben and he is always rooting for me. We are not jealous, and it's not who can do better. It's just having a friend like Ruben to compete against me."
Although both divers have the 2004 Summer Olympics in mind, they said their top focus will be to outdo their impressive junior seasons.
"Next season, I want to try to win Pac-10s and finish first in nationals," Ojeda said. "I just want to work hard and do better next year."
