Senior diver soaks in final season at Iowa State

Elyse Brouillette, senior, performs a dive during the meet against the University of Illinois. Brouillette finished first in the one meter dive competition.

Rachel Given

Senior Elyse Brouillette has always been a standout for the ISU dive team. She has racked up numerous awards at Iowa State and most notably earned Iowa State’s Most Valuable Diver award her freshman, sophomore and junior year.

Two words sum up her time at Iowa State: exciting and adventurous.

This season, Brouillette broke the school record for 1-meter diving on senior night against Big 12 rival Kansas, something she didn’t expect to accomplish, especially during her last home meet as a Cyclone.

“It was just a lot of emotion,” Brouillette said. “Coming in on Saturday morning, I was kind of like, ‘Eh, I don’t think I can do the same that I did Friday night.’ But it was just a fun atmosphere; I had my family there, I had my teammates there. The excitement made it just so fun.”

At the Big 12 conference championship this year, Brouillette broke her own personal best on platform for the season. She said she doesn’t get much practice on the high-level boards, so she just goes to the meets and wings it.

“At that point, I have to rely on my experience of doing those dives before in the past,” Brouillette said. “It was exciting to see it all get put together … it’s just that element of trust in myself and in Jeff [Warrick’s] coaching that everything is going to get put together.”

The Big 12 Conference Championships were record breaking for the team as a whole, as all three divers moved on from prelims to finals on platform. This was a first for not only the diving program but also for Warrick.

Brouillette said it felt fantastic to have the team all hit season bests and have all three on the podium.

NCAA Zones will feature has four members of the ISU dive squad in College Station, Texas. Brouillette notes for all four years, the team sent one additional diver each season.

In her freshman year, Brouillette was the only one to go. Sophomore year had two divers. In her junior season, the team sent three. And in her her senior year, four divers will make the trip. Having more people makes it more fun and more of a team atmosphere, Brouillette said.

Brouillette has been one of the top scorers all four years of her career, but she said she’s never really noticed it.

“I do my job,” Brouillette said. “I go through, I practice, I work really hard.”

Throughout her time at Iowa State, Brouillette feels she can’t let the team go. Brouillette plans on being a volunteer coach and hopes to help with the diving club next year.

“It’ll be weird to be on the other side, but I’ll get to be there and be able to push them,” Brouillette said.