Seventeen-year-old Zita Bernatsky had to make a decision.
Cliff diving or high diving? Stay in Canada with her family and friends, or move to the United States by herself? Pursue an immediate professional career or seek an education alongside competition?
It was a no-brainer for her to not only search out a diving career in the U.S., but to move 750 miles from Winnipeg to Iowa City to join the Iowa swimming and diving program.
Two years later, Bernatsky’s on the brink of NCAA qualification in her first season with the Hawkeyes.
“Coming here was probably one of the best decisions ever,” Bernatsky said. “It’s definitely a change I needed … I was ready for that change.”
In 2015, when Bernatsky was 8 years old, one of her best friend’s mom found a flyer for a local diving camp and showed her mom, Zsuzsa, suggesting they’d enroll their daughters together. And that’s exactly what happened.
Bernatsky’s natural abilities proved superior as she qualified for nationals in just her second year with Revolution Diving Club. Almost everyone she went up against was at least two years older than she was.
“I was just there for the fun of it,” Bernatsky said. “I went there, I did my dives, and I just left with a smile on my face. It didn’t even matter if I did good or bad, I was just there for the experience.”
She continued to dive all the way through her senior year of high school, minus the two-year window heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — doing online workouts five times a week while the world was shut down.
Bernatsky needed a source to spark some post-pandemic motivation. Enter cliff diving.
While cliff diving was primarily a sport poised for post-college athletes, Diving Plongeon Canada, a nonprofit organization and a member of the World Aquatics, started up a youth program. Then-15-year-old Bernatsky gave it a try, and from there later competed in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
Between high diving and cliff diving, she spent her high school years traveling constantly for competitions, whether that was within national borders in Montreal or international locations in Austria, Bosnia, Turkey, Australia, or the U.S.
“I would miss about a week [of school] every month,” Bernatsky said.
A future with cliff diving was certainly there, but her long-term vision pushed her toward high diving and furthering her education in the U.S. Despite great interest from several colleges, she only scheduled visits with Iowa, Nebraska, and Pittsburgh.
Bernatsky’s first stop was the University of Iowa. She consciously committed on the spot.
“I just loved the team here, loved the environment, loved the coaches,” she said. “Just coming here to the campus felt so homey, and it’s like I could envision myself living here.”
Iowa diving coach Todd Waikel has been with the program for 13 years, and Bernatsky was the first Canadian he’s ever reeled in. Through the first few days of practice, he was impressed by how polished she was as a diver.
“Her skillset and her talent level, I could tell she was very well trained in Canada, and that’s a huge plus,” he said. “And she was actually, believe it or not, stronger than what I thought she was. Just from the videos and things like that that I’d seen of her.”
And it proved true as Bernatsky accomplished a number of feats throughout the 2025-26 season.
She led all Hawkeye divers from 3-meters with a season-best 321.80 against Minnesota on Oct. 31. Then in January, she ranked ninth all-time at Iowa from the platform, scoring 229.90 against Illinois and Nebraska.
A member of the All-Big Ten Freshman Team, she thrived in the postseason, placing 16th from the 1-meter at the Big Ten Championships and qualifying for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships from 1-meter, 3-meter, and platform — one of two Iowa divers on the team to do so.
While those goals certainly make all her hard work worth it, Bernatsky showed love to her teammates for making her impressive first season all the more special. To receive great love from those around her everyday while walking into what she called “one of the best pools in the country” at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center gives her that joy to compete at her best.
However, her freshman season isn’t over just yet. Bernatsky and other qualifying divers will travel to College Station, Texas, for Zones, NCAA Diving’s specialized qualifying competitions, from March 9-11 and compete for a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships from March 18-21 in Atlanta.
“This is what I’ve worked for since September when I started,” Bernatsky said. “So pretty much just reminding myself that I know what I’m doing, and this is what I’ve worked for. It’s time for the curtains to open and to perform.”