Kaleb Cave’s story is unique among almost all collegiate swimming and diving athletes: When he started college, he was not a strong swimmer.
He is, however, the youngest person ever to perform a standing double backflip. His athletic prowess had also earned him a spot on the USA Gymnastics national team in the Senior Elite Trampoline and Tumbling division.
So how did this mechanical engineering major and gymnast end up on the swimming and diving team? It started on Instagram: Cave’s account (@lub.lub), where he chronicles his athletic feats, has over 140,000 followers.
Junior computer science major Andy Vines, a member of the diving team, messaged Cave when he saw the tumbler was a fellow Retriever. “My mom always told me to find a way to get involved at UMBC, and I thought this might be it,” Cave says. “After reaching out to head dive coach Jeff Fisher, a few months later, I was on the team and in the water.”
From setback to success
While diving and tumbling have many similarities, the transition was anything but smooth water for Cave.
“Learning how to dive was more of a mental than a physical battle for me. With my gymnastics background, the flipping and twisting came naturally. However, I struggled —and still struggle—with my approach and entries into the water,” Cave says. “Landing on my head was definitely weird to get used to, especially when I’ve been landing on my feet all my life. My aerial awareness is pretty good, though. As a gymnast, I’m used to doubles and triples, so when I have to dial it down, my body doesn’t quite understand.”
Cave officially joined the UMBC swimming and diving team as a sophomore. He had a solid rookie campaign, qualifying for the finals in both the one- and three-meter board events at the America East Championships. However, less than a month later, his diving journey suffered a big setback.
Kaleb Cave competes in the qualifying round of the one-meter diving event at the America East Championships in February, 2026.
In March 2025, he ruptured his Achilles tendon at a tumbling national team camp. He had surgery five days later and started physical therapy eight weeks post-operation.
“My physical therapist did an amazing job getting me back to where I need to be, and he is still helping me become stronger,” Cave says. “In the beginning, physical therapy frustrated me—seeing how weak I was and how long it was taking to gain back little bits of strength was taxing on my mental health.”
However, he persisted with rehab and returned to competition in October 2025, just under seven months after the injury—much faster than anyone expected.
“It felt great,” said Cave. “My return didn’t feel rushed at all, just natural and smooth.”
Two for the team
In January 2026, Cave broke a 14-year-old school record en route to winning the three-meter competition at the Towson Diving Invitational. He qualified for NCAA Zones, the preliminary event for the NCAA Diving Championships, in the one- and three-meter events.
Two weeks later, Cave won bronze in both the one- and three-meter events at the America East Championships, helping lead the men’s swimming and diving team to its 15th title.
For Kaleb Cave (left), earning two individual medals was not as meaningful as contributing to the team championship.
Cave’s two medals “contributed to the team winning that title, which means more to me than if I had felt like I didn’t contribute to it. Those were also my first diving-related medals ever, which is special to me,” he adds.
With two full seasons of diving under his belt, Cave feels ready to level up. “Next year, I definitely think I can start pushing the difficulty, now that I’ve cleaned up my form a bit since my very first season.”
Being a student athlete is time-consuming, especially when learning a new sport and alongside a technical major like mechanical engineering, but Cave says UMBC has allowed him to succeed.
“UMBC provides so much support for student-athletes, whether it be a quiet place for us to study or one-on-one tutoring sessions. Teachers are always here to provide help when needed and guide you through the course content.” It seems that Cave has landed on his feet after all.
By Zachary Seidel ’12, M.S. ’15