Foley 3-peats as WPIAL diving champ
WEXFORD — With one dive remaining, North Catholic junior Maggie Foley had an insurmountable lead in Friday’s WPIAL Class 2A girls championship meet at North Allegheny High School.
She was urged to do a cannonball on her last trip to the board.
“Some of the girls on deck said that’s what I should do,” she said. “They said: ‘That would be so awesome!’”
Did Foley decide to celebrate in such a rogue manner?
Not a chance.
“I said the meet’s not over til it’s over,” Foley explained. “I’m going to finish my dives, that’s what I’ve trained to do.”
Foley executed an inward double somersault dive that scored over 45 points and put the finishing touches on her third straight district championship.
She won with a score of 470.70, with Quaker Valley freshman Ruby Olliffe placing a distant second.
Like most divers of her caliber, Foley has a perfectionist streak within her that has helped her remain elite. It was evident not long after she received the first-place medal.
“I’ve had trouble in the past with reverse dives and I’ve changed the way I take off from the board on my reverse 1 1/2 somersault,” she said.
“I pulled them off today when I had to.”
Foley’s first two WPIAL titles came with scores of 440.45 her freshman year and 441.05 last year.
Friday’s stage brought with it some butterflies for Foley, despite her past success.
“The nerves were there at the start, but once I got my first few dives in, I said to myself: ‘Let’s just go out, dive and have some fun.’”
Foley, who has verbally committed to attend and compete at the University of Pittsburgh, continues to raise the bar for herself. She hopes to have one more elite performance this season — at the state championship meet March 19 at Bucknell University. She was runner-up there last year.
“It’s late in the season to try and add new dives and I’m going to stay with the same list,” she said. “Over the next few weeks in practice, I’ll be working on cleaning up my entries and board work.”
In the Class 2A boys meet, Mars’ Kellen Fletcher and Kevin Butler placed fourth and fifth, respectively, to earn berths in the state meet.
