As she prepared for the PIAA Class 2A girls diving championship the last two weeks, Maggie Foley was inspired by the number two.

North Catholic's sophomore won the WPIAL title last month with a score of 441.05. That effort has her ranked second in the state behind Alexandra Pastris (446.50) of Marple Newtown, a school in suburban Philadelphia.The state crown will be decided Saturday morning at Cumberland Valley High School near Mechanicsburg.“I guess being seeded second makes me the underdog and I like that,” said Foley. “It motivates me even more ... What do I have to do to finish in that top spot.”There is a lot of separation between the top three-ranked divers and the rest of the field. Warren's Katie Madigan, the District 10 champ, is seeded third at 424.45. Dallas High School's Mia Reinert is a distant fourth at 378.05.Foley enters this weekend's event as a two-time district champion. She was seeded first in the state last year, but the PIAA meet was canceled due to COVID-19.She plans to perform the same dives as she did at WPIALs, which includes a reverse 1 1/2 somersault.“Mentally, that's my toughest dive,” Foley said. “I've been hit or miss with it. I felt good with how I performed it at WPIALs and thought the judges' scores were a little low.”It is that arbitrary aspect of the sport that all divers must deal with.“Each judge picks apart a dive differently, but for me, my score is not the ultimate factor in my success,” said Foley. “If I go out and dive better, in my mind, I'll be happy with that.”Seven judges will be present, with the top two and bottom two scores for each dive being thrown out.The three middle scores will be added up, then multiplied by the degree of difficulty to determine the score for each dive.

Foley