Fox Chapel freshman has eyes on PIAA diving qualification

By: Michael Love
Friday, February 25, 2022 | 6:53 PM

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Jackson Hagler quickly established himself as a qualifier for the WPIAL Class AAA diving championships.

With that berth already secured, the Fox Chapel freshman continued to work on his craft, and he recorded a season-best score of 247.95 at a section meet with Penn Hills on Jan. 20.

Now, he has arrived at Saturday’s WPIAL meet at North Allegheny as a top-five seed hoping to dive his best and challenge for one of the top spots.

“I feel I am as prepared as I can be for WPIALs,” said Hagler, who also trains with and competes for Team Pitt. “For the past couple of days, I’ve been focused in practice, and it’s been a lot of working on form with my dives.”

Saturday’s Class AAA championships begin with the girls competition at 9:30 a.m. The boys take the stage at 2:30 p.m.

Hagler knows he must finish in the top five in order to make it to the PIAA championships at Bucknell in a couple of weeks.

“I want to go to states, and I have to stay focused on each of my dives and trust that I will execute each one of them,” he said.

“I know that everyone there is the best in Western Pennsylvania. But I just have to worry about myself and no one else. I want to dive to the best of my ability and see what happens. It comes down to whoever does the best dives that day. It is a competition of consistency. Hopefully, at the end, I am one of the state qualifiers.”

Each of the 17 divers in the Class AAA boys competition will complete five dives in the first round. The field will be trimmed for the semifinals (dives six through eight) and then again for the finals (dives nine through 11).

There will be a new WPIAL champion in boys Class AAA as last year’s champ from Fox Chapel, David Manelis, graduated and is is a member of the diving team at the United States Military Academy.

In Manelis’ final high school meet last March, he brought home a state championship.

Hagler said he is excited to represent Fox Chapel and continue the tradition of the divers who have come before him, including Manelis and Jonah Cagley, who won three straight WPIAL titles from 2017 to 2019 before joining the men’s diving team at Duke.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking at times, but I try to not let any pressure get to me,” Hagler said. “Instead, I know I have trained hard for this, just as guys like David and Jonah, and I have the confidence I can do well.”

Fox Chapel coach Vernon Yenick said Hagler’s training and determination should serve him well Saturday.

“He’s feeling great,” Yenick said. “We have been working a little bit on his form and cleaning up a few things. He’s been building up to this all season, adding more and more. I know he will perform well because he’s such a competitor.”

All of the Class AAA divers set to compete Saturday gathered at North Allegheny on Thursday for a practice session to familiarize themselves to the board and the pool. Hagler said it was a beneficial opportunity, both mentally and physically.

“Going into (to practice at North Allegheny), I had a lot of nerves, but then I got to dive with everyone,” Hagler said.

“I just realized that everyone is there to have a good time and dive and get ready for WPIALs. It took a lot of pressure off me. Since there were so many people at the practice, we would have time sitting around waiting, and we would just talk about everything. I made a lot of friends. It calmed me down, and now I am going into Saturday feeling even more confident. ”

Hagler said he will have a support system in place Saturday at North Allegheny, but he knows others will be watching him perform through the Triblive High School Sports Network’s live stream of the competition, which starts at 3 p.m.

“I wouldn’t be here without my family, friends, teammates and coaches and everyone else who as supported me,” he said.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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