Fox Chapel’s Manelis earns bronze at PIAA Class AAA boys diving championships

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | 4:30 PM

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Fox Chapel junior David Manelis led the WPIAL contingent with a third-place finish in the Class AAA boys diving championship Thursday at Bucknell University.

The WPIAL champion finished the 11-dive competition with 472.25 points and maintained the position he held entering the three-dive finals.

“I feel I did all right overall,” said Manelis, who finished second at states last year. “I messed up one dive, but other than that, I did pretty good.”

Manelis produced 144 points over his three semifinal dives to move up from sixth place after the five-dive first round. He positioned himself to make a move as he was only three points away from fourth after the initial five dives.

“With his voluntary dives, he was very consistent,” Fox Chapel diving coach Joey Ference said. “He fell just short on a 3.2-degree dive, but that can happen when you do harder dives.

“I was happy he did his reverse two-and-a-half. He’s been practicing that, working his butt off with that, and he nailed it at this meet. His last dive, his inward two-and-a-half, was another dive he had been working on, and he did that solid, too. Overall, he did awesome, and I’m proud of him.”

The field again chased Emmaus senior Brendan McCourt. The Texas commit led from beginning to end and finished with 551.80 points.

Conor Geising, a sophomore from Abington in District 1, finished second with 515.85 points. He was third last year in his PIAA debut.

Seneca Valley junior Trevor Elliott, the WPIAL runner-up, also made the finals and finished 15th with 339.80 points.

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.

Tags: Fox Chapel