Mars Taylor Hockenberry Still the Queen of WPIAL Diving

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, February 25, 2017 | 7:52 PM

A move up in classification had no effect on Taylor Hockenberry. After a silver medal as a freshman and gold medals each of the past two seasons competing in Class AA, the Mars senior made it a three-peat as WPIAL Champion, this time in Class AAA.

The competition was evident immediately at North Allegheny High School, as a group of eight divers quickly distanced themselves from the remainder of the 31-diver field. Hockenberry led throughout the competition, but was challenged numerous times along the way by various divers. Hockenberry ended up pulling away with impressive dives in the final round, scoring dives of 57.60 and 52.80 in the final round. She finished with a score of 505.90, defeating Adrienne White of Hampton by 38 points. The junior has finished with the silver medal each of the past two years.

Greater Latrobe junior Taylor Miller used a great final dive to surpass Pine-Richland’s Maddie Huitt by 0.30 points and get the bronze medal. Paige Kalik of Penn-Trafford rounded out the top five, all of whom qualify for the PIAA Championships on March 17th at Bucknell University.

Pairs of divers competing ended up going back-to-back  in the semi-final and final rounds, which provided fun competition and lots of leap-frog action in the standings down the stretch. Huitt and Hockenberry pushed each other down the stretch, while the trio of Kalik, White, and Miller went in order later in the rounds. 

Final Championship Results:

1        Taylor Hockenberry    Senior                   Mars                            505.90
2        Adrienne White           Junior                   Hampton                   467.55
3        Taylor Miller                  Junior                   Greater Latrobe     465.35
4        Maddie Huitt                Sophomore        Pine-Richland         465.05
5        Paige Kalik                      Sophomore        Penn-Trafford         440.15
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6        Mallory Charles             Junior                    Pine-Richland          420.20
7        Victoria Woodley         Freshman            Penn-Trafford         391.90
8        Maddie Mianzo            Senior                   North Allegheny     388.50
9        Kalliope Bicket               Senior                   Mt. Lebanon            354.40
10     Sadie Coda                      Freshman            Bethel Park               349.50
11     Masy Kelly                      Senior                   Moon                          342.40
12     Jordyn Miller                  Freshman            Greater Latrobe     339.85
13     Morgan Rutan               Senior                   North Allegheny     332.75
14     Morgan Malencia         Senior                   Peters Township    331.90
15     Meghan Keppler          Freshman            Seneca Valley          313.65
16     Paige Williams               Freshman            Butler                          307.40

Divers 17-20 competed in the Preliminary and Semifinal Rounds (8 dives).

17     Elissa Novella                 Sophomore        Franklin Regional    241.90
18     Ava Christy                     Freshman            Oakland Catholic    236.85
19     Erin Ferrari                      Senior                   Baldwin                      232.40
20     Amber Shuey                Junior                    Hempfield                 216.45

Divers 21-31 competed in the Preliminary Round (5 dives).

21     Dixon Veltri                    Senior                   Fox Chapel                153.30
22     Sydney Donati               Junior                    Mt. Lebanon            151.80
23     Meghan Busch              Senior                   North Hills                 151.05
24     Kate Eames                    Sophomore        Fox Chapel                148.80
25     Peyton Moore              Junior                    Seneca Valley          148.60
26     Julia Perry                       Sophomore        Franklin Regional    142.45
27     Maddie Montalbano  Freshman            Seneca Valley          140.35
28     Karlee Schneider          Senior                   Hempfield                 139.75
29     Rose Mizak                     Junior                    Penn-Trafford         138.60
30     Katelyn Caccamo          Sophomore        Seneca Valley          136.00
31     Lily Barta                          Junior                    Greater Latrobe     132.60