North Allegheny diver Lola Malarky rewriting record books

By: John Grupp
Saturday, January 4, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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For someone who admits she does “fail a lot,” North Allegheny senior diver Lola Malarky can sure make it look easy.

Malarky, the defending WPIAL Class 3A champion, broke the North Allegheny six-dive school and pool record with a score of 325.80 in a 98-80 victory over Mt. Lebanon on Dec. 18.

The mark, which broke three-time state champion Christina Shi’s school record of 315.40, came two days after Malarky set a new pool record at Upper St. Clair with a six-dive score of 297.75.

The record-setting performances continued a stellar career for Malarky, a converted gymnast who took up diving in sixth grade.

“For some people, it comes naturally,” she said. “For me, I have to learn from my mistakes. So I will smack and smack and smack (the water) until I get it right. Once I figure it out, then I can do it pretty well. But I do fail a lot.”

During her record-setting day at her home pool, Malarky nailed a reverse one-and-a-half pike and a reverse twister as part of the six-dive routine.

“I told myself that I’ve done my dives a million times and I’ve done them well a million times on these same boards,” she said. “So I know I can do them well. All of them just happened to be really good.”

North Allegheny diving coach Patti McClure, in her 25th season, said Malarky, who will dive at Yale, had been knocking on the door of the record.

“She’s been close, but she just hasn’t been able to pull that all together for six dives,” McClure said. “She was really relaxed.”

This is the second time Malarky owned the school diving record, but the previous mark lasted only “about a week.” As a sophomore, she erased the record held by then-teammate Shi. But Shi, a four-time WPIAL champ who now dives for Harvard, reclaimed the mark later in that 2022-23 season.

“I was kind of upset that I’d had it,” Malarky said. “Last year I wasn’t really that close (to breaking it), and it made me feel like I wasn’t as good of a diver as my sophomore year. Coming back this year and getting (the record) was special to me.”

Said McClure, “The record was a focus last year for her, and it kind of messed with her head a little bit. This year she is having fun and doing the best she can and letting the chips fall where they may.”

Malarky is a key point-scorer for the NA girls swimming and diving team, which is favored to win its 17th consecutive WPIAL Class 3A title. She is joined by senior Juliet Hood, who placed second at the WPIAL and PIAA diving championships last season, and junior Maggie Lapina, another converted gymnast who placed third at the WPIAL finals last season as the Tigers swept the top three spots for the third time in five years.

“Juliet is probably one of the best competitors I’ve coached in 36 years that I’ve been coaching high school diving and college, for that matter,” McClure said. “(Lapina) looks a lot stronger. She came late to the diving picture from gymnastics. … She’s riding the board so much better. Her degree of difficulty has increased. She’s just a fun diver.”

Malarky placed fourth in the WPIAL as a freshman and third as a sophomore before winning it all last season. She finished third at the PIAA championships the past two seasons.

Malarky had a busy spring and summer. She placed top three in the 1-meter at the AAU National Championships in May in Midland, Texas, earning a spot on the U.S. AAU National team at the Roma Junior Diving Cup on July 24-26 in Rome. She also competed in the 1-meter at the USA Diving Nationals in Morgantown, W.Va. in late July.

“It was amazing,” Malarky said of the Rome event. “I did good. I was happy about it.”

Malarky is working to refine her reverse twister, a difficult dive that involves a backward somersault and a twist.

“Her board work is phenomenal,” McClure said. “She jumps out of the roof. She’s super strong and just is a really pretty diver in the air.”

Tags: North Allegheny