North Allegheny junior divers make ripples at WPIAL championships

By: John Grupp
Sunday, March 2, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Previous Next

North Allegheny’s latest WPIAL champion divers took different paths to the top.

Junior Ethan Maravich is a converted swimmer who picked up diving two years ago because the boys team needed help on the boards. Junior Maggie Lapina is a former standout gymnast who started diving 18 months ago after an elbow injury prompted a switch to the pool.

The newcomers have made some ripples.

Maravich and Lapina won WPIAL Class 3A gold medals Feb. 22 at their home pool, giving North Allegheny only the third boy-girl diving sweep since the district championships started in 1980.

“It was awesome,” Maravich said. “Everything clicked when it needed to click.”

Maravich, who had placed fifth in the WPIAL last season and missed qualifying for the PIAA championships by one spot, posted an 11-dive score of 532.50 to top Fox Chapel senior Jackson Flagler (515.75) and Mt. Lebanon senior Malcolm Thompson (501.85).

Lapina, who placed third in the WPIAL last season, nailed her final dive and catapulted into first place with 477.60 points for the gold medal. Mars senior Mya Lee settled for second with 467.35 and NA senior Juliet Hood was third (430.35).

“I didn’t even know what to feel, honestly,” Lapina said. “It was really exciting and a really good accomplishment for me.”

Maravich, Lapina and Hood, the state runner-up last season, will compete at the PIAA Class 3A swimming and diving championships March 14-15 at Bucknell.

It marked the sixth consecutive year a North Allegheny girl won the WPIAL Class 3A diving title on the one-meter springboard. NA senior Lola Malarky, a Yale recruit who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in January, won the gold last season following a four-year championship run by NA’s Christina Shi from 2020-23.

Lapina overcame a slow start — she flubbed her forward one-and-a-half on her second dive — and then posted one of the dives of her life to extend the streak. Trailing Lee by 44.9 points heading into her final dive, Lapina cleanly performed a back somersault two-and-a-half twist — her most difficult dive — and secured the win.

“With that dive’s high (degree of difficulty), I like to leave it for last,” NA diving coach Patti McClure said. “If you need to make up a few points, this dive is going to do it. And it did.”

Said Lapina: “That is my most difficult dive. … Last year, it was very iffy, and I had a lot of issues with it. But this year Patti and I really worked on it, and I think it got way more consistent at the end of the year.”

Maravich didn’t imagine he would become a WPIAL champion when his older brother asked him to try diving as a freshman because they “needed one more diver for the team.”

Maravich, a lifelong swimmer, split duties as a swimmer and diver his first year — he was the only freshman to reach the 2023 WPIAL diving championships — before turning his focus to diving last season.

At this year’s WPIAL finals, he drilled his forward two-and-a-half pike midway through the event and then took the lead for good with a clean front one-and-a-half, two-twist on his final dive.

“Ethan did everything I’ve asked him to do, in an entire season, in one day,” McClure said. “He didn’t miss anything. He did everything right.”

Maravich, whose “grandfather’s cousin” is basketball Hall of Famer Pete Maravich, makes a point to listen to his coach. After seeing her new diver’s potential as a freshman, McClure convinced Maravich to concentrate on diving. It paid off. Earlier this winter, he pledged to dive at Army West Point.

“Once I started diving, Patti kept telling me that I had to quit swimming,” Maravich said. “She said she’s not going to stop bugging me until I quit. I ended up quitting swimming last year, and I’m happy with my decision.”

Tags: North Allegheny