North Catholic’s Maggie Foley takes 2nd at PIAA diving championships

By: Michael Love
Saturday, March 19, 2022 | 4:26 PM

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LEWISBURG — North Catholic junior Maggie Foley placed second to Marple Newtown senior Alexandra Pastris at last year’s PIAA Class 2A diving championships at Cumberland Valley High School.

Foley hoped that a return to Bucknell and a rematch with Pastris on Saturday afternoon would yield different results.

They held the top two spots after the first round and semifinals. In the end, however, Foley fell just short of Pastris, as the District 1 champion took home her second straight championship.

“I think this again is a lot of motivation for next year,” said Foley, who won her third straight WPIAL title Feb. 25 at North Allegheny.

“It stinks, getting silver for the second year in a row, but I know it will push me to be a better diver.”

Foley led Pastris by less than a point — 193.65 to 193.40 — after the first round of five dives.

Psstris rallied after the three-dive semifinals to take the lead with 307.20 points. Foley entered the three-round finals with 296.05 points.

“I think I dove all right,” Foley said.

“But I think I dove at WPIALs a lot better. I am a little disappointed in a couple of my dives. They didn’t go the way I had planned. But some of the ones I really nailed at WPIALs, I kind of changed my hurdles and my technique a little bit, and I think they did a lot better.”

Pastris was able to dive in 2020 as Marple Newtown was a Class 3A school two years ago. She finished fourth.

The Class 2A swimming and diving championships were canceled in 2020 at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

Pastris took eighth in Class 3A as a freshman in 2019.

“I saw her dive for the first time five years ago, and she has just grown so much,” Foley said. “She’s such an awesome diver, and also such a great person. I am really lucky to be able to go up against her and test my skills again her and so many other amazing divers here. “

WPIAL runner-up Ruby O’lliffe, a Quaker Valley freshman, made the most of her PIAA-meet debut. She was seventh after the semifinals but was able to score well on her final three dives to move up to sixth overall with 354.40 points.

The top eight finishers earned WPIAL medals.

“My first round was a little rough,” O’lliffe said.

“But after the first five dives, I was able to bring it up a little bit. I was happy with how I picked myself up. I was really nervous in the beginning because there were a lot of people, and everyone was really good. I was able to relax towards the end.

“At the start of the season, my goal was just to make WPIALs, so I was insanely happy to be at states and also win a medal. This is so much greater than I thought it was going to be.”

The top 16 after the semifinals advanced to the finals, and they all earned points for their team.

WPIAL bronze medalist, Thomas Jefferson sophomore Addison Arndt, finished 11th with 330.50 points, followed by Northgate sophomore Lilia MacKenzie in 13th (299.75) and Ringgold senior Brooke Mihalik in 14th (284.55).

Arndt finished fourth in the WPIAL in 2021. Under normal circumstances, that would’ve have qualified her for states. But last year, only the district champions competed at states.

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: North Catholic, Quaker Valley