P-T diver Kalik finishes 6th at PIAAchampionships

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, March 15, 2018 | 6:55 PM

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LEWISBURG — For the second year in a row, Penn-Trafford junior Paige Kalik is a PIAA diving medalist.

Kalik, this year's WPIAL Class AAA champion, was one of nine divers in the field to break 400 points, and her total of 412.20 put her in sixth overall.

“I was a little nervous going through the dives, not knowing where I would end up,” said Kalik, who also took sixth last year. “I got a medal again, which is pretty nice. I'm pretty happy about that.”

Although Kalik maintained her position in the medal standings from last year, she said she wanted more.

“I was a little disappointed about that, but (sixth) is still an awesome achievement,” Kalik said. “(The meet) was so competitive.”

Kalik was seeded 13th and moved up to fourth after the five-dive preliminaries. She also was sixth entering the final round.

“The scoring is really different for each district, so I kind of ignored my seed and just went in and focused on each dive one at a time,” Kalik said. “I was pretty confident I would move up.”

Latrobe senior Taylor Miller also had the confidence she would move up in the standings as she made her return to the PIAA diving championships. The third-place finisher at WPIALs started the meet seeded 19th, but she quickly moved up to ninth after the first round.

She slipped slightly to 11th after the next three dives but used the finals to tick up one spot to a 10th-place finish (393.40).

Miller just missed the top-16 cut to the finals in 2017 as she placed 17th.

North Penn teammates Meghan Wentzel and Paige Burrell finished tied for the championship, each scoring 465.50 points.

Latrobe senior Rylee Jackson had her sights set on a second swim in the 100-yard freestyle Thursday.

Seeded 10th in the event for the preliminaries, she hoped to land in the top 16 which was required to advance to either the consolation or championship final.

Jackson swam a prelim time of 52.60 seconds, two one-hundredths of a second faster than her seed time. Then she waited. When the results were posted, she realized her time put her in 17th, only 0.23 below the cut-off line for 16th.

“I did better at states this year than last year, which is something I was hoping for,” said Jackson, who finished seventh in the 50 free Wednesday. “One of my main goals was to improve. It just feels great to be here with all the top swimmers.”

Penn-Trafford's Hannah Muro also challenged for a second swim in the girls 100 backstroke. She placed 19th with a time of 58.41, just 0.20 seconds out of the top 16.

Franklin Regional junior Abigail Ramey capped her season with a 30th in the girls 100 breast (1:08.99).

On the boys side, Hempfield junior Todd Wilson posted a time of 59.05 in the boys 100 breaststroke and placed 17th.

Penn-Trafford's 400 free relay of junior Luke Babik and seniors John Sandala, Zach Snelling and Jacob Yant placed 17th in 3:13.89.

Hempfield junior Gavin Mayo was 21st in the 100 free (47.21). He took fourth in the 50 free on Day 1.

Franklin Regional junior Patrick Cavanaugh's return to the PIAA championships concluded with a 27th-place finish in the 100 breast (59.93).

The Class AA individuals and relays take center stage Friday morning with the preliminary swims in the 200 medley relay, 200 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 100 fly and 200 free relay.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Hempfield Area, Latrobe, Penn-Trafford