Westmoreland County Senior Spotlight: Derry’s Chaeli Keenan

By: Anthony DiFilippo
Monday, February 17, 2025 | 8:43 AM

When Derry diver Chaeli Keenan finished second at the Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association meet last year, she found solace in who beat her out.

It was her teammate, Ella Silvis.

This year, the script flipped, and it was Keenan who triumphed, with Silvis as the runner-up.

“I think that me and Ella are really close, and I really enjoy having her compete with me side-by-side,” Keenan said. “And I think that it was great that both of us won each year. So I really enjoy having her as a competitor.”

Keenan has had a standout season, posting the second-best score in Class 2A.

Her improvement stems from increased training and experience.

“I know last year I practiced a lot, but I think this year I kind of stepped it up a little bit,” Keenan said. “I go to a lot of diving camps, and I think that having lots of different inputs on my dives really helps me in my training and where I am today.”

Another key factor is her background in gymnastics.

She transitioned from the sport to diving and never looked back.

“I do have really good body awareness, so I feel I know where I’m at spinning in the air from gymnastics,” Keenan said. “And having that discipline from gymnastics and going over to diving has really helped me train hard and focus on what I need to get done.”

Diving is an intensely individual sport. It’s just the athlete and the board.

“I really try to push out any negative thoughts,” Keenan said. “I focus on what needs done. And I kind of just block everything out. I breathe, and then I go through everything in my head.”

Keenan plans to attend Grove City to dive and major in biochemistry while minoring in art.

This week, she took some time for a Senior Spotlight Q&A:

How did you get started with swimming?

I used to be a gymnast since I was about 2 years old. My body started to get tired, but I really enjoyed doing all those flips. So I tried diving my sophomore year, and I ended up really liking it. I ended up just sticking with it, and now it’s my main sport.

Has competing alongside Ella pushed you to be a better diver?

I think she does it in the best way possible. We’re always really close, and we joke all the time about who’s going to win this meet and how good we’re going to do. And I think she really does push me in the best way possible.

What’s the most difficult thing about diving?

Definitely learning new dives. That is definitely scary. I know I have been working on one dive that has been quite on and off because it is really scary to me. It is a back one-and-a-half flip, and the way that it works in my brain is in gymnastics, I’ve never needed to land on my head. It’s really hard for me to come out and spot where I need to be. I do think that head-first dives are my biggest difficulty in diving.

What goals do you have for the rest of the year?

My plan is to place in the top three at WPIALs this year. I possibly want to hit 300 points. I have one more meet to do so, which, hopefully, I can get. Then qualify to states and possibly place on the podium.

What is one thing that people may not know about you?

When I’m not diving, I am always doing something art related. I’m a big painter, so in any of my free time, I make crafts, I paint and I have a lot of art things in my room, so I paint a lot. I know that at school right now I’m currently painting a mural in the art room. I just finished an acrylic painting that I started my 10th-grade year. Most of them are just maybe inspiration pictures or I come up with something in my mind that maybe relates to an event or something that I’m going through and I put my feelings out onto a canvas.

Tags: Derry Area