WPIAL diving: Mars’ Mya Lee nails silver, Seneca Valley’s Ali Waters fourth to make PIAA championships
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Mars' Marin Raible, seventh, and Mya Lee, second, along with Seneca Valley's Ali Waters, fourth, smile on the podium in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Mars' Mya Lee, left, and Seneca Valley's Ali Waters, right, finish second and fourth, respectively, qualifying for the PIAA Diving Championships, in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley coach Nancy Laslavic, left, talks to Cooper Burcham after a dive in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Ali Waters competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Mars' Marin Raible competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Michelle Jacobson sets to compete in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Cooper Burcham competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Mars' Mya Lee competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Mars' Mya Lee competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Mars' Marin Raible competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Grace Persichini competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Ali Waters competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Michelle Jacobson competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
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Butler's Grace Persichini competes in the WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championships held Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, at North Allegheny High School. Jared Todhunter/Special to the Eagle
The goal for Seneca Valley’s Ali Waters and Mars’ Mya Lee was to make the state championships for the first time.
Bucknell University’s natatorium will be welcoming two new divers in a few weeks.
Lee won silver at Saturday’s WPIAL Class 3A Girls Diving Championship at Canon-McMillan High School, and Waters claimed fourth. The pair snagged two of the WPIAL’s four PIAA Diving Championships berths — they will compete against the state’s best March 14.
“It feels amazing,” Lee said Saturday evening over the phone after scoring a 467.35, finishing just behind North Allegheny’s Maggie Lapina’s 477.80.
“This was a really good meet for me, I was super excited.”
Said Waters on the phone after scoring 426.70: “Overall, I thought it was really good throughout pretty much the whole meet. ... There was a few dives I definitely could’ve done better, but I thought I recovered pretty well.”
Lee was in a tight race for gold with Lapina, who she’s known since youth gymnastics, until the final dive. Lapina’s higher degree of difficulty overcame what Lee thought was her own a strong back 1-somersault 1 1/2 twist on the 11th dive.
Lee, a Clarion University diving commit, also said she nailed her reverse 1 1/2 and back 1 1/2 pike earlier in the competition.
“Today was really good going through my dives,” the Planets senior said. “I’ve been doing my same list for two weeks.”
Lee suffered a concussion three weeks ago and had to miss a week of practice. The layoff cause some nerves, she said, especially as she was adding the aforementioned reverse and back pike to her repertoire at the same time, but she entered Canon-Mac “super excited, super confident.”
Her silver is an improvement from last year’s eighth-place finish. Waters finished sixth a year ago.
“I feel pretty good about it,” Waters said. “I’m pretty confident in all of my dives. I think I do better whenever I compete 11 dives.”
She felt particularly good about her front 1 1/2 somersault 1 twist and two of her back twists.
“Everything I’ve accomplished so far is really what I was hoping for,” Waters said. “I’m just gonna put it all out there.”
Also qualifying for states was North Allegheny’s Juliet Hood, who finished third with a 430.35. Mars sophomore Marin Raible was the third Butler County diver to make the podium, finishing seventh in 415.40.
Butler’s Grace Persichini finished 16th, and Michelle Jacobson finished 22nd. SV’s Cooper Burcham came in 13th.
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