PIAA diving: Mars’ Mya Lee overcomes fever to earn 6th at states; Seneca Valley’s Ali Waters finishes 4th
Mya Lee went to sleep Thursday night not feeling well. The Mars senior diver tried to shrug it off, but doubt started to creep in Friday morning before the PIAA Class 3A Girls Diving Championships.
“I am feeling much better now,” Lee said. “I started not feeling well around 12 p.m. yesterday. My thinking yesterday was it was probably my nerves and it would be fine. It progressively got worse as the day went on.
“Waking up this morning, I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to compete.”
Lee fought back against a fever by taking some Advil and drinking lots of water. She didn’t just step onto and leap off the diving board, but posted a sixth-place score of 376.75 and medaled at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
“I was surprised with how I did, considering I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to compete today,” Lee said.
“The fact that she got through all of her dives consistently, I was thrilled,” Planets diving coach Maria Misenhelter said. “Did she dive better at WPIAL championships? Yes. It was an incredible meet. But, she was consistent in this meet, and that’s really what got her into that sixth place because there was a lot of nice competition.”
Conestoga’s Avery Hillier (480.35) won the competition, while Freedom’s Hayden Taylor (467.45) followed. North Allegheny’s Juliet Hood (third, 450.95), Seneca Valley’s Ali Water (fourth, 384.50) and Owen J. Roberts’ Layla Boghdadi (fifth, 382.60) also finished in front of Lee.
“When I met her at the pool — because she wanted to sleep in a little bit — she was in tears,” Misenhelter said. “I just said to her, ‘Look, you’re going to warm up, maybe do one of each dive. We don’t want to lose any energy, and once you get through one of everything ... why don’t you just go lay down and rest?’
“If she warmed up the way that she normally does, she would’ve been exhausted. So, it was good. She took it easy.”
If Lee had begun to feel worse, Misenhelter said they would’ve pulled her from the meet for her own safety. That was precisely what Lee was worried about.
“When Mya sets her mind to something, she is not going to let it rest,” Misenhelter said. “No. 1, she did not want to scratch. No. 2, at the end of WPIALs last year, she said, ‘I want to be on the medal stand. I want to go to states.’ ... She got to work, and she worked all year round, went to additional diving clinics, showed up every day to practice here.”
Lee also worked with Clarion diving coach Heath Calhoun, a Butler grad and her future coach with the Golden Eagles. All of her work yielded a cherished state medal, which she posed for pictures with afterward.
“The medal is a symbol of my accomplishments and proof to me that I can do anything I set my mind to,” Lee said.
Seneca Valley’s Ali Waters doesn’t normally get nervous. On the biggest stage she’s dived on during her scholastic career, things were no different.
The Raiders junior felt good from the jump Friday and finished fourth.
“We had two hours to warm up, so I had a ton of time,” Waters said. “The meet started, and my first five dives went pretty well. I was happy with them.
She told herself to keep calm ahead of the third round.
“Throughout the whole day, I honestly was just super focused,” Waters said. “I didn’t think about anyone else, I didn’t think about anything else. I was just going one dive at a time, focusing on what I needed to do for the next dive.”
Waters will have to remain focused. She will compete in a club diving meet at the end of March she has to begin training for.
“More goals have been made,” Waters said.
Mars’ Luke Lamb finished eighth in the 50-yard freestyle at the PIAA Class 3A boys swimming championship at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
Lamb swam that race in 20.72 seconds. Penncrest’s Jonathan Hoole won the event with a time of 20.12.
