Penn-Trafford’s Sherwin just misses out on PIAA diving medal

By: Michael Love
Saturday, March 16, 2019 | 10:13 PM

LEWISBURG — Penn-Trafford senior Logan Sherwin hoped to snag a top-eight medal in his first opportunity to compete at the PIAA Class AAA state diving championships.

He stayed close to the top eight throughout the 11-dive meet before finishing ninth with 420.65 points Saturday afternoon at Bucknell University.

Sherwin was only 2.85 points from eighth place.

“I started off pretty well. My first three dives were good,” Sherwin said. “My fourth dive was my biggest dive, and I was looking to score a lot more points on it. But it didn’t work out how I wanted it to. My next dive was kind of shaky. It went alright after that, but I just couldn’t make up the points.”

Fox Chapel sophomore David Manelis led the five WPIAL competitors with a second-place finish (487.45).

Foxes senior Jonah Cagley and Mt. Lebanon senior Owen Johns placed fifth and sixth, respectively, and Franklin Regional senior Mason Fishell qualified for the finals and placed 15th.

Sherwin’s final year of high school diving included a runner-up finish to Cagley at the WPIAL championships last month.

“I thought I had a pretty good season overall, so I’m happy with that,” Sherwin said.

Westmoreland swimmers competed in six events Saturday.

After five 50-yard freestyle swims between the preliminaries and the finals Friday, including a ninth-place finish in the 50 free event itself, Hempfield senior Gavin Mayo returned Saturday to swim the 100 backstroke.

He came in seeded eighth and was in 11th after the preliminaries with a time of 51.22.

Mayo then recorded a 52.07 in the consolation finals to place 16th overall.

“I was a little tired this morning after yesterday,” Mayo said. “I gave it all I had (in the 100 back). When I got out of the water (after the preliminary swim), I was dying. I went and warmed down and tried to rest as much as possible for the (consolation) finals. I felt a little better in the evening. I tried a different strategy for the finals. I tried to take less dolphin kicks under the water to see if it would make it any better. I took a look at a video of my swim after, and it just wasn’t working as I had hoped.”

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: Hempfield