Fox Chapel’s Cagley, Penn-Trafford’s Kalik win WPIAL diving titles

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, February 24, 2018 | 7:48 PM

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Fox Chapel's Jonah Cagley entered his final dive of the WPIAL Class 3A boys diving championships trailing by 5.85 points.

The junior, a silver medalist as a freshman and gold medalist a year ago, nailed an inward-two-full-somersault dive to grab 60.2 points to finish with a score of 536.85 and capture his second straight championship Saturday at North Allegheny.

“It honestly just feels great,” Cagley said. “It's such a great feeling to win alongside one of my teammates at Fox Chapel.”

Freshman teammate David Manelis claimed a bronze medal with a score of 501.80. Magnus Loeffler and Nathanial Haitema-Sercov from Fox Chapel finished ninth and 14th, respectively.

Mt. Lebanon junior Owen Johns earned a silver medal for the second consecutive year with a score of 514.70. His teammate, Lucas Bumgarner (482.50) and senior Austin Shaw from Pine-Richland rounded out the top five who will head to the PIAA championships at Bucknell.

Cagley, who bettered last year's score of 525.20, became the first back-to-back Class 3A gold medalist in boys diving since Penn-Trafford's Joey Ference in 2015 and 2016.

“I'm extremely happy with my scores and my performance. But, a good diver will always try and better your dives,” Cagley said. “Before states, I am going to try and get my dives better and more consistent.”

Cagley finished third in last year's PIAA championship.

The Class 3A girls took to the boards later Saturday afternoon at North Allegheny and in a bit of a surprise, junior Paige Kalik from Penn-Trafford beat out returning senior medalists Adrienne White from Hampton (423.05) and Taylor Miller from Latrobe (403.50) to pick her first gold medal.

“Ever since last year, I worked really, really hard. Confidence also helped me a lot this year,” Kalik said. “I wasn't really confident last year.”

Kalik finished fifth in last year's competition.

White garnered a silver medal for the third straight season, while Miller also captured bronze last year as a junior.

Seneca Valley's Katelyn Caccamo (359.85) and North Allegheny freshman Maya Ennis (339.85) will join Kalik, White and Miller at the PIAA championships.

“I think I'll be a lot more relaxed this year,” Kalik said about the PIAA championships. “I was a little nervous last year. Going through it once, I think I'll be a little more comfortable this year.”

Heading east to Bucknell with a bit of gold around her neck will do that.

Bob Orkwis is a freelance writer.

Tags: Fox Chapel, Hampton, Latrobe, Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny, Penn-Trafford, Pine-Richland, Seneca Valley