Swimming: Pottsville’s Klinger captures District 11 boys’ diving gold
Pottsville's Adam Klinger, right, poses with teammate Colin Kline, left, and diving coach and mom Denise Klinger after winning the Class AA boys' gold at Saturday's District 11 Diving Championships at Emmaus High School.
EMMAUS — After a pair of silver medals the past two seasons, Pottsville’s Adam Klinger took one more step up the podium Saturday at the District 11 Diving Championships.
Klinger overcame a rough third round to capture his first district title and the Schuylkill League’s first male district diving gold since Tamaqua’s Dane DeWire in 2011.
Klinger finished with 396.55 points, beating Northwestern Lehigh’s Hayden Slaski by 42.25 points. The victory qualifies Klinger for the PIAA Diving Championships for the third straight season. This year’s Class AA boys’ competition is Thursday, March 13, at 12:40 p.m. at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium.
“I realized that if I wanted to win, I really, really had to work hard for it,” Klinger said. “I had to practice a lot more hours and that’s what I did. I’m happy it paid off.”
A rough third dive had Klinger trailing Slaski by four points. He rebounded with a forward 1.5 somersault with one twist from the straight position that outscored Slaski by 20 points and vaulted Klinger into the lead.
He led the rest of the meet.
“Back in the day I would have just lost it after the bad third round,” Klinger said. “But I’ve learned to recover from dives like that and know that whatever happens, happens and there’s eight dives left.”
The district gold is the latest in a long string of accomplishments so far for the Pottsville junior.
Klinger broke both the 6-dive and 11-dive school records. He also dove in different invitationals, picking up many medals.
He finished first at the Bulldog Bash at Boiling Springs High School in December, then took seventh at the Flips of Fury at Parkland a month later in an extremely competitive field with some of the best divers in the state.
Klinger finished first at the inaugural Schuylkill League Diving Invitational at Blue Mountain’s Glen Belmont Natatorium, wrapped his regular season by winning the Cedar Crest Classic in the beginning of February and started his postseason by winning his second straight Schuylkill League championship two weeks ago at North Schuylkill’s Donald Bricker Natatorium.
Now onto states.
Tamaqua’s Vinny Valentine and Pottsville’s Colin Kline had a close fight for third place in the four-diver field. Valentine used his experience to overcome the pressure to secure the third-place finish with an impressive final two dives.
Valentine finished with 259.80 points, while Kline totaled 257.40. outscoring Kline to claim third.
