Blue Mountain's Hailey Scheuer adjusts the board during a warm-up session at Wednesday's PIAA Diving Championships at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium (Photo by Leroy Boyer).

LEWISBURG — Blue Mountain’s Hailey Scheuer entered Wednesday’s PIAA Class AA Girls’ Diving Championships with two specific goals:

Make it to the final round, improve on last year’s finish.

A change to her normal routine and a fast start helped the sophomore accomplish both goals … and then some.

Scheuer placed 11th in the 11-dive competition Wednesday afternoon with 336.05 points. It was a solid progression from her initial trip to states last year, when she was cut after eight dives and finished 19th.

“I knew coming in I was (seeded) 16th, which I was happy with,” Scheuer said. “My goal was to make the second cut and I did. I’m so happy that I ended up getting 11th. I’m really happy about that.”

The PIAA Diving Championships features 24 divers each attempting 11 dives. The four divers with the lowest overall scores are cut after five dives, with four more divers getting cut after eight dives to create a three-dive final round consisting of 16 divers.

Scheuer won gold medals this season at the Schuylkill League Diving Invitational, Schuylkill League Diving Championships and District 11 Diving Championships by following the same pattern.

She began her 11-dive routine at each of those competitions with some easy, “warm-up” dives, then back-load her routine with her more difficult dives. She trailed at one point in all three of those meets only to surge through the final 5-6 dives to capture the title.

Wednesday, Scheuer flipped the script, front-loading her routine with her dives that contained high degrees of difficulty. She nailed her first four dives and was sitting in fourth place at that point with 134.70 points.

“I did that so I could get through to the final round,” Scheuer said. “I’m actually very happy I flipped those dives.

“I felt a little weird. I felt a little off, but in the end I’m really happy I did that.”

Scheuer didn’t “screw up” or fail any dives the rest of the way, but it’s hard to get a lot of points on each dive when the degrees of difficulty on the mandatory dives are only 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7.

Her scores over the last seven dives — 28.0, 28.9, 24.0, 33.35, 35.65, 28.50, 22.95 — reflected the difficulty of each dive.

Scheuer was in eighth place after five dives, then dropped to 10^th and 11^th down the stretch.

Hampton’s Gabriella Elk won the gold with 433.00 points, with Upper Moreland’s Justin Frantz (411.15) taking second and Quaker Valley’s Ruby Olliffe (392.70) placing third.

Scheuer finished 12.7 points behind eighth-place Paige Slavinski of Dallas (348.75), with Derry Area’s Genavieve Hoyle (342.15) taking ninth and Derry Area’s Ella Sylvis (338.65) edging Scheuer for 10th.

Scheuer’s goal next year? Earn a medal.

“I’m very happy, very relieved,” Scheuer said after the meet. “It’s a nerve-racking experience, diving, but it’s so fun. I’m definitely very happy.”

PIAA Diving Championships

Class AA Girls

At Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium

Final Results — 1. Gabriella Elk (Hampton) 433.00, 2. Justin Frantz (Upper Moreland) 411.15, 3. Ruby Olliffe (Quaker Valley) 392.70, 4. Megan Kuzma (Dallas) 385.95, 5. Charlotte Schwendeman (Schuylkill Valley) 370.20, 6. Chaeli Keenan (Derry Area) 365.35, 7. Carly Crills (Schuylkill Valley) 352.85, 8. Paige Slavinski (Dallas) 348.75 …. 11. Hailey Scheuer (Blue Mountain) 336.05.