HS Diving: Klinger, Scheuer repeat as Schuylkill League diving champions
Blue Mountain's Hailey Scheuer, left, and Pottsville's Adam Klinger pose with the St. Luke's Schuylkill League champions banner after winning their respective titles at Friday's Schuylkill League Diving Championships at North Schuylkill's Donald Bricker Natatorium (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
FOUNTAIN SPRINGS — Pottsville’s Adam Klinger and Blue Mountain’s Hailey Scheuer took familiar paths to their second straight league diving titles Friday evening.
Klinger, a junior, continued to master dives with tough difficulty while having the mental toughness to overcome adversity when things go wrong.
Scheuer, a sophomore, used a back-loaded routine to her advantage again, pulling away over the final four dives to best a field of 10 girls’ divers.
It all added up to a pair of repeat champions at the Schuylkill League Diving Championships at North Schuylkill’s Donald Bricker Natatorium.
“It means a lot to me,” Klinger said of winning back-to-back golds. “I’m hoping I can do it again next year. It’s an awesome feeling.”
Klinger entered the competition as the clear-cut favorite and lived up to that billing, leading a field of six boys’ divers from start to finish.
He wowed the capacity crowd with his fourth dive, an inward two somersault tuck that carried a 2.8 degree of difficulty, scoring a whopping 54.60 points. He bested that score three dives later, collecting 55.20 points by nailing a forward 2.5 somersault tuck that had a 2.4 difficulty.
His final score of 444.60 points is a new Bricker Natatorium record for an 11-dive event and is his fourth competition in the past two weeks in which he’s scored 400 or more points.
Pottsville teammate Colin Kline was second at 289.85, with Tamaqua’s Vinny Valentine (264.00) and Pottsville’s Spencer Prestileo (220.50) also making a trip to the awards stand in third and fourth.
Klinger also put a scare into the crowd with his fifth dive as his foot hit the board as he executed a forward 1.5 somersault with a twist dive. Klinger, who said his foot was okay, said his mental toughness allowed him to overcome the mishap and continue to excel.
“I just had to make sure to bounce back,” Klinger said. “Most of the time, my mentality, I would fall apart after something like that happened. Now, I knew I had to put it behind me. What happens, happens. I’m glad I bounced back.”
While Klinger cruised to his second straight league crown, Scheuer’s road to back-to-back gold was a little tougher.
Scheuer was entrenched in a four-girl battle with teammates Shyanna White and Kamryn Moran and North Schuylkill’s Joyce Burian for the first half of the competition, with White holding a slim lead (168.75-167.40) after six dives.
Scheuer took control by scoring 35.20 points on her seventh dive, a forward two somersault tuck with a difficulty of 2.2, and never let go, scoring 44.85, 33.15, 36.80 and 45.90 on her final four dives.
She finished with a pool-record total of 363.30, beating second-place White (318.45) by nearly 45 points. Burian took third (299.10) while Moran (296.55) was fourth.
