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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

Vanim takes silver in D-11 Diving

As teammates on the Emmaus diving team, Andrew Vanim, Brendan McCourt and Drew Stenger are used to battling each other in competitions. On Saturday, they also had to battle the best divers in District 11 as they fought for spots in the PIAA Championships later this month at Bucknell University.

Vanim edged McCourt for second place in Saturday’s District 11 Class 3A Championships at Emmaus High School, earning one of two guaranteed spots to Bucknell. McCourt will have to wait to see if his third-place finish is strong enough for a bid-in spot in states. Stenger finished ninth in the competition.

In locking up a spot at states, Vanim also bested his previous school record of 486.3 in an 11-dive event, finishing with a 487.9. Nazareth’s Steven Stasolla won the competition with a score of 498.65.

The competition was close throughout the day, but Vanim had a good feeling coming into his final dive that he would be getting a spot in states, even though he didn’t know exactly what the standings were or how many points he had.

“That’s my most consistent dive, so I knew at that point that I had the best shot of going to states,” said Vanim. “I didn’t look at the scores at all throughout the entire competition, I just stayed in myself. I didn’t watch anybody dive. I just watched what was going on inside my head and visualized everything and it paid off.”

McCourt took much the same approach and diverted his eyes from the scoreboard throughout the meet, preferring to just focus on what he was doing and then waiting to see how it all played out in the end.

“Coming in, I just wanted to do my best and see what would happen,” said McCourt. “I had an idea of what was going on, but I’ve learned from past experiences to not look at the scores too much.”

McCourt led the competition through the first four dives, with Vanim, Stasolla and Parkland’s Chris Lehman hanging close. In the fifth round, the other three competitors put up big scores, leaving Stasolla in first, Lehman in second and Vanim third, while McCourt got bumped down to fourth place, where he would stay for a couple of rounds.

Vanim passed Lehman after six dives and McCourt moved ahead of the Parkland senior after seven dives, Vanim’s final dive wasn’t enough to catch Stasolla, who also won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Championship, but it was good enough to best his school record.

“I knew that if I didn’t qualify for states, that this would be my last meet ever and I didn’t want it to end and that’s what really drove me,” said Vanim, a senior. “I’m blown away. It was only by about a point, but it’s another record and I’m very happy. I couldn’t be happier.”

The meet was delayed for approximately 40 minutes early in the ninth round of dives, as severe storms went through the area, briefly knocking out power at Emmaus High School, where the meet was held. Power was restored fairly quickly, but the high intensity lights needed to cool completely before they could be turned back on, and then needed time to come up to full power. Divers were given two practice dives before the competition was resumed.

Emmaus didn’t have any girls entered in the girls competition. Divers from Parkland swept the top four spots on the girls side, with Lexi Lehman and Alexa Brinker earning spots in the state competition.

Point totals gained by divers in districts count toward the team points used to determine the district champions. The swimming portion of the championships will take place this weekend at Parkland High School. Parkland divers gained a total of 53 points for their boys team, while Emmaus divers picked up 42 points in the competition.

In the girls team competition, Parkland enters swimming with 68 points, Easton has 38, Freedom 18 and both Liberty and Southern Lehigh have 14 points. Because Emmaus didn’t have a competitor in girls diving, they enter with zero points, leaving a lot of ground to make up in district swimming.

The boys team is looking to make it 10 straight District 11 championships this season. They have also won districts in 11 of the last 12 seasons. The girls team last won districts in 2008, with the Parkland girls having won the last eight straight championships.

PRESS PHOTO BY NANCY SCHOLZEmmaus senior Andrew Vanim took second place at last weekend's District 11 Class 3A Diving Championships.