Freedom’s divers competed in their first meet of the new season last week in the Patriots’ swim meet against Northampton when Sarah Gill took first place and Cailin Connelly took third in the diving event.

Gill, a sophomore, scored 214.90 points with six dives.

Gill’s best dive of the day was her front one-and-a-half.

“I actually didn’t know it was going to be as good as it was,” Gill said. “I thought I came in piked, but then I watched the video, and it was better than I thought it was.”

Gill also did well on her back one-and-a-half twist.

“I was kind of short on some of them in warm-ups, but I fixed it and went higher,” said Gill.

This past summer, Gill participated in two clinics at West Chester University.

“I think my form has gotten better, and I’ve learned how to use the board more,” she said. “I tried some [new dives] over the summer, and I haven’t really done them a lot yet because I’m getting everything else more consistent- an inward one-and-a-half pike, back one-and-a-half twist with one-and-a-half flips, and a front double pike.”

Connelly, also a sophomore, went to the same clinic this past summer at West Chester.

Connelly’s best dive in the Northampton meet was her inward.

“I scored my first seven on that. Once I immediately left the board, I felt like it was going to be a good dive,” said Connelly. “My next best was probably my back straight half twist. I’d been having trouble with that because I haven’t been keeping my legs straight and I’ve been over rotating, but this time it turned out right somehow because I did everything I had to do when I left the board.”

Connelly is working toward perfecting 11 dives in time for leagues and districts.

“I’m working on my front double. I do have some timing issues with coming out early, so that’s mainly the only thing we have to fix with that,” she said. “It’s a little bit stressful [competing] because it’s so silent and you have all these eyes on you, but eventually it’s fun after you do your first dive and you get in the swing of things and it just falls into place.”