Freedom diver Hayden Taylor broke her own school record and pool record in the diving event with a score of 321.65 during the Patriots’ swim meet against Whitehall on Dec. 18 at Freedom.

“I am my biggest competitor, I’m very hard on myself, and every time I step in this pool, I’m looking at my name up there, and I am trying very hard to beat my own records,” Taylor said. “Before the meet, I was a little bit in my own head...My dad is probably my biggest fan, and he really helped calm me down as well as Coach Mark (Parry). They know how to play the mental game with me...I took it one dive at a time, and it worked. My inward 1 ½ pike seems to be the one I’ve been consistent with all season. When it comes down to it, I know I can hit that one.”

Taylor’s scores were 8, 8.5, 8.5.

“The inward 1 ½ pike is my favorite dive this season,” said Coach Parry. “We’ve been doing a lot of hard work on that dive, and when we came up to it, I did the math, and it was 45 points to break the record by one point, so when she put it in for 60 points, we smashed it. The goal is to make those records so high that no one can beat them in the future. We did throw a new dive in there, a reverse 1 ½ in pike, to get a little bit more degree of difficulty (2.4), and it ended up really working out.”

Taylor received straight 8.5s on the dive.

The Patriot swimmers who won first place points for the girls team were Sequoia Searfass in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:26.21 and the 100 free with a time of 1:05.51, and Lily Campbell in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:14.27.

“I think the girls competed really, really well today,” said Freedom swim coach JJ Apostolico. “They were a little outmanned, missing some girls from the lineup today, and I think, if we had them, it could’ve gone a little bit differently, but they didn’t let that get them down. They were in it right after diving. It was tied, and they were having great races after great races after great races. It made it a very fun second half of the meet. They just didn’t have the numbers tonight. Overall, the effort level is what I’m most impressed with.”

Whitehall’s girls won by a score of 95-76.