Freedom senior Hayden Taylor’s high school diving career took her to the top of the medals podium where she was crowned the best in the state at the PIAA Class 3A state diving championships on March 11 at Bucknell University.

Taylor surpassed 23 opponents with a score of 508.80 that clinched the gold medal after 11 dives.

“So many words...but if I had to pick one, it would be proud,” Taylor said. “After quitting gymnastics and going into diving, I was soaking it all in.”

Taylor never intended to be a diver, but after five elbow surgeries took her out of gymnastics, Taylor’s mother suggested diving, to which Taylor responded with an emphatic no.

Two months later, Taylor changed her mind and almost immediately found a new family in diving during her freshman year.

“(Freedom) Coach Mark (Parry) played a big role,” she said. “He’s so supportive and positive, and the way he celebrates for us and with us. He knew how to help me and keep me mentally OK.”

Whether Parry’s exuberance rubbed off on Taylor or Taylor’s exuberance rubbed off on Parry is debatable, but there was no question as to Taylor’s command of the board.

The Patriots’ fourth-year diving coach described Taylor as being dominant throughout the state meet, placing fourth after the first round of dives but moving up after the second round.

“Three dives later, Hayden did a dive with a 1.6 degree of difficulty while her biggest competition (North Allegheny’s Maggie Lapina) did a 2.63 degree-of-difficulty dive, but Hayden was still able to hold the lead after that,” Parry said.

Taylor’s favorite dive of the day was her reverse dive pike.

“I set it up really well- my hurdle, my approach, a lot of height, my entry was good, and I got at least two nines (from the judges),” she said.

Taylor’s back 1 somersault 2 ½ twist had the highest degree of difficulty with a 2.7.

“That went extremely well, and my entry was really good,” she said.

Taylor’s reverse 1 ½ pike, a new dive for the state champ, also went very well with its 2.4 degree of difficulty.

“My goal was to be consistent, and it was my best meet all season. After the break after the first five dives, they were really solid. After the middle three, they went super well,” said Taylor. “I knew I had some good competition, but I knew I could come home with the title. Occasionally, I’d look up just to see what was going on with the other dives, but I always turned my back to the other divers right before I went on.”

Lapina, also a senior, placed second with a score of 448.65.

From a coach’s point of view, Parry described Freedom’s success at the state meet as being kind of a surreal moment. (Freedom diver Cody Smith won the boys meet.)

“I’ve spent so much time with them,” Parry said. “They’re my first freshman to senior class. It was the last time they’re my athletes, and they worked really hard for this. The pressure was inevitable, but we didn’t focus on it too much. Both of them were seeded first, and there was a lot of talk about them around the state, but they did really well keeping their composure.”