Liberty diver Keller Pooley took a slight lead after five dives, pulled ahead after eight, slipped back after 10, but after 11 dives, the Hurricane sophomore won the East Penn Conference Diving Meet with a score of 308.00 on Saturday at Emmaus High School.

“I’m really excited. I’m very happy about it,” said Pooley, who was one of seven EPC divers competing from Bethlehem, Parkland, and Emmaus.

Parkland’s Ally Roth placed second with a score of 302.80. Teammate Nicole Stofko was right behind, placing third with a score of 296.00, but it was Roth who was on Pooley’s heals most of the day.

With one dive left to complete, a back dive straight, which happens to be one of Pooley’s least favorite dives, Pooley didn’t know that she’d slipped into second place. But Coach Emily Kocis was well aware, so she used something on Pooley that she does at practice.

“As her motivation at practice for Keller’s least favorite dives, I tell her she has to do them over if she gets fours,” Kocis said. “Today, she got straight 5’s and 5 1/2’s.”

But it was the beginning of the meet when Pooley performed her five best dives.

“I was feeling pretty good today. Most of my dives were some of my best,” Pooley said. “I was a bit nervous, but really pretty excited to go.”

Pooley counted her inward 1 1/2 (forward flip from a backward standing position with 1 1/2 flips), her back layout (back flip in straight position landing on feet), and her back twisters (back flip in straight position with full twist/twist and a half) as her strongest dives of the day.

“In the inward 1 1/2, I jumped really high and went straight in. In the back layout, I had clean form and jumped high in that one too. I landed straight in both twisters and jumped pretty well,” Pooley said. “After I finished, my coach said I most likely won, but we didn’t know because we didn’t know about the girl from Parkland.”

A short time later, Pooley emerged from the locker room to get the good news from Coach Kocis.

“I’m very proud of Keller,” Kocis said. “She had a rough meet Thursday, but she was fine in practice on Friday. She’s a natural competitor.”

Missing from the meet on Saturday was Freedom senior Sarah Gill who was ineligible to compete due to a rise in COVID-19 cases at Freedom High School and the subsequent shutdown of sports there last week.

Diving in exhibition were Southern Lehigh’s Mackenzie Reffle and Moravian Academy’s Alexa Fegley. Both are in the Colonial League, which doesn’t have its own diving championships.

Reffle had the highest score of 353.10, and Fegley had the second highest of 345.20.

“Alexa was pretty solid,” said Kocis, who also coaches Fegley. “She lost some points on a dive she just started competing, her back 1 1/2 somersault, and kicked a little too soon, but her inward twisters and reverses were good.”

The next EPC diving meet is scheduled for Feb. 20 at Emmaus.

EPC Girls

1M Diving

1. Keller Pooley (L) 308.00; 2. Ally Roth (P) 302.80; 3. Nicole Stofko (P) 296.00; 4. Morgan Belisle (E) 258.00; 5. Molly O’Connor (E) 234.85; 6. Leah Webb (P) 228.40; 7. Katey Kunz (P) 217.05

EPC Boys

1M Diving

1. Ethan Radio (P) 480.85; 2. Matthew Blommel (P) 284.20