Freedom diver Hayden Taylor won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Diving Meet, topping 20 female divers with a score of 364.00 on Jan. 13 at Emmaus High School.

“I knew this was gonna be a big meet because we have that rivalry with Bella Kish from Northampton being so close in the rankings, and I wanted to see Hayden do what I know she can do. This blew my expectations out of the water,” said second-year Freedom coach Mark Parry. “This is the first 11-dive meet that I’ve coached, so there was a learning curve for all three of us.”

That included Freedom diver Cody Smith, who placed third out of 13 male divers with a score of 331.25.

“Seeing a lot of Cody’s dives go in super clean made me feel pretty proud of him,” Parry said. “I saw a lot of improvement from even the night before when we were practicing them.”

One of Smith’s best dives was his inward 1 1/2.

“I started, probably not in the top five, but then I stayed consistent the whole time to bring it up to third. I realized I was close to third or fourth around dive nine or 10,” said Smith. “I had no major mistakes the whole time. I’m definitely feeling good. New dives are coming, and I’m cleaning up too. I liked [the 11-dive meet] because it gives you more of a chance if you mess up a dive, and you can come back a lot easier.”

Taylor was also happy with her inward 1 1/2 along with her reverse dive pike.

“I had some very tough competition right behind me, and it kept me pushing, focusing on my dives but having fun, and I think that helped me,” Taylor said. “Throughout the meet, I tried not to look at the scores, and my coach didn’t let me know the other scores so that it didn’t get in my head and affect my diving. I feel really good. It was my first time doing an 11-dive meet, but overall, I think I did pretty good.”

So good that Taylor’s score was the highest overall among girls as well as boys.

“My number one key with the divers is to keep them mentally focused and aligned,” said Parry. “We had the mindset that we were here to have fun. You can’t succeed in a sport until you’re having fun, and that’s when it goes forward. As you see, we got some good results from it. I did prep them for the difference between Emmaus’s boards and our boards, and I think that helped them get that mental edge over everybody else.”

GIRLS DIVING

1. Hayden Taylor (Freedom) 364.00, 2. Bella Kish (Northampton) 322.15, 3. Lucia Lombardo (Easton) 307.15, 4. Sam Schultz (Parkland) 306.85, 5. Johanna Cook (Parkland) 288.80, 6. Gabriella Madeira (Liberty) 288.75, 7. Eva Madeira (Liberty) 282.90, 8. Kalliopi Theodoridis (Easton) 257.35, 9. Naomee Adisa (Nazareth) 254.85, 10. Elle Bagley (Emmaus) 246.75, 11. Sophia Gorman (Nazareth) 240.70, 12. Keira Gilboy (Emmaus) 239.15, 13. Addison Dietrich (Parkland) 238.35, 14. Mariya Young (Parkland) 233.10, 15. Elle Newcombe (Parkland) 210.70, 16. Kaya Spearko (Allentown Central Catholic) 208.55, 17. Madison Stout (Parkland) 173.90, 18. Hailey Heleva (Parkland) 146.30, 19. Sathana Suresh (Parkland) 144.70, 20. Isabella Attisano (Easton) 139.55, 21. Hafsah Hasher (Parkland) 118.35

BOYS DIVING

1. Alex Szeplaki (Northampton) 357.95, 2. Bradley Kunz (Parkland) 347.05, 3. Cody Smith (Freedom) 331.25, 4. Andrew Szeplaki (Northampton) 315.55, 5. Harry Epstein (Parkland) 285.75, 6. Jaxson Dorsey (Liberty) 275.80, 7. Dougie Cornish (Emmaus) 263.65, 8. Samuel Hayes (Northampton) 262.30, 9. Zivon DeLosSantos (Liberty) 261.35, 10. Adam Lapham (Easton) 253.15, 11. Robert Barnes (Emmaus) 248.95, 12. Samuel Ciampittiello (Parkland) 227.00, 13. Nicholas Heffner (Emmaus) 190.40.