Freedom junior Hayden Taylor repeated as District XI Class 3A girls diving champion on Feb. 22 at Emmaus High School.

Taylor performed 11 dives in the ninth position among a field of 24, including 16 from Class 3A and eight from Class 2A.

“It feels incredible,” Taylor said. “I put in a lot of work during the season and in the offseason. Some days you wake up, and you’re like, is it worth it? But then moments like this make you realize how much putting in the effort really is worth it.”

Taylor also won the Dennis McGinley Outstanding Female Diver Award for scoring the most points (485.40) in the district meet.

Parkland’s Johanna Cook placed second (393.15), Parkland’s Samantha Schultz placed third (358.90), and Northampton’s Isabella Kish came in fourth (351.40).

“My goal was to keep progressing, and I got my degree of difficulty a lot higher, and I really did like that,” said Taylor. “I just felt strong overall, but my first dives were definitely strong and set me up for the rest of the meet.”

Taylor led the field of 24 throughout the meet, having added new dives that replaced several of last year’s dives.

“I like all of them,” said Freedom diving coach Mark Parry. “Her twisters were really clean today, all three of them, but I will say, her reverse dive pike, her inward dive pike, her inward 1 1/2 has gotten so good, so we’re seeing 40-45 points on 1.6 degree of difficulty and that’s simply incredible.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say I knew this was going to be the inevitable outcome, but we always want to push ourselves to go harder and to be better. I’m always a little nervous before these meets with the intensity of districts, but honestly, she performs so well under pressure and she performs well consistently. No one deserves this more than her.”

Although this is Taylor’s second district gold medal, the achievement was a new experience for the Patriot junior.

“It definitely feels different. I had a lot more confidence in myself, coming from being the district champ last year and the amount of work I put in,” she said. “I really like twisting. It’s not always my best dive, but I enjoy doing my back 1 1/2 1 1/2 or my inward 1 1/2 pike.”

Taylor’s highest degrees of difficulty are 2.5 and 2.6 with a 2 1/2 pike and a back 1 1/2 with 1 1/2 twist.

“They scored really well, really high,” said Parry. “She puts in the time. She puts in a lot of hard work, a lot of effort, and it really shows. She comes to practice ready to go all the time.”

Divers also from Freedom were Emma Pitsilos (9th place, 303.15), Natasha Tiffany (10th place, 295.75), and Adelaide Schmid (14th place, 280.05).

Liberty diver Eva Madeira placed 11th (292.30) and is coached by Emily Kocis.

Taylor and Cook will compete at the PIAA Class 3A State Diving Championships next month at Bucknell University.