Frederick places third at district diving

EMMAUS – Tamaqua divers entered Saturday’s District 11 Class 2A tournament with high expectations.

The Raiders did leave with some hardware, getting a bronze medal performance from Billy Frederick and a fourth-place medal from Billy Shilko.

But in the end, those finishes were greeted with more disappointment than joy.

“We thought we had a chance to finish 1-2,” said Tamaqua diving coach Mariann Shilko. “We had the ability and the expectations for scores around 350 or better from both our divers, but we fell short of that.”

As it turned out, if either or both Tamaqua divers could have reached their target numbers, they would have also achieved their goals of making it to states.

Saucon Valley’s Noah Mauro won the 11-diver 2A tournament with a score of 353.65. Allentown Central Catholic’s Sam Stringer was second with a 338.35. Both divers will represent District 11 at the PIAA State Tournament at Bucknell University.

“I’m happy to get a bronze medal, but my goal was to finish in the top two and qualify for states,” said Frederick. “So, as nice as a district medal is, I’m still disappointed.”

Billy Shilko expressed similar disappointment.

“I wanted to go to states,” he said. “It’s tough to come up short of that goal.

“I had an opportunity, but just didn’t hit the dives I needed.”

According to Mariann Shilko, both divers were hurt by slow starts.

“The first few dives by both of our kids weren’t where we needed them to be,” said Mariann. “Both Billy and Billy battled back and had some nice dives later in the rotations, but we just were too far behind.”

Frederick, who finished with 314.8 points, was 32 points out of second place after five dives. Shilko, who finished with 310.1 points, was more than 64 points out of the second and final state qualifying spot after five dives.

“I like how we battled,” said Mariann Shilko. “The good news is that they are both juniors, so they’ll have another opportunity next year to achieve their goal of reaching states.

“I know they are both pretty disappointed right now. But they are both hard workers, and I’m looking forward to them coming back even better divers next season.”

SCHUYLKILL SHOWING … One week earlier at the Schuylkill League championships, Frederick had a 377.8 score and Shilko had a 357.25 as they finished 1-2.

OTHER WINNERS … Emmaus’ Brandon McCourt won the boys 3A championship with a score of 520.8. The girls 2A champ was Central Catholic’s Lily Atiyeh (368.25), while the girls 3A champ was Parkland’s Alexa Brinker (481.55).

NEXT YEAR … Tamaqua freshman Tressa Barron, who won the Schuylkill League title a week earlier, didn’t enter the district tournament. “You must perform 11 different dives at districts, and have used all of them sometime during the season,” coach Shilko said. “Being a freshman, Tressa is still in the process of adding more dives. Her 11th dive is one that she is still working on. She attempted it at the Schuylkill League meet and got a failed dive on it. So we just decided not to have her do something on this stage that she wasn’t totally confident in.”