Beaver’s Cestra, Ringgold’s Vogt capture WPIAL Class AA diving titles

By: Kyle Dawson
Friday, February 22, 2019 | 10:00 PM

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The processes of crowning the WPIAL Class AA diving champions Friday at South Park proved to be polar opposites.

In the girls championships, Ringgold senior Anna Vogt led at the end of the all three rounds to win her second-straight gold medal.

During the boys championships, however, Beaver senior Andrew Cestra won his first WPIAL gold after going back-and-forth with defending champion Kyle Maziarz of North Catholic.

After the preliminary dives (five dives) in the boys championships, Maziarz led by almost 12 points. He and Cestra traded stellar dives. Combined, the two had seven of the eight total 50-plus-point dives in the competition.

The difference maker for Cestra was his final dive, which came after his score flashed for less than two seconds on the scoreboard after his 11th dive. He didn’t know what he needed to win other than he needed to have a good dive.

“I normally like being the guy that goes last so I don’t have to worry about hoping my scores hold up,” Cestra said. “I was a little nervous because I didn’t see my 11th score, so I just went up there and hoped for the best. The last one was a hard dive. I’ve been working at it all year.”

The dive has a 3.1 degree of difficulty. Cestra said the one he hit was his best all season. The judges agreed to the tune of a competition-best 68.20 points.

The dive helped Cestra set the new WPIAL record for the WPIAL Class AA championships, as well as a South Park High School pool record. The previous WPIAL record holder, Ryan Fagan, scored 499.10 points in 1998. Cestra now holds it with 522.20 points. Maziarz also broke that original record, placing as the silver medalist on the podium with 510.50 points.

“It was extremely surprising. I was just trying to at least get second,” Cestra said. “Getting the record is amazing, but I think it will be short-held, because Kyle will probably break it next year.”

Cestra said the gold medal and qualifying for states is a product of sometimes six-days-a-week training and a lot of hard work that he puts in at his craft, which he’ll now have a chance to showcase at the PIAA championships at Bucknell March 13-14.

The new champion will be joined on the boys’ side by Maziarz, Elizabeth Forward’s Gavin Guern, who received a bronze medal with 434.4 points, South Park’s Cole O’Connor (375.05), West Allegheny’s Jaden Beckett (371.40) and Ringgold’s Jonnie McDuffie (365.90).

“I need to work on a few dives and who knows, maybe I’ll pick up a new dive,” Cestra said. “Maybe I have another run in me.”

Vogt showed off her consistency, scoring 34.50 points or more on 10 of her 11 dives, including the two best dives of competition.

“I saved everything good for the second and third round,” Vogt said. “I was really excited for the last one, because I had done it really well in warmups. I didn’t hit it as well as I wanted, but I am excited.”

Vogt was popular during warmups and after, and said part of the fun of the event was the camaraderie.

“Everybody is from all different areas, but we all dive at the same places,” Vogt said. “You cheer on your biggest competition. It’s a lot of fun.”

Vogt qualified for the PIAA championships at Bucknell. She will be joined by silver-medalist Alexa Gonczi from Central Valley (378.25), bronze medalist Kristen Jerich from Knoch (340.20), as well as Seton LaSalle’s Taylor Weyrich (325.65), Derry’s Alison Cowan (311.90) and Central Valley’s Alyssa Bruno (304.90).

“(I’ll need) to kick and not pull,” Vogt said. “I like to pull back really far, and it pulls it long, so I have to really line up and look at my hands and get it in straight.”

The PIAA Championships are set for March 13-14 at Bucknell University.