Mt. Lebanon diver in the hunt for WPIAL title
Owen Johns enters the WPIAL Class AAA diving championships as one of the favorites to capture the title when action commences at 10 a.m. Feb. 24 at North Allegheny High School.
The junior is one of two male divers from Mt. Lebanon to qualify for the competition. The other is Lucas Bumgarner. The senior ranks among the top six divers in the district.
“Our divers have been our strength all year,” said Lebo swim coach Tom Donati. “When you have a one-two punch in the boys it really helps. Those guys will bring us a lot of points at WPIALs. It’s like winning a relay.”
Donati was referring to the WPIAL swimming championships, which will be held March 1-2 at the University of Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool. Diving scores contribute to team scores in the swimming competition.
Johns, a junior, finished as the WPIAL runner-up last season, yielding only to Jonah Cagley. The Fox Chapel junior won last year’s competition with a 525 score while Johns totaled 494.90. To date, the two stand atop the leader board with respective best scores of 376.30 and 358.20. Johns’ mark was a new Lebo pool record set on Feb. 15 in a dual-meet loss to Upper St. Clair, 99-82.
“Owen has been amazing,” Donati said. “He has improved so much and the future is great for him.”
The future is now for Bumgarner. This is his final WPIAL competition. Last year, he finished fourth. To date, he has the league’s sixth-best score for six dives with a 209.75. The WPIAL finals will consist of an 11-dive card.
“Lucas has done well, too,” Donati said. “He and Owen push each other and our team benefits from their outstanding results.”
Peters Township advanced Ryan Saunders and Garrett Buzzeli to the championships as each bettered the qualifying standard of 175 for a 6-dive card during the regular season. Sam Levy from Upper St. Clair is the other area qualifier in the boys’ AAA competition.
In the girls’ competition, Taylor Miller returns as champion. The Latrobe senior and Ohio University recruit has the top mark (309.75) this season but she could be challenged by Bethel Park’s Sadie Coda, who placed 10th last year as a freshman.
Ahead of Coda this winter has been Sydney Donati. The Lebo junior has the 10th-best mark (234.50) in the WPIAL this season. She has only lost once this year.
“That’s impressive considering our schedule,” said Coach Donati, who is Sydney’s uncle. “We are looking forward to seeing her perform at WPIALs. Our girls have gotten better every meet and that’s a credit to our diving coaches.”
Several other area girls will be competing in the Class AAA competition, which begins at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at NA. The following girls met the 190-point criteria for their 6-dive card during the regular season: BP’s Samantha Coda, Canon-McMillan’s Mary Sadlek, Upper St. Clair’s Alexandra Hays and Lebo’s Cameron Van Deusen.
The WPIAL Class AA competition will be held Feb. 23 at South Park High School. The boys’ competition begins at 11 a.m. and the girls’ action follows at 3 p.m. Local qualifiers include: Eoin Horowitz from South Fayette and Alex Oleskask from Keystone Oaks as well as South Park’s Cole O’Connor and Alexis Hutton.