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The Wyoming Valley Conference got a lift from the state diving board.
And although the splash was more modest, it gave the league something to celebrate at the PIAA Class 3A Swimming and Diving Championships.
Wyoming Valley West sophomore Sophia Ginocchetti finished 16th in girls diving with a score of 331.60, emerging as the only athlete from the WVC to reach the Class 3A finals in any event Thursday as the Class 3A portion of state competition concluded at Bucknell University.
The PIAA Class 2A preliminaries and finals will be held there Friday and Saturday at Kinney Natatorium.
Ginocchetti entered the 24-diver field seeded 12th, after wining the District 2 Diving Championship with an accumulated score of 452.10.
But she had to make two cuts to reach the state’s final 16, which turned out to be a pretty difficult proposition.
Ginocchetti barely survived the first cut down to 20 divers, finishing the first round of six dives with a score of 152 — which slotted her in 19th place.
From there, Ginocchetti amassed 98.75 points on three dives in the second round to move up to the 16th slot and secure a spot in the 16-diver finals with a total score of 250.75. That edged the score of 247.20 by Wilson’s Caitlyn Christopher, who wound up in 17th place and just out of the final 16.
While Ginocchetti worked her way into a group of the last competitors standing for her event, the rest of the WVC’s representatives were cut off at the start of their state events.
Josh Zawatski, Ginocchetti’s Valley West teammate, had the best showing among WVC swimmers in boys preliminary events, which send the top 16 finishers into the night’s consolation and finals races. He came in 29th among a field of 32 in the 100 freestyle with a time of 47.98.
Valley West also sent District 2 champ Ivan Volynets into the boys 100 backstroke, where he wound up finishing 32nd in 55.89 seconds.
Hazleton Area’s Anthony Goulstone also finished 32nd in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:03. His Cougars teammate Paul Flowers completed the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.41 and finished 30th overall when two other competitors were disqualified.