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Fantastic finish

Pucci-Schaefer takes 11th at states, Spacciapolli makes finals

By Christian Storms 3 min read

ITHACA -- A fantastic freshman year.

Fredonia freshman diver Elizabeth Pucci-Schaefer wrapped up a terrific season at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls swimming & diving championships at Ithaca College on Friday with an 11th-place finish, earning a state medal.

Pucci-Schaefer jumped eight spots, finishing 19th as a seventh-grader two years ago and now 11th as a freshman.

"She's been training super hard," said Fredonia head coach Joanne Lotter. "To go from 19 to 11 in one state meet is phenomenal. She is going to be on pace for bigger and better things as she gets older."

Pucci-Schaefer started the day as the 38th diver and in the preliminary round dives she scored a 206.75 that landed her at 16, and into the second round with the other top 24 divers. Leading the way after the first round was eventual champion, sophomore Anna Flanders of Albany from Section II with a score of 244.85.

After the second round of dives, Pucci-Schaefer cracked into the top 10, landing in ninth with a score of 326.45. Flanders stayed in front with a score of 375.10, maintaining the lead in front of Victoria Wang of Manhasset from Section VIII, who had a score of 356.90.

In the final round of dives, Pucci-Schaefer scored a total of 116.55 to bring her a grand total of 443.0 which was good for 11th place in the state and earned her a medal.

"She was consistent with all her dives," Lotter said about Pucci-Schaefer's performance. "She did very well with all of her dives, but she is capable of more which we're excited about. She made it through two different cuts and she kept her emotions in check and carried on."

Flanders scored 134.6 in the final round to bring her grand total of 509.70, just in front of Wang with 507.70. Rachel Yang of Jericho in Section VIII took the final spot on the podium with a score of 490.20.

There was a scary moment in the diving meet when a diver hit her head on the board and had to be rescued. The injury resulted in a 45-minute delay, but the diver was alright.

"For some girls it was hard to compete after seeing something like that," said Lotter.

Prior to the diving competition, Fredonia senior Tori Spacciapolli was making some of her last laps in the pool. Spacciapolli made good on her goal in the 100-yard breaststroke and broke her own school record with a new time of 1:07.09.

"She had a great race," said Lotter. "It was her personal best time, broke the school record and is the 12-seed tomorrow."

Spacciapolli's time landed her a spot in the finals today where she will swim her last laps for the Fredonia Hillbillies.

"I really think we'll see a new personal best from Tori," Lotter said headed into Saturday's finals. "The last one is the fast one. I think she's really going to surprise herself with what she's capable of so I'm really excited to see this race tomorrow."

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