Appearing in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association diving championships was not a new thing for Cicero-North Syracuse senior Madeline Thorne, but it was new for the teammate that had pushed her this season, Kaitlyn Carroll.

Together, Thorne, a senior, and Carroll, a freshman, made their way to Ithaca College for the state competition last Friday night, but the irony was that it was the younger diver that would have the better finish.

During the first round, Carroll earned 203.00 points, climbing to 21st place and earning one of the 25 spots in the semifinals. Thorne, with 186.70 points, missed advancing by just one spot.
Then, in the semifinals, Carroll had 300.20 points, staying in 21st – but only the top 20 advanced to the finals, and Saratoga Springs’ Renee Maslak had 300.60 points for that 20th and final spot.

Eventually, Brighton’s Alice Diakova emerged as the state and Federation champion, earning 527.85 points. She was comfortably ahead of Minisink Valley’s Madison Yager, who with 496.10 points edged Scardsale’s Maddie Seltzer (483.25) for the runner-up spot.

Also there for C-NS was its 200-yard freestyle relay team, composed of junior Alayna Harbaugh, sophomores Bryn Myers and Brittany Wood, and eighth-grader Kate Gucciardi, who got here with a time of one minute, 41.56 seconds in the Section III state qualifier back on Nov. 10.

At the state meet, Harbaugh, Myers, Wood and Gucciardi could not quite match that time, ending up at 1:43.21 to tie Washingtonville for 47th place. Section I’s Sleepy-Hastings-Edgemont-Irvin won the state and Federation titles in 1:36.79.

Section III swimmers had a series of top-20 finishes, but only one finalist – Mexico’s Alexa von Holtz, whose time of 56.89 seconds qualified her for the 100 butterfly final, where she got 10th place in 57.52 seconds.