North Allegheny takes 1-2-3 in 3A

Shi leads team to first-place finish

North Allegheny went 24 years without a WPIAL Class 3A girls diving champion, but the Tigers made up for lost time in a big way.

Freshman Christina Shi led most of Saturday’s Class 3A meet, finishing with a 531.30 to edge teammate Maya Ennis by 57.65 points and become the first Tigers diver since Jamie Tomazich in 1996 to win the championship.

Her score broke Tomazich’s school record of 516.65 set in the 1995 WPIAL finals. It was the sixth-best total in WPIAL meet history.

“It’s really crazy because I remember watching this meet ever since I was little,” Shi said. “It’s unreal.”

North Allegheny also did something never before seen in WPIAL history. The Tigers finished 1-2-3 as freshman Koe Zy took third place to cap an unparalleled day.

“It’s fabulous because, yeah, it was 1-2-3, but it could have just as easily been 7-8-9 because it’s high school diving, it’s high school girls and you don’t know which girls are going to show up,” North Allegheny diving coach Patti McClure said. “The right girls showed up and it’s been a great day.”

Having three divers of that ilk pushing each other throughout the season was a huge advantage heading into the meet.

“That’s so great for NA,” Shi said. “There is so much competition for our team and it’s really crazy.”

On the boys side, Fox Chapel only had to wait a year to have a new WPIAL Class 3A champion. Junior David Manelis, the PIAA runner-up in 2019, took the torch from three-time champion Jonah Cagley and gave the Foxes their fourth crown in a row.

Manelis finished with 524.90 points, outdistancing runner-up Trevor Elliott of Seneca Valley by 100.45 points.

“I think I could have done better on some dives, but overall I think I did pretty good,” Manelis said. “I’m really proud of my coach and my team.”