Montgomery High freshman Annie Hathway finished second at the NJSIAA state diving championship meet
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Just over two years into the sport, Annie Hathaway’s progress as a diver has taken her to the top amongst her peers in New Jersey.
A freshman at Montgomery High, Hathaway finished second at the NJSIAA state diving championships with a score of 425.05, which trailed only Sophia Peifer of Haddonfield, who scored 513.10. For a converted gymnast who is still learning the sport, the second-place finish was quite an accomplishment.
“Everyone really wants first, but second for my first year doing state competition in high school diving, I don’t think I could have done better,” Hathaway said. “I thought I did a good performance on all of my dives.”
Hathaway was one of three Montgomery divers who qualified for the state championship meet. Three divers from West Windsor-Plainsboro South also qualified.
Elena Li of WW-P South finished seventh with a score of 335.20. Catherine Kenney of WW-P South was 10th, Katie Parsons of Montgomery was 12th, Carolyn Maslanka of Montgomery was 13th and Lillie Widmayer of WW-P South was 14th. Dan Soper of Montgomery finished 10th in the boys meet.
“She did fantastic and I am so proud of her,” Montgomery coach Cathy Mallon said. “She is a hard working girl and fantastic and talented diver. So she has earned it. I talked to her coaches at Lord of Boards and they say she has progressed nicely, especially this year. She is only a freshman but she uses the diving board better than most divers that I have seen.”
Hathaway won Somerset County/Skyland Conference meet and also won an 11-dive invitational hosted by Montgomery.
“I have only been diving about two years,” Hathaway said. “This is my third year. I started as a former gymnast, so that helps a lot. Practices are all year round and the main competitions are in the summer for my year-round team.
“High school diving is very rewarding. I really like being part of the team. We have 15 divers this year and some more coming next year. It keeps getting bigger.”
Mallon is quite pleased with the growth of the diving program, which has plenty of young talent.
We had another freshman, Carolyn Maslanka, who qualified and dove and also a sophomore, Katie Parsons, ” Mallon said. “So we had three girls in there. It was a good season and we have a strong team. Also have a couple more that are in there doing well. Katie was coming off an injury which happened at the county championships. She still pulled it together and dove well. Carolyn has been an amazing surprise. She was a phenomenal gymnast and awesome addition to the dive team and a lot of fun.
“We are building as a team. We lost a lot to graduation and we just ended up with nice surprise additions this year.”
One of those additions was Hathaway, whose high school career is off to a great start.
“I don’t put too much pressure on myself,” she said. “I just want to improve and keep getting better at my own dives.”
