Last year, Mia Jones was held out of the competition at the District 11 Class 2A Diving Championships.

This season, Jones pushed herself to make sure she was able to compete.

Needing to be able to execute the required reverse dives if she was going to compete on the district stage, Jones worked hard to add them to her diving repertoire.

Coming off a silver medal at the Schuylkill League Championships, Jones had to settle for a sixth-place finish in a field of eight divers on Saturday in the District 11 Class 2A championships at Emmaus High School natatorium.

“The competition at districts was very different from leagues,” Jones said. “The judges were a lot stricter about what they were looking for, so my scores were lower. I was expecting this, but I let that get to me too much and did not do as well as I was hoping.”

Tamaqua coach Jennifer Paisley said she felt the tougher scoring impacted Jones.

“Dives she was used to getting 6’s and 7’s on all season long, were now 4 1/2 and 5’s,” Paisley said. “I think she let a little bit of self-doubt sneak in, and when you’re a diver you can’t be hesitant, and you can’t hold back on the board.

“You could tell she was rattled and really having a hard time focusing, so she never really settled in.”

Despite the results, Paisley thinks making it to her first district event will be a big help for her junior diver moving forward.

“I think even though she didn’t perform as well as she would have liked, she realized not every day can be your best, and on those days that aren’t, you need to take away a lesson, and I am hoping that’s what happened this year,” Paisley said. “For next year, she knows what to expect coming into the district meet, and will hopefully be more confident in herself.”

Jones finished with a score of 233.85

MEDALISTS ... Alexa Fegley of Moravian Academy captured the gold medal with 404.3 points, Anna Petke of Bethlehem Catholic won the silver with 361.8 points, and Melissa Ellis of Schuylkill Haven won the bronze with 265.3 points.