High school diving: Avon Lake's Bella Pfeil wins district title; four others from Lorain County also make it to state

This story has been edited to reflect Bella Pfeil's grade. She is a junior. Bella Pfeil didn't let the pressure tie her up in knots ... or nots. Having made it to state last year in diving, the Avon Lake junior knew not making it back was not an option. Not to worry. Not only is Pfeil going back to state, she's going as a district champion. Pfeil won the Northwest Ohio Division I girls district diving title at Bowling Green State University on Tuesday with a career-best score of 442.90. She led the 11-round competition from the third round on, outdistancing Anthony Wayne's Holli Tork (419.80) and North Olmsted's Elisabeth Davis (417.55). Avon sophomore Elly Huron also qualified to state, finishing sixth (378.40) out of the eight qualifiers. "I definitely felt more pressure going into districts this year since I already made it (to state before)," Pfeil said. "I just tried to focus on each dive one at a time and only worried about myself and my dives. I can't control what other people do and how the judges score. I just focused on myself and hoped it was enough to win. "I've worked really hard this year. It felt very good to see all my hard work pay off. I'm excited to see how I do at the state meet." Pfeil is the first Lorain County athlete to win a district diving title since 2011 when Avon Lake's Morgan Srail won in Division I and Elyria Catholic's MacKenzie Tweardy won in Division II. Last year, Pfeil finished fourth at the BGSU district and went on to earn All-Ohio honors (top 16) with a 16th-place finish at state. "Bella had an excellent meet," Avon Lake dive coach Tim Croy said. "She didn't let the pressure of finals affect her. Bella started putting in work right after the state meet ended last year with the goal of being district champ. "Today she opened with three very good dives. Once she hit the back twister in round No. 5 she really got rolling and extended her lead through the semis (the first eight dives). Her last dive (back somersault with 2.5 twists) was the highest scoring dive of the entire meet." Three Lorain County athletes made state on the boys side. Avon Lake sophomore Jake Gilbride (398.00) was fourth, Avon junior Grant Higgins (392.90) was fifth and Avon senior Ryan Flaherty (368.20) was seventh out of the seven state qualifiers. Gilbride and Higgins also made state last year. "I feel very good about my performance," said Gilbride, a transfer from St, Ignatius. "I'm most pleased that I didn't have dives that I was really mad about. There was definitely some pressure. Since I made it last year, why shouldn't I make it this year?" Owen Recker (540.05) and Trevor Madigan (479.00) of Perrysburg took the top two spots. The Division I boys state diving meet is Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. and the girls state meet is Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. Both are at Canton McKinley's Branin Natatorium. Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.