The girls’ swim team, after its final practice before Eastern Connecticut Conference Diving Championships last Saturday, got to East Lyme to watch the nail-biting diving competition. Junior diver Sophia Podeszwa has a reputation in excellence in gymnastics and began diving freshman year. She has competed at the ECC championships all three years and has qualified for states every year. Last year, Podeszwa earned the bronze medal for third place at ECCs and 16th at the state championships.

This year, however, Podeszwa was yearning for the gold medal.

Podeszwa stated, “ I was pretty confident before the meet.  I was down by a lot in the first half, but I  still knew I could come back and win.”

Before the break in the middle of the competition, Podeszwa trailed by leading diver by 10 points. Her teammates gathered around her and gave her words of encouragement. When the second half began, Podeszwa was still behind the leading scorer Jocelyn McNally from Norwich Free Academy. McNally turn was before Podeszwa, creating a bigger jump between herself in first place and Podeszwa in second.

Podeszwa’s next three dives, which were higher in difficulty, earned scores of 7.0 , putting Podeszwa in first place.

By the final round of diving that afternoon, Podeszwa’s teammates knew she had gotten the gold. Celebratory cheers were heard throughout the East Lyme pool, echoing off the walls as Podeszwa stood upon the first block the announcer told spectators that she earned the gold medal.

Podeszwa’s win added 20 points to the teams score on Saturday at the swimming championships as well, which helped the team earn third place in the ECCs. Podeszwa will be going to states later this month.