Tamaqua diver Mia Jones, and Northwestern Lehigh swimmer Aiden Braadt, both made their first trips to the PIAA Class 2A Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University on Wednesday.

Jones was coming off a championship in the Schuylkill League and a silver medal in districts, while Braadt won gold at the District 11 meet in the 200-yard IM.

Jones turned in a score of 156.70 in the new six-dive format which was instituted this season as a pilot program geared toward making the sport more accessible for less experienced divers.

Jones’ score placed her 24th in the competition. The girls’ 2A diving competition was won by Bethlehem Catholic’s Anna Petke, who also took gold at the District 11 meet.

“It could have been better, but my dives were what they were supposed to be,” said Jones of the experience. “Most of the other competitors were doing higher degree of difficulty dives, and mine were all lower degrees of difficulty, so I wasn’t able to score as many points.”

The state competition not only ended Jones’ high school diving career, but her diving career in general. Her love of diving came just four years ago as an offshoot of her first love – dance.

“I’ve been dancing since I was just a year or two old and could do the flips and everything on the ground and my mom, who is the swimming coach, asked me if I wanted to try diving,” said Jones. “It was a fun four years, and I really enjoyed competing, but this was the end of my competitive diving.”

While Jones’ diving career is now over, Braadt is only a sophomore and will have two more shots at reaching states.

In his first trip to states, Braadt turned in a time of 2:09.35 in the 200-IM, finishing 30th in the event.

“I didn’t have a very good swim, in fact, I added three seconds to my time from districts,” said Braadt. “It was a little disappointing, but it was a good experience.”

In the next two seasons, Braadt is confident that he can return to states in both years. Because Northwestern does not have a swimming team, the sophomore trains with the Parkland Aquatic Club, and can swim at Allen High School home meets to set times to qualify for districts and states.

“It wasn’t as loud as districts, but there were a lot of kids there, and that surprised me a little. I wasn’t expecting that many swimmers. It was really packed,” said Braadt. “I think next time it will be a little easier because I will be more familiar with everything, and have a better idea of what to expect.”

Braadt’s performance at districts was impressive in that not only did he have to battle Pen Argyl’s Jake Hauff for the top spot, he edged Hauff by .11 to take gold.

That slim margin of victory was the difference between a trip to states and staying home, as Hauff’s time was just off the qualifying times from across the state.