THORNTON | Near misses in the past drove Hailey McDonald on a quest for a different result in her senior year on the diving board.
McDonald — a Vista PEAK Prep student who competes for the Rangeview team — had come close, but hadn’t quite been able to break through into the field of the Class 5A state meet until her last season this season.
Not only did she become one of 47 state qualifiers, but McDonald was the lone Aurora area qualifier to make it into the group of 20 finalists by the time eight rounds had been completed Thursday morning at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center. She scored 411.65 points to finish in 13th place to get the Raiders on the state scoreboard for the first time since 2019.
“This is my first year at state and it was my last year to make it,” McDonald said. “I actually was not expecting to make it this far, so I’m proud of how far I came. …Last year, I was a point off (making state) and this year I was in the finals. I am beyond happy.”
McDonald had built a strong resume in her prep career and as a senior, she won her fourth consecutive Aurora Public Schools Championship title on the board and followed that with the City “A” League championship to cap the regular season.
At the state meet, she ended up outlasting the other six Aurora area qualifiers (Addison Campbell and Baylei Polk of Grandview, Lyla Bailey of Smoky Hill, Lily Grigorian of Eaglecrest and Bailey Engel and Simone Lore of Regis Jesuit). Bailey, a sophomore, and Engle, a senior, were eliminated after the semifinals, but McDonald comfortably moved into the finals.
McDonald finished the first five dives in 18th, moved up to 15th place after the semifinals and climbed two more spots in her final three dives to finish in 13th place, coincidentally the same place earned by her coach Sarah Mortensen when she dove for Rangeview at the 2019 5A state meet.
“I think she got a little bit more dedicated this year,” Mortensen said of McDonald. “The really difficult dives started to come a lot easier for her. Everything started to go over, so it was like ‘OK, now you can work on bigger dives now that you’re getting more rotation and your spin is getting better, so we can concentrate on higher DD dives. She was really motivated.”
McDonald (whose 411.65 bettered her previous season best of 405.55 from the league meet) gave Mortensen a ton of credit for her progression and she hopes that she will have the opportunity to dive somewhere in college. Mortensen said she had some coaching contacts with local schools that might help make that happen.
“I love diving and I don’t want to stop,” McDonald said.
Engel and Bailey — who both appeared in their first state meets as well — were among the four divers who fell short of the cut after the semifinals.
Engel’s total of 285.70 after eight dives left her in 23rd place, just 2.20 points behind Denver East’s Alona Heiman, who earned the last finals spot. Engle had hoped to add points for Regis Jesuit, which graduated divers who finished second (Maya Kriz) and third (Sarah Mann) in last season’s competition.
Bailey excelled in the preliminaries as she earned a score of 199.30 through five dives that had her in ninth place. She dropped to 24th after the semifinals, however, with a total score of 284.80 points to finish just below Engel in 24th place.
In a tight competition, the divers that failed to make the initial cut included Campbell, who had placed in the top 11 at the state meet in her previous three varsity seasons and came in off winning the Centennial “A” League championship a week earlier.
Campbell was on track to make the finals until her final dive, when a score of 14 ended up costing her as she missed the cut by just 2.6 points. With a score of 183.30, that put Campbell two places past the cut and one place in front of her was teammate Polk, who scored 185.45 to finish just 0.45 behind Greeley West’s Hope Kayl, who got the last qualifying spot.
Campbell — a University of Northern Colorado signee — finished the season with the third-highest score of the season in 5A of 525.30, which she earned to win the league title.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2025 CLASS 5A GIRLS 1-METER DIVING
Feb. 6 at Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center
Final scores (11 dives): 1. Sydney Ovesen (Fossil Ridge), 527.10 points; 2. Elise Koehler (Northfield), 493.05; 3. Ruthie Spiegel (Cherry Creek), 472.60; 4. Cayla Jaffe (Heritage), 468.30; 5. Lyra Moran (Chatfield), 463.65; 6. Samantha Zahkem (Columbine), 459.40; 7. Layla Petz (Arvada West), 459.25; 8. Madina Schebler (Valor Christian), 444.65; 9. Sophia Hineline (Ralston Valley), 443.75; 10. Hope Kayl (Greeley West), 432.20; 11. Sammie Andress (Legend), 430.80; 12. Danika Warren (Pine Creek), 429.30; 13. HAILEY MCDONALD (RANGEVIEW), 411.65; 14. Delaney Price (Cherry Creek), 407.90; 15. Ellie Jane Vander Vliet (Rocky Mountain), 405.80; 16. Alona Heiman (Denver East), 401.15; 17. Kendall Kelley (Legend), 400.65; 18. Arianna Wiser (Brighton), 394.30; 19. Alyssa Alberts (Arvada West), 388.80; 20. Kara Sundbye (Ralston Valley), 387.95
Other Aurora results: 23. Bailey Engel (Regis Jesuit), 285.70 (8 dives); 24. Lyla Bailey (Smoky Hill), 284.80 (8 dives); 25. Baylei Polk (Grandview), 185.45 (5 dives); 26. Addison Campbell (Grandview), 183.30 (5 dives); 43. Simone Lore (Regis Jesuit), 150.70 (5 dives); 46. Lily Grigorian (Eaglecrest), 147.85 (5 dives)
