THORNTON – With all eyes on her, Discovery Canyon’s Victoria Sanders couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pressure. When she wasn’t on the diving taking aim at defending her Class 3A diving championship, she tried to detach from everyone else and just stay focused on the task at hand.
 
And with Holy Family sophomore Mary Kate Cavanaugh again putting together her own solid performance, Sanders was right to try and not pay attention.
 
The approach paid off as she totaled a 3A record score of 513.25 to win her second straight diving title.
 
“Defending the title was definitely the most nerve-racking part,” Sanders said. “After winning last year, I felt a lot of pressure. I just thought now I have to do it again.”
 
Given last year’s result, it would’ve made sense for Sanders to set a goal of setting a state record but given her development over the last year she felt that the result would take care of itself, and the final number could come naturally.
 
“I’ve grown a lot since last year,” Sanders said. “I wasn’t too worried about the score, it was about doing my best and proving that what I’ve been doing my entire season (has been working). I’ve made lots of (personal records) the entire season.”
 
Cavanaugh took noticeable lead after the 10^th dive dialing up as much pressure on Sanders as she could. But the senior didn’t flinch. Her 10^th dive scored 58.75 giving her clear control heading into each girls’ final attempted. Following Cavanaugh’s final attempt, Sanders needed a score of 41.65 to retain her title and she pulled her final attempt off with ease, registering a 59.80 to secure the championship.
 
“It was really exciting,” Cavanaugh said. “It was a little disappointing at the end, but I’m happy for Victoria because she’s a senior. She did really well and she deserves that gold medal. But today was really exciting and really fun. I’ll just keep working hard, keep training hard and hopefully it’ll pay off.”
 
The added bonus of this year’s adjust format, with diving finals taking place before the start of swim finals, is that Sanders have her team a head start in the team title race.
 
The Thunder have 15 positions in final swims as it looks to claim its first team swimming and diving championship. Normally, the 200-yard medley relay kicks off the event, but Sanders is happy to know that her diving effort has the Thunder ahead.
 
“They’ve been doing so well,” Sanders said. “Everyone on our team qualified for finals yesterday so I’m excited to see how they push themselves and how we come out as a team.”
 
The Thunder finished sixth as a team at last year’s state meet and if they could battle their way to a team title, it would be the first team to hold off Evergreen since 2017, the first year that the 3A classification was added to girls swimming.
 
While the rest of the team sets out to accomplish that goal, Sanders will relax a bit knowing that she has contributed everything she can. She’s excited to just cheer on her friends for the rest of the day.
 
“I had a good time yesterday watching them,” she said. “Today was my stressful day but now I get to relax and I’m happy with how it went.”
 
With a state championship and Diver of the Year honor, it’s hard to be any happier with the result.