Fredonia senior Elizabeth Pucci-Schaefer executes a dive that impresses judges at the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association championships. Pucci-Schaefer enters her final state championship meet this Friday at Webster Aquatic Center seeded No. 3.
OBSERVER Photo by Tim Frank
Coming from a family of collegiate athletes, it was expected that Fredonia’s Elizabeth Pucci-Schaefer would follow in the footsteps of her mother and three older sisters to compete beyond the high school level.
However, it was evident from early on that Elizabeth had something special and just a week ago she signed to compete with Penn State University at the NCAA Division I level.
Even with her career mapped out after Fredonia, Pucci-Schaefer still has unfinished business this Friday at Webster Aquatic Center in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Swimming & Diving championships, a journey she started in seventh grade.
“My spot in gym class is right across from the empty spot for a state champion,” Pucci-Schaefer stated. “I feel like that’s for a reason. I feel like it’s time, I’ve qualified six times, been there five times. The competition is going to be hard of course, it’s the state championships, but I feel like I’m ready.”
In her first year of varsity diving for the Hillbillies, then seventh-grader Elizabeth Pucci-Schaefer set the bar high qualifying for the 2019 state championships, setting a great foundation for her career.
Fredonia’s Elizabeth Pucci-Schaefer will compete in her fifth NYSPHSAA Diving Championship on Friday at Webster Aquatic Center.
OBSERVER Photo by Tim Frank
“Well she’s been diving ever since she was a preteen,” Fredonia/Dunkirk/Forestville/Pine Valley/Cassadaga Valley diving coach John Crawford said about Elizabeth’s early impressions. “It’s definitely great when she qualified for the state championships by posting a qualifying score. I knew at that time she was a very good diver and she’s obviously continued to improve tremendously and markedly.”
Since her first trip to states in which she scored 402.65 points for 19th place, she has only climbed higher up onto the podium. Returning from COVID, her freshman year saw a jump to 16th place with 505.20 points, her sophomore year she reached the top 10 with a score of 516.30 for fourth and last year she reached the top three with a score of 488.10, just 0.60 less than second place.
Along the way to states, the four-time Section VI champion Pucci-Schaefer has rewritten the record books including holding the section’s top score of 579.15 to establish herself as one of the best diving products from Western New York.
“She’s been a sectional champion since her freshman year,” Crawford said about Pucci-Schaefer. “Last year, she finished third in the state, she missed second by 0.60 points after 11 dives so this year she should be in contention for the state championship. We don’t know the competition, especially from the other side of the state, and the only thing she can control is what she does. She’s certainly the best diver that’s ever come out of Section VI and Western New York.”
Receiving that kind of praise from Coach Crawford speaks to the quality of an athlete that Pucci-Schaefer is as he coached Fredonia’s last diving state champion. Pucci-Schaefer will look to win Fredonia’s third state title, following in the footsteps of Sarah Schuster who won in both 1977 and 1978 before going on to compete at the University of Miami.
Pucci-Schaefer is the highest seeded of eight Section VI divers, including teammate Leah Marsh and Frewsburg’s Elayna Pitts.
OBSERVER Photo by Tim Frank
“She’s extremely intelligent,” Crawford said about Pucci-Schaefer. “She’s in the top five of her class, I think she ranks third, I’m not sure. She has a tremendous work ethic and she has tremendous support from the family. There are times in the offseason when we’re not competing for high school meets that we are only as a diving club open two days a week using the college facility, so she has traveled to Buffalo to Geneseo to work with other coaches. I think this has only made her better because she’s not listening to one voice, namely me, she’s also listening to other coaches who are adding things to it. She’s also gone to diving camps so she’s gone beyond the call of duty to get better and better and every single year she has gotten better.”
It’s not just the top records in the section, but Elizabeth has made it difficult for any diver to travel to a school she’s competed at and not see her name up on the wall.
“It’s definitely fun to beat my own records,” Pucci-Schaefer stated. “I love talking to different coaches from different schools about it. At Southwestern, they actually just took my name down one year and gave it to me when I broke my record again. It’s really cool to see and really awesome, that’s a great feeling. But honestly right now I don’t feel like a senior, when I walk into places I try to talk to the little seventh-graders because that used to be me and I used to be scared of the seniors.”
Natural talent is necessary to achieve what Pucci-Schaefer has, but it goes beyond that and requires self dedication and the dedication of others.
“Around here we don’t really have a big diving club per se,” Pucci-Schaefer said. “Offseason with Coach Crawford it’s called Buffalo Blizzards so that’s my official club, but we only practice twice a week and I’m going up against girls who quit school to dive. I kind of had to figure out how to work with that so we’ve been going to Buffalo, I travel for camps and clinics, that’s how I got involved with Indiana University originally. So it’s just going to different meets, I’m involved with AAU diving and USA diving and it’s great competition, it definitely gets me ready for the high school season.”
All of Pucci-Schaefer’s hard work and dedication will be put to the final test in her high school career this Friday when state championships begin at 1:30 p.m. Despite both the first- and second-place finishers graduating last year, Pucci-Schaefer comes in as the No. 3 seed at Webster-Schroeder High School.
“I think I’m seeded third right now and I know the girls seeded ahead of me,” Pucci-Schaefer stated. “They’re both super-nice people and divers, but I know diving is an inconsistent sport. The whole goal is to be as consistent as you can, so they could have an off day, I could have an off day, we all could have on days and it’s just up to the judges then at that point. My goal is just to do what I can to reach that goal.”
Just ahead of her is Kaelyn Katchuk of Owego Free Academy with a qualifying score of 612.85 and Madison Morris of Maine-Endwell with a score of 573.75. Pucci-Schaefer’s top score this year is 567.75.
In preparation for this year’s meet, Pucci-Schaefer has intensified her diving program and hopes that attempting the high-quality dives will pay off on the podium.
“For high school season it’s definitely not as much about competition, but more about the dives I want to be throwing,” Pucci-Schaefer stated. “In a list of 11 dives you have five voluntaries, like your easy dives, and six optional, which are your harder dives. This year, I challenged myself throwing the hardest dives I’ve ever thrown and that’s definitely more what I focus on, not the people I’m going against, not as much the score I want to reach. I can’t control the judges, but I can control the dives I do, so consistency and harder dives.”
As Pucci-Schaefer vies for a spot atop the podium, seven other divers from Section VI will be looking to make a name for themselves as the section’s talent has also risen.
“When I used to watch my older sister Victoria dive in Section VI there was one girl who used to go to states every year they didn’t even score in they won sectionals,” Pucci-Schaefer said. “The fact that Section VI is sending seven (other) girls this year is really awesome. We’re all really good friends, we all dive together all the time and I know we were all picking our rooming assignments none of us could really pick because we’re all really good friends. I’m just really excited for everyone who’s coming back and who’s new and I’m excited for us to hangout together.”
Also competing from Section VI are Frontier’s Brylee Weisenburg seeded 34th, Clarence’s Ainslee Graham seeded 32nd, Niagara Falls’ Tori Franke seeded 27th, Fredonia teammate Leah Marsh seeded 25th, Frewsburg’s Elayna Pitts seeded 22nd, Grand Island’s Kayla Rejewski seeded 20th and Lake Shore’s Grace Desing seeded 10th.
“Leah is a nice story too,” Coach Crawford stated. “She didn’t start diving until her freshman year and to go to the states sophomore, junior and senior year is real credit to her work ethic. She’s probably dove less, in terms of the amount of time, than most of the kids she’s going to compete with at states. There’s been a long friendship with Elayna Pitts at Frewsburg and Elayna’s got a younger sister, Anelia, who is going to be a very, very good diver. All these kids have kind of grown up together and supported one another. Elayna also is going to states for the second time in two years, so I think it’s been a nice support group.”
The only thing Pucci-Schaefer can control is what she does, but no matter the result she will be closing the page on one of the finest careers in Section VI diving history.
“I think she’s a class act,” Crawford stated. “It’s been my privilege and my blessing to coach her over the last few years. After my wife passed away it’s been a blessing to coach all these kids, they infect you with their enthusiasm and they keep the old man out.”