Ella Bernegger, senior diver at Woodland, has been diving for the past seven years. Bernegger had lettered in swimming and diving her Freshman year when she came in second place in her league meet. She also had competed in states her Freshman year, a quite monumental feat for such a young diver.
During her sophomore year, she was predicted to take the crown for her league meet and be a challenging competitor in states. Unfortunately, COVID-19 cut her season short as the league was shut down just a day before the big meet. Bernegger, disappointed about her sophomore season being cut short, hit the ground running her junior year.
She not only won the league crown, but she missed first place at states by just a half a point. Even though she didn’t get first in states, Bernegger broke two school records: six-dive during the regular season and eleven-dive during the postseason which had stood for over ten years and also competed in state opens that year.
During her senior year, she defended her league title, competed at state-opens, and broke her six-dive record from her junior year. Bernegger also has two all-state plaques hanging up in the athletic hallway and was “Athlete of the Week” in a 2021 Republican-American newspaper edition. Bernegger also earned “Most Valuable Athlete” award from the Girl’s Swim and Dive Team.
Bernegger was able to achieve these amazing accomplishments by practicing with her club team, Elite Diving. While diving with Elite Diving, she went to Florida to compete in the USA Diving Eastern Regional Championships. Not only does Benegger dive with Elite Diving and Woodland, but she also started up a diving team for Long River Middle School, composed of eight boys and girls.
“I’m so proud of how far they have come,” Bernegger said, “they show up and work hard everyday.”
Bernegger earned a score of 227.65 points, breaking the previous record of 225.65 by two points. This was very significant to the school as a whole considering that there are only two diving records currently held by previous Woodland students. Bernegger also smashed the previous record for the diving eleven dives which had been held for eleven years. She earned a score of 419.20 points, crushing the previous record’s score of 381.15.
This season, she did it again! On October 18, 2022, she broke the record she set the year prior, increasing her score from 227.65 to 229.60. During her senior season, she defended her league title, remaining the reigning champion while diving in the NVLs.
“If you fall off the board, get back on right away. Just like in life, if you wait to do something that scares you, you’ll develop a crippling fear.”
