13-year-old ElliReese Niday won the women’s 10-meter diving event during a competition this week in Alabama, becoming one of the youngest national champions in the history of the sport.
Niday, from Moultrie, Georgia, finished with 721.40 points, besting Texas sophomore Bayleigh Cranford — who is six years older — by 10 points. She's the youngest to win a senior national diving championship in an individual event since 2016, when Hailey Hernandez — who went on to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — nabbed the 3-meter title at age 13.
“It doesn’t feel real. I just tried to stay focused on my own dives and celebrate after,” Niday told USADiving on Thursday, May 15.