Max Flory, 13-Year-Old ElliReese Niday Win Individual Gold at 2025 National Championships

AUBURN, Ala. – Thirteen-year-old ElliReese Niday (Moultrie, Ga./War Eagle Dive Club) became one of the youngest national champions in history when she won the women’s 10-meter title Thursday at the USA Diving National Championships. Max Flory (Fairfax, Va./Miami Diving) won the men’s 3-meter title in a competition he wasn’t sure he’d even be participating in a few weeks ago.

Niday scored 721.40 points on two lists of dives to win her first senior national title by 10 points over Bayliegh Cranford (Jamestown, N.C./Longhorn Aquatics). Ella Roselli (Newport Beach, Calif./Johansen Diving Academy) scored 661.70 points for third.

Niday, who turns 14 in February, was first after Tuesday’s semifinals, when she had three dives score more than 80 points, with her inward 2 ½ pike earning 10s from three judges. Semifinal scores carried over into the finals.

On Thursday, she scored more than 80 points on two of her five dives, including her final dive that clinched the title. Cranford put the pressure on with 82.50 points on her back 3 ½ tuck and 90.10 points on her reverse 3 ½ tuck in the last two rounds.

Niday then finished out the competition with 81.60 points on an armstand double back somersault with 1 ½ twists, edging Cranford by exactly 10 points for her first senior national title.

“It doesn’t feel real. I just tried to stay focused on my own dives and celebrate after,” Niday said.

Niday started off the final with 83.20 points on a back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists and added 72 points on her inward 2 ½ pike.  

Niday was fifth at the 2024 USA Diving Winter National Championships. She’s a seven-time junior national champion and won three gold medals at the 2023 Junior Pan American Championships. She’s the youngest U.S. diver to win a senior national title in an individual event since 2020 Olympian Hailey Hernandez won a 3-meter title as a 13-year-old in 2016.

“It’s really crazy. Maybe one day when I grow up, I’ll make the Olympic team possibly,” Niday said.

Diving runs in the Niday family. Her mother, Lauryn McCalley Niday, won national titles back in 2000 and 2001 as a springboard diver.

In men’s 3-meter, Flory scored 922.00 points over two lists of dives to win his first individual national title. Collier Dyer (Lone Tree, Colo./Unattached), the bronze medalist on 1-meter earlier in the week, finished second with 894.70 points. Jack Ryan (Denver, Colo./Unattached), who earlier won gold in synchronized 3-meter, finished third individually with 878.95 points.

Flory said he was just thrilled to even be able to compete.

“It feels amazing. I’m just happy to even be here. A few weeks ago, I had an accident where I hit the diving board and broke my hand. It didn’t look like I was going to be able to compete for a while, so just being able to come here and dive – I’d already won,” Flory said. “That’s what I really wanted. Being able to come away with a gold medal means so much to me that I was able to overcome that.”

Flory led after Tuesday’s semifinals and held on to the top spot through the first two rounds of Thursday’s final before Dyer briefly took over the lead. Dyer scored 85.75 points on a reverse 3 ½ tuck in round three, putting him five-tenths of a point ahead of Flory at the halfway point. Flory retook the lead with a 72-point back 2 ½ pike in round four and maintained the top spot after round five.

It came down to the final round. Just 1.95 points separated the two, with Flory having the slight lead. Flory and Dyer were both set to perform a front 2 ½ with three twists – the most difficult dive in the competition.

Dyer scored 70.20 points before Flory came through with 95.55 points on the same dive to win the national title.

“I’m just trying to relax, not think about it. Just do it like normal. It’s a great dive for me. I love that dive,” Flory said. “I do it great in practice all the time … just removing myself from the competition, removing myself from the outcome and just letting myself dive like normal.”

The USA Diving National Championships wrap up Friday with women’s 3-meter finals at noon CT, followed by the men’s 10-meter final.