‘Truly heartbreaking’: Maisey O’Donnell, state champion diver for Concord-Carlisle, among students killed in Florida crash - The Boston Globe (2025)

O’Donnell dazzled them by hardly making a splash. She showed them how to be quiet and kind, how to lift the newcomers and celebrate her fellow competitors. She was a two-time state champion and straight-A student who never let anyone know it.

Diving, as an amateur sports community, is small. O’Donnell was one the brightest stars in Massachusetts.

“She was,” Chirico said, “the model that every coach would want for their program.”

O’Donnell, 18, died Tuesday from injuries suffered in a Monday night crash in the Florida panhandle. The wreck also killed two of her Concord-Carlisle senior classmates, Jimmy McIntosh and Hannah Wasserman, both of whom died at the scene.

A fourth student remained in critical condition as of Tuesday evening. The Florida Highway Patrol was investigating the crash as of Wednesday afternoon.

O’Donnell was a high-honors student, an All-American, and a two-time state champion. She was unbeaten in her junior and senior years, and was a two-time MIAA North sectional and Division 1 champion. When the Globe’s All-Scholastic teams are published in early May, she will be honored as Girls Diver of the Year for the second time.

Coaches and administrators who watched O’Donnell recognized her love of the sport, her willingness to help less experienced divers, and her intense focus.

“She really had it together, and diving is a sport that’s so mental. They’re doing 11 dives, and sometimes there’s as much as a half-hour between dives in the early going, as they’re narrowing the field,” said Pete Foley, a longtime Weston swimming and diving coach, athletic director, and MIAA official. “She always came ready to compete.”

O’Donnell was always sharp, Foley said, particularly if she was adding a new dive to her repertoire.

“She was also resilient. If she was off a little bit or missed a dive, she was capable of putting it right behind her and moving to the next one,” he said. “That’s a skill not everyone has. That was a separator for her.”

As a sophomore at the state meet, she flubbed a major part of her routine and lost by 2 points. As a junior, she won by 2 points. At the state meet at Boston University last month, she scored 457.6 points, 45 ahead of second place.

“For a swimmer,” Chirico noted, “that would be like lapping the field. She probably could have sat down on her last dive and said, ‘I’m done. Try and catch up.’ ”

Chirico, a diving coach for more than 45 years, is a judge for NCAA meets. He said O’Donnell, who planned to attend Williams, was one of the best divers in the country and would have been a star in college.

“She was already at the Division 3 national level,” Chirico said. “I’m pretty sure she would have made the NCAA nationals [as a freshman]. She wouldn’t have been far away from making the finals.”

Williams is a swim and dive power. The Ephs’ women finished sixth at the NCAA’s Division 3 national championships in March, and have won 21 of the last 24 NESCAC titles.

There are some 60 men’s and women’s swimmers on a college team, with a handful of those spots reserved for divers. A selective school like Williams is looking for the ideal mix of academic and athletic prowess.

Williams coach Steve Kuster said O’Donnell — “an outstanding diver, a committed student, and most importantly, a truly wonderful person” — had precisely the right attributes.

“We were incredibly fortunate to get to know her through the recruiting process and were so excited about the energy, talent, and character she was going to bring to our team this fall,” Kuster said. “It is truly heartbreaking and our hearts go out to her family, friends, teammates, and all who loved her.”

As she competed the last five years for Boston Area Diving, one of New England’s premier clubs, O’Donnell and her teammates traveled across the country for meets and spent countless hours in and around the pool.

Liv Davidson, who teamed with O’Donnell in synchronized diving at AAU Nationals two summers ago, said O’Donnell showed up with “infectious positivity.”

“I was always amazed that at every competition, she would become friends with divers from across the country and gave them words of encouragement and kindness, even as she was competing against them,” Davidson said. “Her personality was like sunshine.”

Chirico called the loss “heartbreaking, tragic, and senseless.”

“The little kids looked up to her not only because she was good, but she was kind,” Chirico said. “A lot of people who reach the higher levels are not like that. They’re focused on themselves, and she wasn’t.

“We’re a family. Our diving family was hit hard. I’ve heard from parents that some of the kids cried all day yesterday about it.

“We will all miss her terribly and will never forget her.”

Matt Porter can be reached at matthew.porter@globe.com. Follow him @mattyports.