When it comes to the artistic sports, it's hard to dethrone the champ.

Cherry Hill West High School senior Liza Marianni said she knew as much when she arrived at The College of New Jersey for the girls' diving state championship meet Tuesday, before she and Cherokee senior Natalie Thomas pitched their airborne battle.

In the end, Thomas dove well enough to defend the state title she won convincingly a year ago, but it was never easy.

"I was a little off. I didn't quite feel like myself tonight," Thomas said. "I just tried to stay focused and work through it. I was happy with the way I finished. My last dive was one of my best."

Thomas' final dive, a front two-somersault in the pike position, earned sevens and eights from the judges, pushing her score to 418.95.

Marianni, the 2003 state champion, was second at 399.85. She said she's been diving better since accepting a scholarship to the University of Connecticut about a month ago.

"I feel like I'm back to where I was sophomore year," she said. "Last year was really not great for me, but I feel great about how I dove today."

After a couple rounds of the 11-round competition, the meet clearly was a three-girl race between Thomas, Marianni and Hopewell Valley's Karen Upperco.

Thomas had a narrow lead after five dives, when the field was cut down from 22 to 20. Upperco was second and Marianni third, about 15 points back.

In the sixth round, Marianni nailed her reverse to jump into second place and shorten her gap on Thomas, but by the next cutdown, after eight dives, the Cherokee senior was back up by a little over 13.

Upperco was a close third, and a three-diver race for fourth was starting to heat up between Triton's Danielle Trinkner, Notre Dame's Charlotte Jennings and Atlantic City's Julie Brinberg.

The field was trimmed to 16 divers for the final three rounds, and again, Marianni threw down the gauntlet, this time nailing her twisting front double for sevens and eights.

In the ninth round, both Thomas and Marianni left the door open on their reverse one-and-a-halves, boiling down the meet to the final dive, which happened to be a front double-somersault for both top divers.

They both finished strong, but Marianni's scores were in the six-seven range, while Thomas' were closer to eights, cementing her victory.

"I knew it was going to be the last dive of my high school career, so I wanted a good one," Thomas said. "It wasn't my best day, but it ended well."

Upperco finished third with a score of 363.10, while Brinberg pulled out fourth with 297.20, edging out Trinkner by just 1.85 points.

Over their entwined and storied high school careers, Thomas edged Marianni two state championships to one, but the latter was able to hold her head up high Tuesday night, knowing she'd done enough to prove herself.

"I knew I was going to get second tonight no matter how well I dove," she said. "I knew Natalie would dive well. I'm glad I dove well, too."