NEWVILLE, Pa. (WHTM) — The Class 2A District lll diving championships were held at Big Spring High School on Wednesday night and a hometown product took gold.

Big Spring’s Seth Fertig won in the boys competition after taking two years off from competitively diving. The reason behind his return, in his words, simpler than you would imagine.

“Senior year I thought, why not?”

A chance to win at his home pool was special.

“The boards, you’re used to them. You know what they’re like and I just enjoyed the overall experience of this pool,” Fertig said.

West York’s Taelyn Thomas took home the girls district title, marking her second straight championship in this event. Going back to back is nice, but Thomas always aims to improve.

“I’m still competing for me. So I’m kind of trying to do each dive one at a time and just do the best I can no matter what I did last season and just keep improving,” said Thomas.

Thomas placed tenth at states as a sophomore last season, and the junior’s mindset is still the same. Only worry about what she can control, herself.

I don’t want to compare myself to everybody else,” she said “There’s certain dives that I did last year that I definitely want to improve if I’m doing them again this year.”

Fertig and Thomas now head to the state championship at Bucknell University beginning on March 15th.