The Emmaus diving program continued its development and placed five divers into the district meet scheduled for this Saturday. The Emmaus divers will enjoy somewhat of a home-pool advantage, with the meet being held at the high school this year.

Anna Overholts took the top finish among the Emmaus girls at the Lehigh Valley Conference Championships this past Saturday. Overholts finished fifth among the girls, while teammate Serena Speer finished 10th. The overall winner on the girls side was Central Catholic's Nicole Sagl.

On the boys side, Matt Bussiere finished seventh, with Parkland's Jacob Lenhart grabbing the overall title.

Emmaus had five divers qualified for the district meet. Joining Overholts, Speer and Bussiere will be freshman Ally Davies and junior Maddie Ordiway.

Among the more impressive performances for Emmaus on Saturday was that of freshman Davies, who needed to learn three new dives and complete them successfully at the LVC meet to qualify for districts. Davies was able to not only complete the dives, but she was able to get them all wrapped up and secure her spot in districts within her first five dives of the day.

"She just learned those three dives over the past week or so and this was the first time she attempted them in a competition, so I think that's a pretty impressive achievement," said first-year diving coach David White. "Ally has been very strong for us all season and she put on a good performance Saturday."

Emmaus will have some experience going into the district meet, with Speer, Overholts and Ordiway all competing in their third district meet.

"Being a senior, I'm kind of expecting that Serena will take the lead and be the morale leader for our divers, but Anna and Maddie both have a lot of experience at that level, so that's a plus," said White.

Last year at districts, Speer finished ninth, Ordiway 11th and Overholts 16th. Bussiere wasn't competing as a diver last season, having just picked up the sport this year. He also competes on the swimming team, having to split his time between the two competitions.

Bussiere's development has been impressive as well, since he doesn't even get to train in diving on a regular basis.

"It's a little tough, because I don't get to have him every day," White said. ""He's got swimming before and after school, so it's just too much to have him diving every day, too. He's shown huge improvements in just the couple weeks that I've had him diving."

With the divers competing in their district meet this weekend, the swimmers take to the pool at Parkland High School the following weekend - March 1-2 - for their district meet. The PIAA swimming and diving meets are scheduled for March 15-16 at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium.