Central Catholic diver Nick Crouse needs to be looking over his shoulder, because his friend and training partner, Salisbury's Dennis Bonner, is quickly making up ground in their annual battles at the District 11 Diving Championships.

In each of the past three seasons, Crouse has gotten the better of Bonner, although both have qualified for states. The result wasn't any different this year, but Bonner has cut Crouse's winning margin from a high of 125.35 points in 2012 to just 13.7 points in their most recent battle.

Bonner will make his third trip to states and will look to at least match his eighth-place finish from last season. It really is remarkable that the two have dominated the District 11 Class AA diving event the past three seasons and that both have a shot at going to states all four years in high school.

While Bonner was disappointed, he wasn't as upset as he might have been had anybody other than Crouse been the one to capture gold.

"I definitely could have done better, but Nick and I are really close, so I'm happy for him," said Bonner. "It's really hard and I constantly have to remind myself to not focus on scores between me and him. I definitely gave it 100 percent and thought I had a really good shot."

Early in the meet, Bonner got off to a good start and took an early lead after notching a 46.50 on his second dive. Crouse scored a 50.40 on his fourth dive to cut into Bonner's lead and was able to catch him in the fifth round and held on through the remaining six dives for his third straight gold medal.

It looked like Bonner was going to catch Crouse when he led off the 10th round with a 58.50, but Crouse, who dove right after Bonner, nailed his dive and scored a 59.20, which seemingly put the gold medal around Crouse's neck.

Two other Salisbury divers, Daniel Bujcs and Tyler Keller competed in the event, finishing third and fourth, respectively.

The district's top two divers qualify for the PIAA Championships, which will be held next month at Bucknell University.

The top two Class AA qualifiers on the girls side were Central Catholic's Nicole Sagl and Southern Lehigh's Erin Donnelly, who edged out teammate Emily Marshall by just three points for the final spot in states.

While Bonner was disappointed, he is looking ahead to states and will spend the two weeks that he has working on his dives that he'll perform at Bucknell.

"I feel confident and I'm definitely hoping to place in the top eight again and maybe a little better," said Bonner of his chances.