Freedom junior Cody Smith rose to the top of the medals podium after winning the District XI Class 3A boys diving championship on Feb. 22 at Emmaus High School.

“This time, I’m not leaving with a little bit of disappointment,” said Smith, referring to last year’s second-place finish. “I was definitely happy last time, just a little disappointment. This time, I’m happy with the results.”

Smith also won the Dennis McGinley Outstanding Male Diver Award for scoring the most points (470.10) in the district meet.

“I’m proud of, when he first came to us as a diver, he finished 11th in districts, and now he’s first, so, insane growth,” said Freedom diving coach Mark Parry. “The beginning of the meet was a little rocky. I think there were some decisions that didn’t go our way, but that’s the sport, and he was able to bounce back, not let it affect him, and he got the win.”

Smith’s fourth dive received high marks from all but one judge, but Smith’s fifth dive, right before the break, earned sevens.

“The second dive, my back 1 1/2, was one of the better times I’ve done it, and my fifth dive, a reverse 1 1/2 is a dive I’ve had some problems with before, and I did really good today,” Smith said. “None of these dives are brand-new. They’re ones I’ve been working on for at least a decent bit.”

Smith’s final dive was a back 2 1/2 with a 3.0 degree of difficulty, the highest performed by all divers on Saturday.

“It’s kind of reserved only for 11-dive meets to get that extra oomph at the end of a meet. That was probably only the fourth or fifth time he’s competed with it, and it went in as good as it could’ve, so I’ll take it,” said Coach Parry. “I was confident before the meet, and then when we saw some of the decisions at the beginning of the meet, there was a little bit of anxiety going, but once we kind of got through the second round, we knew we had it.”

In fact, Smith’s seventh dive earned high marks with 8-8 1/2.

Parkland’s Brad Kunz placed second (434.50), Emmaus’s Doug Cornish placed third (426.40), and Northampton’s Alex Szeplaki came in fourth (422.15).

Liberty divers Jaxson Dorsey placed seventh (336.60), and Everett Collins placed 10th (252.30), coached by Emily Kocis.

Smith and Kunz will compete at the PIAA Class 3A State Diving Championships next month at Bucknell University.