Members of Seneca Valley's boys diving team do not have to look far for top-caliber competition.

In fact, they receive it every day in practice.

SV has qualified the maximum of four divers for Saturday's WPIAL Class 3A boys championship meet and all of them are seeded in a medal position (top eight).

Sophomore Isaiah Clerkley, ranked second with a score of 276.35, leads the pack, followed by senior Sam Skeen (4th, 264.95) and juniors Sam Hersick (5th, 255.65) and Jeremiah Laslavic (7th, 246.80).

North Allegheny's Will Schenk (289.60) is the top seed entering the district championship meet, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at NA's pool.

"We're pretty excited where we are seeded coming into this meet and are looking forward to a podium with SV divers," said SV coach Nancy Laslavic.

Skeen will be making his third appearance at WPIALs. He placed 21st as a freshman and 16th as a sophomore.

"I had a lot of trouble with mental blocks and that made it difficult to perform my most difficult dives," he said. "But this year, it dissolved and I've been able to just go out and compete.

"Our guys are confident and we push each other. It's awesome," said Skeen, who aims to make the most of his last trip to the district meet.

"You can't fixate on the meet as a whole," he said. "I plan to take it one dive at a time."

In regular-season meets, competitors perform six dives. For those good enough to make the championship meet's final round, they will perform 11 dives.

Skeen said SV's team offers a strong support system that fosters success.

"It's the environment. We have great coaches (including assistant Mike Caccamo) and the divers are a tight-knit group."

SV's Ashley Felitsky enters the girls championship meet after a superb performance to end the regular season.

Against visiting Butler last Wednesday, she tallied a score of 294.20, breaking the school and pool records in the process. The effort has her ranked second in the WPIAL behind Latrobe's Hannah Polosky (324.60) entering Saturday's Class 3A event at North Allegheny.

Felitsky had already broken the pool record at West Allegheny in mid-December.

"My season started strong and it just got stronger," said Felitsky. "I'm excited and think I have a good chance to place in the top five. That would get me to states."

She would have competed at states last year after placing fourth at WPIALs, but COVID-related restrictions allowed only district champions to move on to the PIAA event.

Before taking up diving as a freshman, Felitsky was a gymnast.

"I had some old habits that I had to break, but once I got into diving, I've never wanted to give it up," she said.

She first competed at WPIALs as a sophomore and finished in 10th place.

Outside of meets and practices for SV's high school team, Felitsky trains at Westminster College and Clarion University.

"I've been competing or practicing seven days a week for most of the season," said Felitsky, whose prior experience at districts should work in her favor in Saturday's meet, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

"I have confidence in myself and no matter which dive I perform, I know I've done it a million times before."

Also competing in the 3A girls event will be Mars' Emily Mueller (seeded 6th), Kirsten Maybach (10th) and Seneca Valley's Madison Monahan (9th) and Chloe Petersen (16th).

Class 2A

As a two-time defending WPIAL champion, North Catholic's Maggie Foley is a heavy favorite in Friday's girls championship event, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at North Allegheny.

Her season-best score of 303 has her ranked No. 1 and is nearly 70 points better than No. 2, Quaker Valley freshman Ruby Olliffe.

"I'm not thinking about where we are (ranked) before the meet," said Foley. "Anything is possible. Each judge is different and they see different things in a dive."

Foley said she wants to at least match, if not improve, on her previous WPIAL meet scores. If she's able to do that, she'll give herself a great chance to be crowned district champion for a third time. She won as a freshman with a score of 440.45 and claimed last year's title with an effort of 441.05.

"Last year, I dropped an inward double somersault from my list of dives," said Foley. "In practice, I just wasn't able to get off the board the way I needed to. But I wanted to increase my degree of difficulty this season, so I brought it back and it's gone well for me."

After two years of diving, Foley seemed to have hit a wall in eighth grade.

"That was the same year I began training at Pitt with Coach Katie Kasprzak," Foley said. "I was struggling and told her that I wasn't improving and I thought I needed to find another sport.

"She said: "Trust me, just stick with it.'"

"My mom taped most of my practices and competitions and within a couple of months, I could see a big difference. Since then, my focus has been how can I continue to get better."

Juliet Hood will also be competing for North Catholic and is seeded 11th.

In the Class 2A boys meet, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday, Mars' Kellen Fletcher and Kevin Butler are seeded fifth and eighth, respectively.