Kyle Maziarz is going for the gold .... and then some.

The North Catholic senior diver and Cranberry Township resident is ranked first among WPIAL Class 2A boys entering the district championship meet Friday at South Park High School.

Maziarz is no stranger to major success. He won the WPIAL championship two years ago and is the two-time defending state champion.

At last year's district meet, his score broke the WPIAL record, but was bested by Beaver's Andrew Cestra, whose 522.20 earned the crown.

Cestra graduated last spring.

“That number has been in my head for the last year,” said Maziarz of Cestra's standard. “I want the record. I want to leave a legacy.”

To that end, Maziarz has been working on a very difficult dive, a reverse two and a half somersault.

“To get the record, I can't take it easy with my dives,” he said.

Maziarz, whose season-best score of 308 came last week against Knoch, counts Quaker Valley junior Simon Iwanonkiw as one of his top competitors. The latter placed seventh last year and is seeded fourth entering Friday's meet. Elizabeth Forward's Gavin Guern and Derry's Cameron Washburn are ranked second and third, respectively.

Maziarz has competed in just three meets this season, winning all of them.

“I was able to compete a lot more the last two years, but this season, our schedule was mostly against our section opponents and a lot of them don't have diving boards at their pool. I haven't been able to showcase myself and because of that, I still feel like the underdog.”

That mentality could very well work in Maziarz's favor. As he put it, “I don't want to go in too confident.”

Also competing in the Class 2A boys event will be a trio from Knoch — Kevin Golden, Justin Walls and Aaron Butler — and Mars' Kevin Butler.

Girls

Getting back to states wasn't necessarily a priority for Knoch's Aryanna Napora.

The senior reached the PIAA meet as a freshman and sophomore after placing sixth and fourth, respectively, at WPIALs.

Last year, she placed eighth at districts and found herself on the outside looking in when states rolled around.

“I was planning on diving this year, but wasn't sure exactly how much I was going to put into it,” said Napora, who is ranked sixth in the district with a score of 216.35. “Then my coach (Ken Bedford) convinced me I could get back to states. That's been my goal the last few months.”

Beginning last year, Napora began suffering bouts of vertigo, brought on by migraine headaches.

“I can't do everything I want to in practice, but I try to get in as much as I can,” she said. “Dealing with it, a lot of it comes down to planning how much I can get done in one day.”

“She just needs to stay consistent, that's the key,” said Bedford of Napora's final trip to WPIALs. “We can't fix the vertigo, but we've been able to deal with it.”

Though she hopes Friday's meet is not her last, Napora is going in with an open mind.

“I'm going in to have fun,” she said. “I'm going to compete and see what happens. There's a lot of very talented divers this year.”

North Catholic freshman Maggie Foley is in that group. She enters the meet with the third-best score in the WPIAL, a 248.25.

A hip injury threatened to derail her freshman campaign on the board.

“It was my right hip and I hurt it (in cheerleading) last fall,” said Foley. “I was out for about three and a half months. When I came back to dive, I felt on edge at first. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I felt really confident.”

Foley began diving three years ago when she joined the University of Pittsburgh's club team.

“Physically, I was ok,” she said. “But mentally, I had to get over some things, like head-first dives and just the thought of catapulting myself through the air and into the water. That was tough at first, but now it's not a problem at all.”

Joining Napora and Foley in the Class 2A girls competition will be Knoch's Krystle Ekas.

The top six scorers in the girls' meet, and top seven boys, will qualify for the PIAA meet, to be held next month at Bucknell University.