EMMAUS - One competitor was putting a cap on his high school career while two others were building a foundation for future scholastic success.

Their performances produced three Tamaqua medals at Saturday's District 11 Class AA Diving Championships at Emmaus High School.In the boys competition, senior Thorn Devlin took third place with a final score of 378.3 while freshman Billy Shilko finished fourth at 311.75. On the girls side, junior Emma Rago placed third with a score of 242.05.BOYS"I was kind of hoping to do a little better on some of my dives," said Devlin. "But I nailed some of them and had some scores I was really looking for.It's a good way to end the year, with a third [place]."Devlin has earned district medals three straight years and was hoping for for a top-two finish this year, which would have earned him a berth into the state championship meet.He trailed Salisbury's Daniel Bujcs for second place by just six points (180.45-174.0) after five dives, but the Falcon increased his lead and was ahead by over 15 points heading into their final three dives."It's kind of frustrating," said Devlin. "But you have to keep a positive attitude and just try to do well on the rest of the dives."After all 11 dives, Salisbury's Tyler Keller won the event with a score of 417.55, while Bujcs earned second place at 392.85.Devlin was making his third straight appearance at districts. He improved on his performance every year. He finished fifth with 254 points as a sophomore and took fourth with 337 as a junior.Shilko, who was making his first appearance at districts, was pleased to earn a place on the medal stand as the top four in each class earn medals."If I would have started out better I probably would have had a higher place," he said. "I wanted to better my score from leagues (360)."Shilko, who just took up diving this year, enjoyed the atmosphere of his first district meet and knows the experience will benefit him over the next three years."This is the biggest [meet] I've been to so far," he said. "I'm extremely excited just to make it to districts. I think I'm going to be really comfortable coming in [next year] and it's going to help a lot."GIRLSRago, who qualified for districts a year ago and finished fourth, came into Saturday's competition with realistic goals."I wanted to improve on my finish from last year, which meant I had to beat (Blue Mountain's) Emma Barrett," said Rago. "She beat me at the Schuylkill League championships and we have a friendly rivalry between us."I knew the top two girls were probably out of my range, so I went in with a goal of third place. It feels great to accomplish that."Rago trailed Barrett at the breaks after both the fifth and eighth dives, but finished strong, nailing her final two dives to pass Barrett and capture the bronze medal.Southern Lehigh's Erin Donnelly placed first with a score of 377.8 for her 11 dives. Moravian Academy's Annie Karras was second with a score of 267.75."I'm pretty happy with my performance," said Rago. "There are always some dives you feel you could have done better, but on the whole, I thought it went pretty well."I've only been diving since my freshman year so I feel like I still have lots of room to grow and improve in the sport. I did better than last year and my goal is to be even better next year."ONE MORE RAIDER ... In addtion to Devlin and Shilko, Tamaqua's Billy Frederick also took part in the boys AA diving competition. He finished in seventh place with a score of 231.3.FALCONS FLOURISH - Salisbury not only had the top two divers in this year's boys Class AA competition, but they also went 1-2-3 last year with then-senior Denny Bonner taking first place, followed by Keller and Bujcs.BIG SCHOOL RESULTS - In Class AAA, the Parkland girls took the top two spots and four of the top five, led by champion Kelsey German with 420.05. Nazareth's Steve Stassola took first place in the Boys Class AAA with a final score of 462.5.Emmett McCall also contributed to this article.