Each of the last four District 11 diving championships have had Lexi Lehman and Alexa Brinker in the top two spots. Lehman won first in 2017, followed by Brinker in 2018 and then back to Lehman in last year’s event.

Had the pattern continued, Brinker would have garnered another gold medal this season, but it was Lehman who won the event with Brinker coming in second in this year’s district meet, held Saturday at Emmaus High School.

Both divers earned spots in the PIAA championship which takes place at Bucknell University next month.

“It feels great to have the gold medal, but then again, I’m a senior and I’m going to be leaving my team behind and I really wish I could take everyone on my team to states with me,” said Lehman after her victory. “We’re all so close and we all work so hard and we’re doing it together. It doesn’t seem fair.”

Through the first five rounds, it was teammate Kate Gottwald who was in second place and making a run at Lehman in the standings. Brinker was fourth at the time. By the end of the eighth round, Brinker had edged out Gottwald by just under three-points to take second place.

Brinker’s sluggish start is completely understandable when you consider the rough time she had even before she made it to Emmaus High School Saturday.

On the way, Brinker was involved in a car accident and missed much of her warm up time. She also had to go through a concussion protocol prior to being allowed to compete. She has also been competing with a cast on her wrist, although that hasn’t hampered her in competitions.

“It was just a lot of mental stress the whole day, but I felt pretty warmed up and ready to go,” Brinker said. “I got through my whole routine in warm-ups, but I didn’t get to go back over them, which I normally do and that concerned me a little.”

Once she got into her routine, Brinker put together a string of good dives and was able to close in on teammate Lehman and hang onto her second-place spot over Easton’s Olivia Jacobsen, who finished third and was 11 points behind Brinker.

Brinker, a senior who will also be making her fourth trip to states, was emotional not just because of the accident, but was taken by the reaction of her teammates.

“Everyone stopped because they were following behind,” said Brinker, who will be attending Dartmouth and continuing her diving career in college. “Lexi saw me and pulled over to see that I was okay. It was so cool that they stopped to make sure I was okay and I really appreciated that.”

Of her three District 11 gold medals, Lehman has a soft spot for the first one that she picked up back in 2017. She finished fifth at states last season and is hoping for an even higher finish this time around.

“I think the freshman year was the best because I was new to it and I didn’t have a great season to start and I pulled it out,” she said. “I love my hard work paying off.”

Lehman will continue her diving career at James Madison University in Virginia.

“As for states, I really think I have a shot that if everything falls in place, I think I can win,” she said.

Like Lehman, Brinker is looking to improve on her standing last year at states where she finished seventh.

“I’m excited and it’s going to be a good last meet,” said Brinker. “I was so worried that with everything going on this morning that I was going to have to miss it and wouldn’t be able to compete. I’m really happy that I was able to dive today and get back to states. I definitely want to get on the podium again. We’ll see what happens. It’s always tough.”