Niwot’s Izzy Fay didn’t fall into the trap of complacency following her gold-medal performance at last year’s Class 4A state swim and dive meet. She built on it.

The California State University, Bakersfield commit broke her school record and won her second straight state title this winter, repeating as the Longmont Times-Call swimmer and diver of the year.

“I wanted to beat myself from last year,” Fay said. “I wanted to dive better and get a better score. And I just wanted to have fun.”

Check, check — and check.

The 17-year-old set her school’s all-time mark with an 11-dive score of 543.60 at the Granite Peaks League championship earlier this month. Then a week later, she put up the highest state score among all classifications for a second straight year at Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center, finishing with a score of 529.50.

It trumped both 4A runner-up Reagan Annable (525.35) of Windsor and 5A winner Sydney Ovesen (527.10) of Fossil Ridge.

“We knew how talented she was right off the bat when she came in as a freshman,” her diving coach Erin Lionberger reflected this week.

Lionberger went on to explain that while she and St. Vrain Valley School District head diving coach Shawn Gregg saw her star potential immediately, it was just a matter of when Fay would believe it herself.

“And once she found her footing and believed in herself the way Shawn and I believed in her,” Lionberger added, “you can see what happened.”

Fay’s background isn’t necessarily unique among the diving community. Like many who’ve become elite in the sport, she started as a gymnast before hitting the water.

Diving, of course, is easier on the joints, which is something that catered to Fay, who dealt with some injuries on the gymnastics mat.

But the transition wasn’t seamless. Fay admits that her passion for diving as a freshman is not what it is now. Her state title as a junior was an “eye-opener,” she said. That was the moment she began to envision a long future for herself in the sport.

“I had been doing it for fun, then I won,” she said. “And I was like, ‘OK, maybe I can get somewhere with this.’”

Fay joined the Fort Collins Dive Club in September, where she competed under Colorado State University diving coach Chris Bergere. Then a month later, she committed to CSU Bakersfield.

To end her high school career, she won the St. Vrain All-District meet, her league championship and the 4A state crown in a span of three weeks. At state, she helped introduce three new Niwot divers to the sport’s biggest platform. All four of them — Fay (first), Genevieve Saunders (ninth), Thalia Milam (10th) and Sienna Wood (12th) — finished in the top 12.

“Izzy is such a great person. So kind and cool, and she’s such a great leader for the other divers in our program at St. Vrain,” Lionberger said. “She’s been a huge role model, and not only in the pool. We’re really going to miss her in that role.”