Six more qualify for World Championships as trials come to a close

2012 Olympic gold medalist David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) easily qualified on men’s 10-meter, with Harrison Jones (Spring, Texas) earning the second spot to add to his schedule in Barcelona after already qualifying on 1-meter. 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) and Michael Hixon (Amherst, Mass.) came through with the win in men’s synchronized 3-meter, while Murphy Bromberg (Bexley, Ohio) and Cheyenne Cousineau (Temperance, Mich.) earned the women’s synchronized 10-meter berth. Maren Taylor (Arlington, Va.) rounds out the team after qualifying in women’s 3-meter.

Boudia cruised to the victory on 10-meter, scoring 1586.55 points over three lists of dives to win the event by 273.95 points. He scored more than 92 points on five of his six dives in Monday’s final, including an inward 3 ½ tuck that earned six 10s for 96 points. His only dive that didn’t score more than 90 points was his back 3 ½ pike that still went for 7s and 8s for 79.20 points.

“It’s sort of a blessing and a curse to have a perfectionist attitude where a missed back pummels the whole list, but there’s goods and bads, and I’ll take it for today. I’m excited to go Barcelona,” Boudia said.

David Bonuchi (Columbia, Mo.), who qualified in men’s synchronized 10-meter on Sunday, finished second with 1312.60 points but didn’t meet the degree of difficulty requirement, so the second spot went to Jones, who was third on 10-meter with 1287.85 points after placing third on 3-meter and second on 1-meter earlier in the trials.

“After a long week, it was pretty rough going, but I made it. I was pretty happy about a couple of my dives, but there are a couple that need some work. Everything was right there, so I can just tweak it up and get ready for Barcelona,” Jones said.

Boudia nearly qualified on a second event, with the men’s synchronized 3-meter final going down to the wire. Heading into the final, Dumais and Hixon held a 4.68-point lead over Boudia and Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif.), and the contest stayed close throughout.  With one dive to go, the lead was cut to 3.72 and both teams were to perform the same dive, a front 2 ½ pike with 2 twists. Boudia and Ipsen dove first, earning 90.78 points to put the pressure on Dumais and Hixon, who countered with 94.86 points to earn the world berth.

“We’re going up against a bronze medalist and a gold medalist, so we knew it was going to be a good contest. A five-point lead isn’t very much and going into the last dive, I knew we were only up by three. The way they did their double out, I knew we’d have to do ours as well as we did. It feels great,” Hixon said.

Dumais also had the challenge of having to compete twice, as he was also diving with his brother Dwight (that pair finished third in the standings).

“I knew it was going to be close, but I didn’t know how close it was. I was just trying to get my breath between diving with two partners. I know how to do my dives, and I just needed to do that for 40 minutes. That was my goal and I did that,” Dumais said.

Cousineau had been battling an injury in the weeks leading up to the trials. She and Bromberg were to have competed together at FINA Grand Prix meets in Canada and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the past two weeks but a strained abdomen kept her from competing. She was good to go for the Trials though, and she and Bromberg paired up for 595.23 points over two lists to qualify in women’s synchronized 10-meter.

“It means a lot. I knew Murphy and I had good shot. We really enjoy diving with each other, and it’s all about having fun. We know what we’re capable of, so we just remind each other of that. I knew that this was the meet that mattered, so even if (the injury) was still hurting, I was going to deal with it,” Cousineau said.

Taylor earned her world berth after finishing second with 905.50 points in the women’s 3-meter contest. Deidre Freeman (Grinnell, Iowa) won the event with 916.80 points but didn’t meet the degree of difficulty requirements, and a second diver was not selected. In order to make the team, divers needed to score 903 points over three lists of dives. Taylor was 38.2 points off the pace after the semifinals but scored 341.70 points in the finals to surpass the required score.

“I really didn’t think it was going to be possible, so I told myself I was just going to have fun and use this as a practice meet. I guess that’s a mindset that works for me,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t believe it. I saw my coach (Matt Scoggin) and he was jumping up and down, so I knew I made it, but I was in shock.”

The diving events at the World Championships will be held July 20-28.