Spots on the U.S. team for the FINA World Championships are on the line this week at the USA Diving Senior National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana this week. The synchronized events have come early in the week with six pairs qualifying to represent the U.S. in Changwon (KOR) later this year:
● Men/Synchro 3 m: Andrew Capobianco/Michael Hixon
● Men/Synchro 10 m: Steele Johnson/Ben Bramley
● Women/Synchro 3 m: Alison Gibson/Krysta Palmer
● Women/Synchro 10 m: Samantha Bromberg/Katrina Young
● Mixed/Synchro 3 m: Briadam Herrera/Lauren Reedy
● Mixed/Synchro 10 m: Zach Cooper/Olivia Rosendahl
Only two of these events were close: Gibson and Palmer won the women’s 3 m by 5.43 points over Sarah Bacon and Kristen Hayden, and the Mixed 3 m came down to the final dives between Herrera and Reedy and Tyler Downs and Maria Coburn.
Downs and Coburn entered the final round with a 10.23-point advantage, but their dive had a modest degree of difficulty, a major multiplier of the dive score. When Herrera and Reedy hit their final dive, the higher difficulty propelled into a national championship.
In the men’s 10 m Synchro, the national title went to David Dinsmore and Brandon Loschiavo, but the World Championships berth will be taken by Steele Johnson and Ben Bramley. While the national championship is determined in the finals only, the Worlds selection was based on the combined scores from the prelims and the final added together. That made the different for Johnson and Bramley, with Johnson a returning Olympic silver medalist in the event after diving with David Boudia in 2017.
Johnson’s performance was quite impressive, coming off of foot surgery. “My only goal was to put on the best showing I can, because I’ve only been doing my competitive list for two weeks now and Ben and I have only been training together for two weeks. It’s hard to have high expectations when you’ve been out of the sport for 11 months now.
“I came in here with the mindset that I’m just going to do the dives as best I can and hope Ben does the best he can and we’ll see where we land. Fortunately that landed us on the World Championships team, and I am ecstatic to be going back to Worlds and I’m ecstatic to be diving with Ben.”
The remaining finals schedule:
● 22 May: Men’s and women’s 1 m Springboard
● 25 May: Men’s 3 m Springboard and women’s 10 m Platform
● 26 May: Men’s 10 m Platform and women’s 3 m Springboard
The favorites to make the team for the 2019 Worlds. There’s a good chance it will be one of the divers who has already won a U.S. nationals or Olympic Trials or World Championships Trials over the past three years; these are the past champions who are expected to compete in Indianapolis:
● Briadam Herrera ~ 2018 Men’s 1 m
● Michael Hixon ~ 2018 Men’s 3 m, 2017 World Champs Trials 3 m
● David Dinsmore ~ 2018 Men’s 10 m, 2017 World Champs Trials 10 m
● Jordan Windle ~ 2017 Men’s 10 m
● Grayson Campbell ~ 2017 Men’s 1 m
● Zach Cooper ~ 2016 Men’s 10 m
● Nathaniel Hernandez ~ 2016 Men’s 1 m
● Andrew Capobianco ~ 2016 Men’s 3 m
● David Boudia ~ 2016 Olympic Trials Men’s 10 m
● Alison Gibson ~ 2018 Women’s 1 m, 2017 Women’s 1 m
● Krysta Palmer ~ 2018 Women’s 3 m
● Maria Coburn ~ 2017 Women’s 3 m, 2016 Women’s 3 m, 2016 Women’s 1 m
● Olivia Rosendahl ~ 2017 Women’s 10 m, 2016 Women’s 10 m
● Jessica Parratto ~ 2016 Olympic Trials 10 m, 2017 World Champs Trials 10 m
● Brooke Schultz ~ 2017 World Champs Trials 3 m
Boudia, now 30, has been quiet since the Rio Games, but is entered in the 3 m Springboard and intends to try for the 2020 Tokyo team. He’s won more than a dozen national titles as an individual diver and many more in synchronized events.
NBCSN has coverage on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, then switching to NBC at 2 p.m. Eastern. Summaries so far:
USA Diving Senior National Championships
Indianapolis, Indiana (USA) ~ 19-26 May 2019
(Full results here)
Men
Synchro 3 m: 1. Andrew Capobianco/Michael Hixon, 423.96; 2. Jacob Cornish/Tyler Downs, 344.82; 3. Jacob Fielding/Lyle Yost, 334.05; 4. Ethan Foster/Luke Foster, 283.38 (only finalists).
Synchro 10 m: 1. David Dinsmore/Brandon Loschiavo, 414.39; 2. Benjamin Bramley/Steele Johnson, 404.91; 3. Jordan Windle/Brandon Loschiavo, 369.57; 4. Maxwell Flory/Zach Cooper, 363.06; 5. Jordan Rzepka/Tyler Downs, 348.54 (only finalists).
Women
Synchro 3 m: 1. Alison Gibson/Krysta Palmer, 292.23; 2. Sarah Bacon/Kristen Hayden, 286.80; 3. Samantha Bromberg/Brooke Schultz, 272.70; 4. Emily Grund/Hailey Hernandez, 272.22; 5. Carolina Sculti/Daria Lenz, 269.79; 6. Grace Walker/Margo O’Meara, 229.35; 7. Lauren Chennault/Abigail Egolf-Jensen, 210.63; 8. Ruth McCranie/Lily Witte, 201.48.
Synchro 10 m: 1. Samantha Bromberg/Katrina Young, 294.42; 2. Daryn Wright/Amy Magana, 281.40; 3. Jessica Parratto/Delaney Schnell, 280.38 (only finalists).
Mixed
Synchro 3 m: 1. Briadam Herrera/Lauren Reedy, 291.81; 2. Tyler Downs/Maria Coburn, 289.08; 3. Noah Duperre/Bridget O’Neal, 280.05; 4. Meghan Obrien/Jacob Cornish, 278.40; 5. Connor Watling/Joslyn Oakley, 216.30.
Synchro 10 m: 1. Zach Cooper/Olivia Rosendahl, 268.80; 2. Quinn Henninger/Isabel Gregersen, 249.03; 3. Maxwell Weinrich/Sophia McAfee, 242.46 (only finalists).
