USA Diving Winter National Championships Come to a Close

IOWA CITY, Iowa, February 7. 2008 Olympian Christina Loukas (Riverwoods, Ill./The Woodlands, Texas) and Cassidy Krug (Coraopolis, Pa./Stanford, Calif.) became the first co-national champions when they tied for the women's 3-meter title Sunday at the USA Diving Winter National Championships.

Other winners on the final day of competition were Olympian David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.), who came out on top in a men's 10-meter final filled with that saw three divers combine for 28 perfect 10s, and Olympian Mary Beth Dunnichay (Elwood, Ind.) and Katie Bell (Columbus, Ohio), who won the women's synchronized 10-meter competition.

Loukas and Krug finished with 339.60 points apiece in the women's 3-meter finals a day after Harrison Jones (Spring, Texas/Los Angeles, Calif.) won the men's 3-meter title by .05 points. Krug was in third place and Loukas in fourth heading into the final round but vaulted to the top spot with strong final dives in the last round.

Both Loukas and Krug finished with a full out, and Loukas averaged 8.5s for 76.50 points and Krug scored 72 points to claim their national titles – the ninth for Loukas and seventh for Krug. Summer Allman (Lansing, Mich.) ended up third with 339.60 points, and Johnston scored 332.25 for fourth.

"I've never seen a tie like this before. I thought synchro was close," said Krug, who edged Loukas and Abby Johnston (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Durham, N.C.) by .21 points to win the synchronized 3-meter title with Kassidy Cook (The Woodlands, Texas) on Tuesday. "I knew I had to hit my last dive, and full out is usually one of my steadiest dives, so I like to leave it for last."

Boudia scored 578.05 points to win his 14th national title, with Nick McCrory (Chapel Hill, N.C./Durham, N.C) finishing second at 545.15 and Olympian Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis, Ind.) taking bronze with 507.00. The three combined to earn 28 perfect 10s from the judges throughout the contest; Finchum received 12 on three dives, Boudia 10 on three dives and McCrory six on two dives.

"This competition was the most exciting nationals I've ever been in, with Thomas, Nick and I going back and forth trading 10s. The crowd really got into it," Boudia said.
Dunnichay and Bell scored 283.20 to win their first national title together, with Kaylea Arnett (Spring, Texas) and Michelle Cabassol (Montgomery, Texas) winning silver at 271.41 and Laura Ryan (Elk River, Minn./Bloomington, Ind.) and Amy Cozad (Decatur, Ind./Bloomington, Ind.) finishing third with 262.41 points.

"We had fun. We haven't trained together that much, but we knew we could do our dives well," Bell said.

In the two individual events, the four divers with the highest cumulative scores from the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals who also meet the degree of difficulty requirements will be named to the AT&T Grand Prix team and go on to phase two of the selection process for the 2011 World Championships team.

The top four based on cumulative scores on 10-meter were Boudia, McCrory, Finchum and Jones. The top four on 3-meter were Loukas, Kelci Bryant (Chatham, Ill./Minneapolis, Minn.), Cook and Johnston.

Bell and Dunnichay along with Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Indianapolis, Ind.) and Anna James (Midland, Texas) will also be eligible to compete in the Grand Prix for synchro. Arnett and Cabassol will have the opportunity to compete in the Canada Cup.
At the conclusion of the championships, team awards were presented to the Florida State University (men's collegiate team award), Indiana University (women's and combined collegiate team award), The Woodlands Diving Academy (women's and combined club team award) and Longhorn Aquatics (men's club team award). Jones and Bryant were the individual high point scorers for the Championships.

USA Diving Winter National Championships
Results – February 6, 2011

Women's 3-meter Final
T1. Cassidy Krug, Stanford Diving, 339.60;T1. Christina Loukas, Woodlands Diving Academy, 339.60;3. Summer Allman, Legacy Diving, 336.90;4. Abby Johnston, Unattached, 332.25;5. Kassidy Cook, Woodlands Diving Academy, 325.90;6. Kelci Bryant, Unattached, 324.75;7. Gracia Leydon-Mahoney, Unattached, 321.35;8. Allison Brennan, South Carolina Divers, 319.15;9. Bianca Alvarez, Ohio State University, 318.60;10. Laura Ryan, Indiana University, 294.75;11. Meili Carpenter, Wings Diving, 292.50;12. Courtney Forcucci, Univ South Carolina, 277.60

Women's Synchronized Platform Final
1. Katherine Bell, Ohio State University/Mary-Beth Dunnichay, Unattached, 283.20;2. Michelle Cabassol, Woodlands Diving Academy/Kaylea Arnett, Woodlands Diving Academy, 271.41;3. Laura Ryan, Indiana University/Amy Cozad, Indiana University, 262.41;4. Anna James, City of Midland/Jessica Parratto, Unattached, 260.34

Men's 10-meter Final
1. David Boudia, Purdue University, 578.05;2. Nick McCrory, Unattached, 545.15;3. Thomas Finchum, Unattached, 507.00;4. Toby Stanley, Unattached, 417.45;5. Harrison Jones, University of Southern California, 415.85;6. Michael Neubacher, Florida State University Diving Team, 401.30;7. Drew Livingston, Unattached, 391.85;8. Danny Cox, Purdue University, 384.20;9. Dante Jones, Unattached, 375.95;10. Steele Johnson, Unattached, 368.30;11. Andrew Cramer, Starz Diving Club, 354.95;12. Dashiell Enos, Unattached, 345.50

Cut after semfinals
13. Zachary Cooper, Unattached, 707.35;14. Landon Marzullo, Florida State University Diving Team, 704.75;15. Michael DellOrco II, Indiana University, 668.20;16. Conor Murphy, Indiana University/Indiana Diving, 663.35;17. Cole Young, McCormick Divers, 625.55;18. Nicholas Klein, Florida State University Diving Team, 560.35

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