USA Diving Winter National Championships Into Semifinals of Men’s Three-Meter, Women’s 10-Meter

COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 5. OLYMPIANS Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) and Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) topped the field in the men's 3-meter and women's 10-meter semifinals Thursday, giving them the advantage heading into Saturday's finals at the USA Diving Winter National Championships and World Cup trials as scores will carry over.

Ishimatsu will take a 15-point lead into the finals, scoring 337.75 points in the semis. Ohio State's Katie Bell (Columbus, Ohio) stands in second with 322.75, less than a point ahead of Amy Korthauer (Naperville, Ill.). Ishimatsu was in fourth place after the fourth round but scored 86.40 points – including a 10 from one judge – on her back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists in the final round to take the lead. Bell's best score came in the third round, when she scored 72 points on an inward 3 ½ tuck.

Colwill scored 504.40 points to lead the men's 3-meter semifinal field. He scored no lower than 75 points on each of his six dives, capped by a 94.50-point effort on his reverse 3 ½ in the final round to take a 12.45-point lead into Saturday's final. Seventeen-year-old Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif.) finished with 491.95 points, scoring more than 90 points on two of his dives. David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) debuted his front 4 ½ (3.8 DD), and finished third with 473.00 points, and veteran Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.), a 29-time national champion and 2009 World Championships silver medalist on 3-meter, is in fourth at 449.55.

The cumulative scores from the semifinals and finals will determine both the national champion and rosters for the 2010 World Cup and AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix teams. The top two finishers (who also meet minimum degree of difficulty requirements) will be named to the World Cup team and the top four (again, pending DD requirements) to the Grand Prix team.

The USA Diving Winter National Championships and World Cup trials continue through February 8. Friday's competition features quarterfinals and semifinals in women's 3-meter and men's 10-meter.

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