Chris Colwill Leads Team USA at AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, May 13. LED by a gold medal from 2008 Olympian Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla./Athens, Ga.) on 3-meter, Team USA closed out the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix with three more medals Sunday and seven total for the meet. Other medalists for the U.S. were Kelci Bryant (Chatham, Ill./Minneapolis, Minn.) and Abby Johnston (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Durham, N.C.) with a silver in synchronized 3-meter and Ryan Hawkins (Charlotte, N.C./Blacksburg, Va.) and Logan Shinholser (Burtonsville, Md./Blacksburg, Va.) with a bronze in synchronized 10-meter.

Colwill edged China's Li Shixin by .35 of a point, claiming gold with 475.30 points after taking the lead on his final dive, a reverse 3 ? tuck that earned 91 points. The gold was Colwill's first international victory in the individual 3-meter event.

“My last dive is my favorite, and I have a lot of confidence in that dive. That's why I save it for last,” Colwill said.

Colwill's list of dives also included the difficult front 4 ? tuck that carries a 3.8 degree of difficulty, and he scored 79.80 points on the dive. He didn't perform the dive in the preliminaries or semifinals. He was hoping to do the dive earlier in the week, but when the weather forecast resulted in a schedule change, his plans changed as well.

“I originally planned to try to the dive in the semifinals, but when the schedule changed I didn't have enough time to prepare for it, so my strategy changed,” Colwill said. “I really wanted to do it in the finals, and I'm happy with how it went.”

In synchronized 3-meter, Bryant and Johnston scored 302.10 points to finish second behind China's Wang Han and Qulin Zheng, who topped the leaderboard with 309.90 points. Australia's Sharleen Stratton and Annabelle Smith were third at 301.20, and USA's Christina Loukas (Riverwoods, Ill.) and Kassidy Cook (The Woodlands, Texas) were fourth at 294.48.

“I'm pleased to be on the medal stand, but there are still some things we need to clean up. There's room for improvement, but this is a big confidence boost for our last meet before Olympic Trials,” Johnston said.

Hawkins and Shinholser, who made their international debut in Canada a week ago, improved their score from the Canada Cup by 30 points to finish third with 379.53 points. China's Huo Liang and Aisen Chen paired for 442.29 points for gold, while Mexico's Ivan Garcia and German Sanchez were second with 439.32 points.

“This meet was a thousand times better (than Canada). We were a little nervous there. We did our required dives about the same, but the difference here was that we didn't miss our back and inward dives. We each missed one of those dives last week,” Hawkins said. “Our goal here was to get 380 points, and we just missed that, but we can't be mad. Overall, I'm happy with how we did.”

Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) was the top U.S. finisher in women's 10-meter, scoring 347.50 points to place fourth. Brittany Viola (Orlando, Fla.) was sixth at 265.20. China's Yajie Si and Liu Huixia were first and second.

AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix Results
May 13, 2012

Synchronized Men Platform (Final)
1. HUO Liang, China / AISEN Chen, China, 442.29;2. Ivan GARCIA, Mexico / Saul SANCHEZ S., Mexico, 439.32;3. Ryan HAWKINS, United States / Logan SHINHOLSER,, 379.53;4. Steele JOHNSON, United States / Dashiell ENOS, United States, 366.12;

Synchronized Women 3-meter Springboard (Final)
1. HAN Wang, China / QULIN Zheng, China, 309.90;2. Kelci BRYANT, United States / Abby JOHNSTON, United States, 302.10;3. Anabelle SMITH, Australia / Sharleen STRATTON, Australia, 301.20;4. Christina LOUKAS, United States / Kassidy COOK,, 294.48;5. Cheong JUN HOONG, Malaysia / Pandelela RINONG, Malaysia, 283.80;

Men 3-meter Springboard (Final)
1. Christopher COLWILL, United States, 475.30;2. SHIXIN Li, China, 474.95;3. Alejandro Daniel ISLAS ARROYO, Mexico, 445.50;4. Huang QIANG, Malaysia, 444.25;5. Reuben ROSS, Canada, 436.50;6. Ethan WARREN, Australia, 401.60

Women Platform (Final)
1. YAJIE Si, China, 417.40;2. LIU Huixia, China, 372.45;3. Brittany BROBEN, Australia, 360.40;4. Haley ISHIMATSU, United States, 347.50;5. Melissa WU, Australia, 327.50;6. Brittany VIOLA, United States, 265.20.

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