SAN JUAN – Samantha Pickens (Murrysville, Pa.\/Tucson, Ariz.) won the bronze medal in the women\u2019s 3-meter individual final Saturday at the FINA Puerto Rico Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Pickens finished with 290.70 points in a close 3-meter contest in which just 1.70 points separated third from fifth. Japan\u2019s Minami Itahashi took the gold with 297.60 points, and Brazil\u2019s Juliana Veloso was second with 293.70 points.<\/p>\n
Pickens was in fourth place with one round to go and jumped into the third spot after closing out her list with 58.50 points on a front 2 \u00bd with one twist. Her best score came in round three when she earned 63 points on her back 2 \u00bd pike, and she added 61.50 points on her fourth-round reverse 2 \u00bd pike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt pretty good. I didn\u2019t really have a good warmup, so it felt good to go to out there and do the things my coach was trying to tell me to do and hit my dives. It\u2019s been a fun week,\u201d Pickens said.<\/p>\n
Deidre Freeman (Grinnell, Iowa\/Iowa City, Iowa) scored 277.10 points for sixth. She was in first place after round three but then scored just 34.10 points on a front 3 \u00bd pike in round four to drop out of the medal hunt. She had performed a front 2 \u00bd pike in her preliminary and semifinal lists before attempting the 3 \u00bd in the finals.<\/p>\n
Also on Saturday, Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind.\/Bloomington, Ind.) and Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H.\/Bloomington, Ind.) finished fourth in the women\u2019s synchronized 10-meter final. They scored 270.18 points, including 65.28 points on their back 2 \u00bd with 1 \u00bd twists in the last round.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just tried to be consistent. We have a lot of work to do for Worlds coming up this summer, but I think we\u2019re in a good place right now. We know what we need to focus on to get better, so it\u2019s just up from here,\u201d Parratto said.<\/p>\n
Before coming to Puerto Rico, Parratto and Cozad won the 10-meter synchro title at last week\u2019s USA Diving Synchronized National Championships to earn the opportunity to compete on the event at this summer\u2019s World Championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing is our synchro was pretty good today. I think we\u2019re both mentally and physically a bit tired from last weekend,\u201d Cozad said.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Ji Siyu and Ding Yaying won the gold with 307.50 points, with Brazil\u2019s Giovanna Pedroso and Ingrid Oliveira taking silver with 284.52 points. Mexico rounded out the medalists as Paola Pineda and Carolina Mendoza scored 280.02 points for bronze.<\/p>\n
The Puerto Rico Grand Prix comes to a close Sunday when Freeman and Parratto will represent the U.S. in the women\u2019s synchronized 3-meter final.<\/p>\n
The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworl<\/a>d<\/a>.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SAN JUAN – Samantha Pickens (Murrysville, Pa.\/Tucson, Ariz.) won the bronze medal in the women\u2019s 3-meter individual final Saturday at the FINA Puerto Rico Grand Prix. Pickens finished with 290.70<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[39176,50638,27475,50650,50651,27484,50637,27489],"class_list":["post-132205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diving","tag-amy-cozad","tag-carolina-mendoza","tag-deidre-freeman","tag-giovanna-pedroso","tag-ingrid-oliveira","tag-jessica-parratto","tag-paola-pineda","tag-samantha-pickens"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n