February 22, 2008

Loukas places third in women's 3-meter prelims; Boudia and Finchum take sixth in 10-meter synchro final

BEIJING – Christina Loukas (Riverwoods, Ill.) was one of two divers to score more than 60 points on each of her five dives to place third in the women’s 3-meter preliminaries Friday at the Good Luck Beijing/FINA Diving World Cup.

Loukas finished with 327.45 points, highlighted by a 73.50 effort on her reverse 2 ½. China took the top two spots, with Wu Minxia winning at 366.00 points and Guo Jingjing taking second with 328.60.

Cassidy Krug (Coraopolis, Pa.) was also slated to compete women’s 3-meter for the U.S., but an injury kept her out of the competition. Kelci Bryant (Chatham, Ill.), who was already scheduled to dive in the women’s synchronized 3-meter contest on Sunday, replaced Krug in the individual competition and scored 291.30 points for 11 th in the prelims.

Loukas and Bryant will compete in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday (9 p.m. EST Friday).

In other action Friday, David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) and Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis) scored 430.62 points for sixth place in the men’s synchronized 10-meter finals. It was an uncharacteristic finish for the pair, who medaled in eight of nine meets in 2007. The team was in second place after four dives, but Boudia had some problems on his entries in the last two rounds.

China’s Lin Yue and Huo Liang won the gold with 482.46 points, and Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Sacha Klein scored 466.74 for silver. Blake Aldridge and Thomas Daley of Great Britain claimed the bronze with 446.07 points.

Boudia and Finchum will dive again Saturday in the individual 10-meter preliminaries. Top 18 finishes would qualify the U.S. for spots at the 2008 Olympic Games.