June 10, 2007

MADRID , Spain – In their international debut as a synchro team, Christina Loukas (Riverwoods, Ill.) and Amanda Miller (Centreville, Va.) came through with a silver medal on Sunday, the last day of the FINA Grand Prix Comunidad de Madrid.

Loukas and Miller teamed up for 290.70 points in the women’s 3-meter contest to claim the silver behind China’s Li Ting and He Zi, who scored 308.70 points. The Italian team of Francesca Dallape and Noemi Batki was third at 278.10.

“Christina and Amanda did an awesome job claiming the silver medal. After their voluntaries they were tied for first with Ukraine and kept it rolling throughout the contest,” team leader Dan Laak said. “The missed a little in the fourth round, but came back strong in the final round. On their final dive, they received at least one 9 on their synchro scores.”

David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) and Thomas FInchum (Indianapolis, Ind.) competed in the men’s 10-meter semifinals, but neither advanced to the finals. They each finished fourth in their respective semis, but only the top three in each semi move on. Boudia’s score of 428.90 ended up seventh overall, and Finchum’s 417.500 put him eighth in the finals standings. China’s Yang Liguang ended up with the gold with 514.15 points.

The U.S. concluded the Comunidad de Madrid with five medals. In addition to Sunday’s silver from Loukas and Miller, the U.S. also got silver from Boudia and Finchum in men’s 10-meter synchro and from Mary Beth Dunnichay (Elwood, Ind.) and Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) in women’s 10-meter synchro. Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) and Jevon Tarantino (Boca Raton, Fla.) won bronze in men’s 3-meter synchro, and Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) took bronze in men’s 3-meter.

The success in Spain came after a long week of travel delays that left most of the team stuck in airports all week. Although everyone left on Monday, only Laak and two divers escaped the delays and arrived in Madrid as planned on Tuesday. Most of the team didn’t arrive at their hotel until 1 a.m. Friday, the day the competition started.

“I am very proud of this team. There has been a lot adversity the past several days and everyone dealt with it professionally and gave it their all in the pool.  Now that we all have been here for a couple of days and are used to the time change, I am looking forward to Rome,” Laak said. “Everyone is diving well and is very excited about the way things are going.  Except for David who still hasn't gotten one of his bags.”

The U.S. team now heads to Rome for the Italian Grand Prix, which will be held June 15-17.

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