Team USA wins five medals at FINA Diving Grand Prix Canada Cup
by USA Diving
Team USA won five medals at the FINA Grand Prix Canada Cup, highlighted by individual gold medals from Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Unattached/Minneapolis, Minn.) in women’s 3-meter and Joshua Hedberg (Noblesville, Ind./Indiana International School of Diving) in men’s 10-meter. The U.S. also won three medals in synchronized diving events at the Canada Cup, which concluded Sunday in Calgary.
Hedberg scored 477.96 points in the 10-meter final, edging Canadian Rylan Wiens for gold by 5.35 points. In fifth place after two rounds, Hedberg scored 94.05 points on a back 3 ½ somersaults tuck in round three to move into medal contention. He then received six 10s for 102.00 points on his fourth-round reverse 3 ½ somersaults tuck. He clinched the victory with 81 points on his final dive, a back 2 ½ somersaults with 2 ½ twists, to claim his first senior international medal.
Bacon won the women’s 3-meter gold with 359.75 points, 18.5 points ahead of silver medalist Mia Vallee of Canada. Bacon took the lead after her front 3 ½ somersaults pike scored 85.25 points in the fourth round. She finished her list with 72 points on a front 2 ½ somersaults with one twist to maintain the top spot. Lily Witte (Dexter, Mich./Wolverine Diving) also advanced to the 3-meter final and finished fourth with 274.10 points, highlighted by 64.50 points on her front 2 ½ with one twist.
Janie Boyle (Orange, Ohio/University of Texas) paired with Nike Agunbiade (Pacifica, Calif./University of Southern California) for a silver medal with 263.16 points in women’s synchronized 10-meter. In third place heading into the final round, the pair scored 65.28 points on their back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists to move up to second on their last dive. Australians Melissa Wu and Charli Petrov took gold at 292.80.
Boyle was also one of two U.S. divers to advance to the women’s individual 10-meter final. She finished sixth with 232.30 points, while Bailee Sturgill (Hilliard, Ohio/RipFest) scored 292.20 for fourth. Agunbiade also competed individually on 10-meter and finished fifth in her semifinal.
Max Flory (Fairfax, Va./University of Miami) and Zach Cooper (Greenwood, Ind./University of Miami) scored 371.40 points to take home the bronze medal in the men's 10-meter synchronized event. Their two highest-scoring dives came in the last two rounds when they earned 79.92 points on their back 2½ somersaults with 2½ twists and 71.04 points on their front 4½ tuck. Cooper and Flory also competed individually on 10-meter but did not advance to the finals after placing fifth and sixth, respectively, in semifinal competition.
Manuel Borowski (Southlake, Texas/University of Texas) and Max Weinrich (Brookeville, Md./Dominion Dive Club) were the only team in the men’s synchronized 3-meter event and finished with 303.69 points. They also competed in the individual 3-meter event along with Noah Duperre(New Albany, Ohio/University of Texas). Duperre was the top U.S. finisher after placing fourth in his semifinal. Weinrich finished fifth in his semifinal, and Borowski was 11th in the preliminaries.
In women’s synchronized 3-meter, Sturgill and Witte placed sixth overall with 243.75 points.
Four members of the Canada Cup team now shift their focus to the upcoming FINA World Championships. Bacon, Cooper, Flory and Hedberg are among the 16 divers who will represent the United States at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Diving events at the World Championships begin June 26 and run through July 3.