Cooper/Flory finish eighth in synchronized 10-meter at FINA World Championships
by USA Diving
Zach Cooper (Greenwood, Ind./University of Miami) and Max Flory (Fairfax, Va./University of Miami) scored 358.17 points to finish eighth in the men’s synchronized 10-meter final Tuesday at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Cooper and Flory improved their score by nearly 30 points after finishing 10th with 328.38 points in the morning preliminaries. Only one of their four optional dives scored more than 70 points in the prelims, leaving them room for improvement in the final.
After scoring just 81 points on their first two dives in the preliminaries, Cooper and Flory came back with 93 points on those two dives in the final. They also improved their scores on three of their four optional dives, with their inward 3 ½ somersault tuck scoring 70.08 points and their front 4 ½ somersault tuck earning 74.37 points in the final.
China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao led the entire competition and won gold with 467.79 points. Great Britain’s Matthew Lee and Noah Williams scored 427.71 points for silver, and Canadians Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray took bronze with 417.12 points.
Diving events at the FINA World Championships continue through July 3. Flory will dive again Wednesday when he competes with Daryn Wright (Plainfield, Ind./Indiana International School of Diving) in the mixed team event final. Wednesday’s competition also includes Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minneapolis, Minn.) and Brooke Schultz (Fayetteville, Ark./Columbia, S.C) representing the United States in the women’s 1-meter competition and Kristen Hayden (Hillsborough, N.J./Johansen Diving Academy) and Quinn Henninger (Denver, Colo./Johansen Diving Academy) competing in mixed synchronized 3-meter.