Eight U.S. Divers Qualify for Finals on Day One of American Cup
Ella Roselli
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Eight U.S. divers – four men’s 3-meter and four women’s 10-meter – advanced to the finals as the 2026 American Cup kicked off Thursday.
Jack Ryan placed first in the men’s 3-meter preliminaries, with Max Flory taking the second spot. Bayleigh Cranford topped the women’s 10-meter preliminary standings, and Ella Roselli finished second. All four divers earned direct qualification into the finals.
Luke Sitz and Quinn Henninger also qualified for the men’s 3-meter final after placing in the top four in the repechage later in the day, and Evelyn Wang and Sophie McAfee advanced out of the women’s 10-meter repechage.
The top eight divers, with a maximum of two per country, advance from the preliminary directly to the final. Places nine through 20 – including any divers in the top eight who finish behind two others from the same federation – dive again in the repechage, with the top four earning a spot in the final.
After having to dive in the repechage at the Canada Cup last week, Flory wanted to avoid a repeat in Fort Lauderdale. He led heading into the last round of the prelims in Canada, but he scored just 29.25 points on his front 2 ½ with 3 twists and dropped to 10th place to push him into the repechage. At the American Cup, he came through with 74.10 points on the same dive to advance directly to the finals with 419.05 points for second place in the prelims.
“Last week, in the prelims at the Canada Cup, I did five good dives, and I was in the lead, and then I totally missed my last dive, and ended up having to do the repechage. So I started to get a little nervous for that, because I was in kind of the same position,” Flory said. “So I tried to just take a minute. Instead of just trying not to mess up, I was like, I'm gonna go for it and just try to do a great job here.”
Ryan led the 3-meter field with 428.70 points and finished strong with 85.50 points on his final dive – a front 4 ½ tuck. He’s hoping to stay consistent with a similar performance in the final.
“I just want to do it again. I'd be happy, I think, with that list. Maybe a couple small corrections on some of the first three dives, but I just want to repeat it, do exactly what I did, do it again,” Ryan said.
Sitz, who finished eighth in the preliminaries came back to win the repechage with 414.75 points. Henninger qualified third out of the repechage with 386.30 points after placing 16th in the preliminaries.
Joshua Sollenberger placed 24th with 297.20 points in the prelminaries, and Nathaniel Grannis finished 25th with 274.95 points.
Cranford led the women’s 10-meter preliminary field with 315.90 points, highlighted by a 72.60-point back 3 ½ tuck. Roselli finished second with 311.10 points, including 67.20 on each of her last two dives.
“It was a very solid performance by all the U.S. girls. It went very fast, so there wasn’t a lot of time to think, but I also think having so many U.S. divers in the event helped. I’d hear scores, and I’d be fired up. It was really exciting,” Cranford said.
McAfee, who finished third with 296.20 points in the prelims, had to dive again in the repechage, where she qualified for the final in third place at 276.45.
Wang tied for first in the repechage with 283.10 points after finishing 12th in the preliminary. Zara Ayazi scored 240.20 for sixth place in the repechage to finish 14th overall.
The American Cup runs through Sunday. Friday’s competition includes preliminaries and repechage rounds for women’s 3-meter and men’s 10-meter along with the mixed 3-meter and 10-meter team event final.
