2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Fourteen 10s awarded in men's 10-meter semis; Loukas maintains lead in women's 3-meter

INDIANAPOLIS – Three divers combined for 14 10s in the men’s 10-meter semifinals Thursday evening at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Diving at the Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI.

David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.), who sits in first place with 1091.90 points heading into Sunday’s finals, scored four 10s on his reverse 3 ½ tuck for 100.30 points – the highest scoring dive of the night.

Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis, Ind.) earned seven 10s throughout the night, including three apiece on his reverse 3 ½ and his back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists. He’s in second place with 1065.25 points, after scoring a personal best 541.30 in the semifinals to cut 22 points off Boudia’s lead.

Drew Livingston (The Woodlands, Texas) added three 10s of his own – two on his front 3 ½ pike and one on his back 3 ½ tuck – to maintain his third-place standing with 987.90 points after a semifinal effort of 521.35 points.

In women’s 3-meter, Christina Loukas (Riverwoods, Ill./ Bloomington, Ind.) used a consistent effort to finish atop the women’s 3-meter standings after preliminary and semifinal competition.

As the only diver to score more than 60 points on all 10 of her dives, Loukas heads into Saturday’s finals with 729.85 points, nearly 50 points ahead of her closest competitor. Her best dive of the day came on her final dive, scoring as high as 9.5 for 79.50 points on her front 2 ½ with a twist. She earned 72 points on five other dives, three in the semifinals and two in the preliminaries.

Nancilea Foster (Conroe, Texas) enters the finals in second place at 681.40 points. She scored 76.50 points on two dives in the semifinals to move up one spot from her third place showing in the preliminaries.

Ariel Rittenhouse (Santa Cruz, Calif./ Indianapolis, Ind.) is in third at 650.30, followed by Allison Brennan (Huntington Beach, Calif./Columbia, S.C.), who enters the finals with 642.10 points after jumping from ninth place in the prelims to fourth after the semifinals.

Scores from the preliminaries and semifinals will carry over into the finals. Only the winner of each event will be nominated to the U.S. Olympic Team. The second individual will be decided at a team selection camp in Knoxville, Tenn., from July 2-6. The top six finishers at the Trials will be invited to the camp.

The Trials run through June 22. Friday’s competition features men’s 3-meter preliminaries at 1 p.m. and men’s 3-meter semifinals and women’s 10-meter semifinals at 7 p.m. Finals for men’s and women’s 3-meter are Saturday, and men’s and women’s platform finals are Sunday.

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