Oxford, Ohio – Max Flory (Fairfax, Va./Dominion Dive Club) qualified in a second event for this summer’s FINA World Junior Diving Championships after winning synchronized platform with Jordan Rzepka (Solon, Ohio/Ohio State Diving Club) on Thursday at USA Diving’s Junior World Championships Trials. Maria Coburn (Round Rock, Texas/Longhorn Aquatics) and Bridget O’Neil (Southlake, Texas/GC Diving) also made the team after winning synchronized 3-meter.
The trials run through April 22 and will determine the team that represents the United States at the 2018 FINA World Junior Championships in Kiev, Ukraine, from July 23-29.
Flory and Rzepka totaled 580.80 points on two lists of synchronized platform dives to qualify for the team in that event. The duo led by less than 10 points after the preliminaries but improved their score on their final list to take first by nearly 50 points over Max Weinrich (Brookeville, Md./Montgomery Dive Club) and Tyler Downs (Ballwin, Mo./Ripfest), who scored 530.82 points on their two lists.
“I’m happy to get to do both synchro events at Junior Worlds, and I’m going to try to qualify in the individual events later this week. Jordan and I had a really good meet for our first time competing together. It was fun,” said Flory, who won the 3-meter synchro event with Jack Matthews (Powell, Ohio/Ohio State Diving Club) on Wednesday.
Coburn and O’Neil finished with 558.09 on their two synchronized 3-meter lists to edge Hailey Hernandez (Southlake, Texas/GC Diving) and Emily Grund (Keller, Texas/GC Diving) by 20.19 points for the spot by on the team. Coburn dove with two partners and also finished third with Anne Fowler (Burke, Va./Alexandria Dive Team).
Coburn and O’Neil led by less than seven points after prelims, but scored more than 60 points on each of their three optionals in the finals to increase their lead.
“This was my first time doing synchro with Maria, and it was really fun. We put a good list together. I think we work really well together, and I’m excited for what’s next,” O’Neil said.
Individual events begin Friday with girls on 1-meter and boys on 3-meter. Competition starts at 9 a.m.
