INDIANAPOLIS – National titles and spots on the World Championships team were determined in women’s 3-meter synchro and men’s 10-meter synchro Tuesday at the USA Diving Senior National Championships. Alison Gibson (Austin, Texas) and Krysta Palmer (Carson City, Nev./Reno, Nev.) won the women’s 3-meter synchro title and earned a spot on the World Championships team. Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./West Lafayette, Ind.) and David Dinsmore (New Albany, Ohio/Miami, Fla.) won men’s 10-meter synchro, although Olympic silver medalist Steele Johnson (Carmel, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) and Ben Bramley (Wellesley, Mass./West Lafayette, Ind.) qualified for the World Championships team. National titles are determined by scores in the finals, while World Championships qualification is based on cumulative scoring.
Loschiavo and Dinsmore scored 414.39 points in the final to win the 10-meter synchro national title, with Johnson and Bramley finishing second at 404.91. Loschiavo also competed with Jordan Windle (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Austin, Texas) and placed third with 369.57 points.
Johnson and Bramley also finished second in the morning preliminaries, when they were less than a point behind Loschiavo and Windle. Bramley and Johnson’s combined score of 800.49 points over two lists earned them the spot on the World Championships team, edging out Dinsmore and Loschiavo by 8.22 points.
Johnson only recently returned to the pool after recovering from foot surgery and said he had no expectations coming in the meet.
“My only goal was to put on the best showing I can, because I’ve only been doing my competitive list for two weeks now and Ben and I have only been training together for two weeks. It’s hard to have high expectations when you’ve been out of the sport for 11 months now,” said Johnson, who won Olympic silver in 10-meter synchro with David Boudia in 2016. “I came in here with the mindset that I’m just going to do the dives as best I can and hope Ben does the best he can and we’ll see where we land. Fortunately that landed us on the World Championships team, and I am ecstatic to be going back to Worlds and I’m ecstatic to be diving with Ben.”
Palmer and Gibson scored 292.23 points in the women’s 3-meter synchro final to pick up their first national title together. Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minneapolis, Minn.) and Kristen Hayden (Hillsborough, N.J./Minneapolis, Minn.) were second at 286.80, and Brooke Schultz (Fayetteville, Ark.) and Samantha Bromberg (Bexley, Ohio/Austin, Texas) took third with 272.70 points.
Palmer and Gibson combined for 573.36 points on their two lists to qualify for the World Championships. They were second, 5.97 points behind Schultz and Bromberg, in the preliminary.
“I think for us (after prelims), it was no pressure. We had nothing to lose at that point. Going into finals, it was just having a positive attitude and knowing that we can make a comeback and trust each other. We did that,” Palmer said.
In the final, they scored 67.50 points on a front 2 ½ with 1 twist, then followed with 66.03 points on a front 3 ½ pike and closed with 65.70 points on a back 2 ½ pike.
“We’ve worked really hard, and it’s really cool to get to this level and dive really well. We know what we can do and how good we are,” Gibson said. “We do these dives every day. It was just having confidence and knowing that anything is possible.”
The USA Diving Senior National Championships continue through May 26. Wednesday’s competition features preliminaries and finals in men’s and women’s 1-meter. The 2019 USA Diving Senior National Championships is part of the 2019 Team USA Champions Series, presented by Xfinity. The champions series showcases numerous Olympic sports throughout the year, highlighting the year-round quest of Team USA athletes to compete at the Olympic Games.
