Laura Ryan (Elk River, Min./Athens, Ga.) and Deidre Freeman (Grinnell, Iowa/Iowa City, Iowa) finished seventh and eighth in the women’s 3-meter event Friday at the FINA Grand Prix Gold Coast meet in Australia.
Ryan finished fourth with 314.010 points in semifinal B, with Freeman right behind her in fifth at 306.30. Only three divers from each of the two semifinals advance to Sunday’s finals. China’s Wang Han won semifinal B with 350.15 points, followed by Australians Ester Qin (342.35) and Maddison Keeney (331.05).
Both Ryan and Freeman’s scores were higher than all scores from semifinal A, which was won by China’s Lin Qu with 301.85 points. Divers are placed into one of two semifinals based on results from the preliminaries. The top 12 divers from the preliminaries advance to the semifinals, with odd-placing finishers competing in one semifinal and even-placing finishers in the other. Ryan was seventh and Freeman ninth in the preliminaries.
Freeman will compete in Sunday’s synchronized 3-meter event with Maren Taylor (Arlington, Va./Austin, Texas).
Saturday’s competition includes Darian Schmidt (Bloomington, Ind.) and Michael Hixon (Amherst, Mass./Bloomington, Ind.) in both the synchronized and individual men’s 3-meter events. Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind./Bloomington, Ind.) and Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Bloomington, Ind.) will compete in the women’s synchronized 10-meter event, and Cozad will also dive in the individual 10-meter final.
Swimming news courtesy of USA Diving.