Deidre Freeman (Grinnell, Iowa/Iowa City, Iowa) and Maren Taylor (Arlington, Va./Austin, Texas) scored 281.70 points to finish fourth in women’s synchronized 3-meter Sunday at the FINA Grand Prix Gold Coast meet in Australia.
2015 World Championship bronze medalists Ester Qin and Samantha Mills of Australia finished with 310.80 points to edge China’s Lin Qu and Wang Han by 1.5 points for the gold. The second Australian team of Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney scored 294.18 points, but the bronze medal went to Yan Yee Ng and Nurdabitah Sabri of Malaysia with 292.08 points. FINA Grand Prix rules allow the host country to enter two teams but only one team will be considered as part of the official results. As such, Malaysia was awarded the bronze medal and the Americans were considered fourth in the final standings.
The FINA Grand Prix Gold Coast meet wrapped up Sunday. Earlier in the week, USA’s Darian Schmidt (Bloomington, Ind.) andMichael Hixon (Amherst, Mass./Bloomington, Ind.) won silver in men’s synchronized 3-meter and Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind./Bloomington, Ind.) and Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Bloomington, Ind.) won bronze in women’s synchronized 10-meter. Cozad and Schmidt were the top individual finishers for Team USA. Cozad placed fifth in the individual 10-meter event and Schmidt was fifth on 3-meter.
The U.S. team now returns to the States to prepare for the USA Diving Winter National Championships, which are set forDecember 15-20 in Indianapolis. The Winter Nationals will serve as the selection event for next year’s FINA Diving World Cup.
Swimming news courtesy of USA Diving.