2016 U.S. Olympians Amy Cozad, Steele Johnson and Michael Hixon each won titles at USA Diving’s Winter Nationals last week.
Cozad – now Amy Cozad Magana after her November wedding – won the women’s platform event on Tuesday night. She successfully defended her 2015 title in the event, scoring 998.95 total points over her three rounds. It was consistency that netter her a runaway title, as Cozad was the only diver to score over 300 points in all three rounds. Each diver’s scores from prelims, semifinals and the final are added together for their final total.
Johnson won the men’s 3-meter springboard, also on Tuesday night. His 1344.80 total points blew out the field by more than 150 points. And the field was a good one, too, with former NCAA champ Colin Zeng finishing second. Johnson has now won 11 national diving titles, but this was new territory for him, as he’d never won a 3-meter springboard title before. Johnson is now back to competing with Purdue in the NCAA.
His conference rival Michael Hixon also claimed gold, winning the men’s 1-meter springboard. Hixon started his college career with Texas, but is now diving for Indiana. He won the 1-meter title with 825.40 points, edging out Johnson by just 20. That was a comeback win, as Hixon was only second after semifinals. Both Hixon and Johnson are now qualified for next year’s World Championships in Budapest.
Other event winners:
- Maria Coburn won the women’s 1-meter title by just .6 points over Alison Gibson.
- On the women’s 3-meter, Hailey Hernandez denied Coburn a second title 821.35 to 810.60.
- The men’s platform went to David Dinsmore at 1377.10.
- The synchronized women’s platform had only two teams, with Olivia Rosendahl and Sophia McAfee taking gold.
- In the men’s event, Ryan Hawkins and Jordan Windle beat out three other teams for the win.
- Women’s 3-meter synchro gold went to Anne Fowler and Carolina Sculti.
- The corresponding men’s event was won by Dashiell Enos and Henry Fusaro.
- In the mixed synchronized 3-meter, Meghan O’Brien and Grayson Campbell scored 266.10 to win by five points.
- In the mixed synchronized platform, Andrew Capobianco and Tarrin Gilliland beat out one other team for gold.