Aug 5, 2007

Olympic hopefuls shine at Stanford

By Fred Baer / Daily News Correspondent

Laura Wilkinson and Troy Dumais made their statements for the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Saturday at Stanford.

The USA's premier divers each grabbed a pair of gold medals at the 2007 Kaiser Permanente Senior National Diving Championships at the Maas Diving Center.

Wilkinson had it the easiest. The 2000 Olympic gold medalist won the women's platform finals by nearly an 80-point margin with her highest ever score, 422.30 points. She and her Woodlands (Texas) Diving teammate Jessica Livingston later took the synchronized platform finals with 324 points, the only duo to better 300 points in the meet.

"To break 400, there are not too many people who have done that," Wilkinson said. "This was definitely a confidence builder. My previous high was 396 last summer in a semifinal at the World Cup - but not in the final."

Wilkinson took control with her third-round dive on Saturday, hitting a near-perfect score on a front 3 1/2 dive in the pike position. She scored six 10's and one 9.5 from the seven judges.

She also scored two 10's on her final dive to add to her margin over runner-up and 2004 Olympian Cassandra Cardinell, who finished with 342.65 points.

This was the last competition of the year for the 34-year-old Wilkinson, who now has 17 national championships. She plans to spend the rest of the year preparing her repertoire for 2008 and then compete in the World Cup in February at the new Olympic pool in Beijing.

Dumais, from Ventura, had a rougher time, but he still won the men's 3-meter springboard and joined with Longhorn Aquatics Club teammate Mitchell Richeson to take the synchronized 3-meter event.

The 27-year-old Dumais, a finalist at the last two Olympics and the 2006 USA Diving Athlete of the Year, had to hit the last dive to claim the individual gold. He trailed Jevon Tarantino by six points entering the sixth and final round.

Then 2004 Olympian Justin Wilcock scored five 9's on his last dive to move into position for the gold, with 449.45 points.

"I had nothing to lose," Dumais said of his last dive. "Fortunately I was able to do what I was capable of."

That included a 9.5 and three 9.0's on a 3.5 degree of difficulty dive (a reverse 2 1/2 with 1 1/2 twists) that allowed him to finish with 453.20 points for the victory.

"I know how to do that dive. It's a fun dive," Dumais said.

The championships conclude today at Stanford, starting with the women's 3 meter finals at noon. That event features Stanford's Cassidy Krug and Stanford hospital-born Ariel Rittenhouse - whose mother Sharon Finneran Rittenhouse set nine world swimming records while competing locally for the Santa Clara Swim Club in the 1960s.