Indiana University freshman Jessica Parratto won her second career national title in the women’s platform competition Saturday afternoon at the USA Diving Winter National Championships at the McCorkle Aquatic Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The meet concludes Sunday for Indiana with the women’s platform synchro and men’s 3M synchro finals.
Parratto entered the final round of the five-round final needing to score 80.16 points to move into the top spot. With her back 2 1Ž2 somersault, 1 1Ž2 twist pike, Parratto tallied a score of 81.60 for a final total of 1027.15, beating Samantha Bromberg by 1.45 points for her second career 10M title. Parratto was also the 10M champion at the 2012 AT&T National Diving Championships.
Fellow Hoosier Amy Cozad, who took third, joined Parratto on the medal stand. The former IU All-American finished with a cumulative score of 1008.55.
It was a 2-3 finish for Indiana divers in the men’s 3-meter springboard final, with former Hoosier All-American Darian Schmidt taking second with a three-round total of 1335.25. IU sophomore Michael Hixon was third with his tally of 1300.75. Troy Dumais won the event with a score of 1348.30.
Parratto and partner Deidre Freeman won silver in the women’s 3-meter synchro event with a cumulative score of 563.40, giving Parratto two medals on the day.
LSU
Junior Cassie Weil finished 11 in the final of the women’s platform Saturday at the USA Diving Winter Championships. Weil finished with a three-round score of 872.75.
“Cassie performed well in the finals today,” LSU Diving coach Doug Shaffer said. “We’ve been working on a new dive, which was successful. Overall, I’m very happy with Cassie and Alex (Bettridge) performance at this meet. They’ve competed well against the nation’s elite divers.”
Over the past week, LSU Divers competed at the LSU Diving Invitational and the Winter Championships. Madison Sthamann collected wins on one-meter and three-meter. The freshman also finished second on platform. Senior Daniel Helm also finished second on one-meter and platform and finished third on one-meter.
The LSU Diving team takes time off for the holidays before heading to Knoxville, Tennessee Jan. 3-5 for the Tennessee Diving Invitational.
Texas
Former Longhorn and four-time U.S. Olympian Troy Dumais captured his 38th U.S. national diving title Saturday at the 2014 USA Diving Winter National Championships.
Dumais took a 24-point lead into Saturday’s men’s three-meter final round after accumulating 902.05 points during the preliminary and semifinal rounds earlier this week. A bronze medalist in three-meter synchronized diving at the London Olympics, Dumais held off Indiana’s Darian Schmidt and emerged with the national title with 1348.30 points.
Dumais’ title win featured the top-scoring dive of the competition, a reverse one-and-a-half somersault with three-and-a-half twists that yielded 92.75 points. Schmidt settled for second place in the competition with 1335.25 points. UT sophomore Mark Anderson joined Dumais in the final and placed 11th with 1,111.90 points. Anderson also competed in the men’s platform synchro final and placed third alongside Toby Stanley with 674.04 points.
UT All-America sophomore Murphy Bromberg took a close second in the women’s platform final with 1,025.70 points. Indiana’s Jessica Parratto claimed the narrow win with 1,027.15 points. Bromberg had trailed Parratto by over 30 points through the semifinal round prior to Saturday’s final.
UT senior Emma Ivory-Ganja joined Texas-Ex Maren Taylor to place fourth in the women’s three-meter synchro final with 536.10 points. Texas junior Meghan Houston competed alongside North Carolina diver Michole Timm and placed eighth in the final with 490.50 points.
The USA Diving Winter National Championships conclude Sunday at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
