Fleshner Finishes 7th at U.S. Olympic Diving Trials
6/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
June 21, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Sophomore Aaron Fleshner saved his best dive for last here at the U.S. Olympic Diving trials being held at the Indiana University Natatorium on the IUPUI campus, getting a 9.0 average from the judges on his last dive off the 3-meter board in the finals.
Fleshner, a three-time All-American, finished his first Trials where he started out the finals, in seventh place, scoring a total of 1247.15 over the three rounds of competition, including 423.00 today.
"This has been great for Aaron," Alabama diving coach Pat Greenwell said. "To gain this kind of experience, and such a great competition, it's going to pay big dividends down the road. He showed here that he's ready to compete. I also think that it's evident that he's just getting better and better as he goes along."
Troy Dumais won the competition, earning a trip to his third Olympics with a three-round total of 1552.90. Only the winner of each event is nominated to the U.S. Olympic Team. The second individual will be decided at a team selection camp in Knoxville, Tenn., from July 2-6.
Fleshner, the defending Southeastern Conference 3-meter champion, just missed a trip to the selection camp, finishing just 20 points behind Hugh Showe for the sixth and finnal slot to the camp. A native of Spring, Texas, Fleshner was fifth after the first round of competition, scoring 423.55 points. He went to seventh after scoring 400.60 points in the semi-final round.
"In the preliminaries, Aaron's height was up there with everyone, and he was really hitting his dives and was just very consistent," Greenwell said after Friday's second round. "In the semi-finals he wasn't quite as sharp, but he still hit his dives, just not for the way he was in the morning. At this level, where the competition is so fierce, you have to be on for every dive."
Chris Colwill was second today with 1465.10 points followed by 2004 Olympian Justin Wilcock in third place with a 1363.40 total. Fleshner, who will be a junior next season, finished ahead of, among others, two-time Olympican Mark Ruiz.
Players Mentioned
