GUADALAJARA, Mexico, October 27.TROY Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) and Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif.) won the silver medal in the men's synchronized 3-meter competition in front of a loud, sold-out crowd at the ScotiaBank Aquatic Center Wednesday at the Pan American Games.
Dumais and Ipsen scored 411.99 points, second only to Mexico's Yahel Castillo and Julian Sanchez, who scored 457.32 for gold. Cuba's Jorge Pupo and Rene Hernandez picked up bronze with 384.33 points.
For the 31-year-old Dumais, it was his sixth career Pan American Games diving medal, tying him for second all-time with U.S. legend Greg Louganis and Canada's Alexandre Despatie.
"I'm happy with our performance. It's the beginning of the Olympic year, and this was a chance to test ourselves," Dumais said. "We did some good things, but we also have some things we need to work on. We had some timing issues on some dives we normally do very well."
Castillo and Sanchez led the entire contest, scoring 85 points or higher on all four of their optional dives. Dumais and Ipsen trailed by just 7.41 points at the halfway point, but a slight miss for 65.28 points on their fourth dive, a front 2 ½ with two twists, widened the gap.
While Dumais, a three-time Olympian, was competing in his fourth Pan Am Games, Ipsen was competing in his first. The atmosphere in Guadalajara was something he said will help him down the road.
"I got on the boards, and it was so loud. It made the competition really fun," Ipsen said. "It's good preparation for the Olympics, because that's probably what the crowd and stress level will be like there."
In the women's 10-meter finals, Amy Korthauer (Naperville, Ill.) and Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind.) finished 9th and 10th respectively, with 262.00 and 260.60 points. Mexico's Paola Espinosa narrowly edged her teammate Tatiana Ortiz for gold, 370.60-369.05, while Canadian Meaghan Benfeito scored 358.20 points for bronze.
"I didn't do as well as I wanted to or as well as I've been training, but I didn't give up. I've never been in a competition like this before with all these people. I'm not sure I was quite prepared for this atmosphere. It was amazing," Cozad said.
Diving competition at the Pan Am Games continues through Saturday. Thursday's events feature Ipsen and Drew Livingston (The Woodlands, Texas) in individual men's 3-meter and Cozad and Korthauer in the women's synchronized 10-meter.
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