Nick McCrory was having fun plunging 33 feet off the tower. Things weren’t going nearly as well for Olympian David Boudia, so he amused himself on Twitter.
McCrory led all the way in winning the 10-meter title at the U.S. national diving championships Sunday, with Boudia failing to shake what he tweeted was his “silver medal hangover.’’
McCrory earned two 10s for his third dive and totaled 497.35 points in the six-dive final at UCLA. Boudia had 469.90. Ben Grado was third at 431.05.
In men’s 3-meter synchro, Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen easily won the title at 459.00. They were fourth at worlds.
“The only difference was our last dive,’’ Dumais said. “At worlds, I came off the board earlier than Kristian did. We got 86 for that here and 79 at worlds.’’
Ipsen won the 3-meter individual title Saturday, when Dumais was third.
Chris Colwill and Drew Livingston, who got one 10 for synchronization on their final dive, finished second at 390.03.
Justin and Dwight Dumais, Troy’s brothers, were third at 378.63.
In women’s 3-meter, Cassidy Krug won her second title in as many days, narrowly holding off Summer Allman. Krug totaled 318.20 to Allman’s 315.75. Christina Loukas, fourth at the recent world meet, finished third at 306.50.
Krug teamed with Kassidy Cook to win the 3-meter synchro title Saturday.
In men’s platform, Olympian Thomas Finchum was second going into the final round, but he botched his last dive and dropped to fourth.
McCrory debuted a new dive in the second round and earned high marks, but his third dive really stood out. He earned two perfect 10s and 9.5s from the other judges for an inward 3 ½ somersault tuck.
“That’s one of my favorite dives,’’ McCrory said. “Over the past few years, it’s been really consistent for me. I just always get excited when I have that dive next.’’
Boudia wasn’t nearly as thrilled early on, when he was second through the first three rounds. So he took to Twitter, saying he didn’t think he was supposed to be tweeting during the contest and used the hashtags rebel and bored.
Afterward, he said, “I never tweet during a competition, but it couldn’t have gone any worse, so I just turned on my phone and had fun.’’
Boudia’s fourth dive earned low marks ranging from 4.0 to 5.5 and he fell to fourth. But he rallied on his final two dives, including a back 2 ½ somersault with 2 ½ twist that carried a 3.6 degree of difficulty to claim another silver.
“The last two dives were perfect, a little too late,’’ he said, smiling. “This is where you learn, you learn from your defeats. I’m kind of glad it ended up this way actually.’’
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