Ariel Rittenhouse (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Amanda Burke (Southampton, Pa./State College, Pa.) won the bronze medal in synchronized 3-meter Tuesday at the Pan American Sports Festival, which was held September 27-30 in Mexico City.
Rittenhouse and Burke scored 282.90 points for the 3-meter synchro bronze while competing in their first international meet together as a synchro team. Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware finished with 312.60 points for gold, and Mexico’s Arantxa Chavez and Dolores Hernandez were second with 289.80 points. Burke and Rittenhouse came through with more than 60 points on all three of their optional dives, highlighted by a best of 68.40 points on their front 2 ½ with one twist in the final round. The bronze medal was Burke’s first career international medal.
Rittenhouse, a 2008 Olympian competing in her first international meet since 2010, also scored 308.20 points to finish fifth in the women’s individual 3-meter springboard final held Sunday. Burke placed sixth with 288.55 points, with Abel winning gold with 362.40 points.
In Tuesday’s men’s synchronized 10-meter event, Mark Anderson (Lake Forest, Calif./Austin, Texas) and Toby Stanley (Indianapolis, Ind.) scored 366.00 points to finish fifth. Cuba’s Jose Guerra and Jeinkler Aguirre were first with 442.08 points. Stanley finished fifth with 419.60 points in Sunday’s individual 10-meter contest, while Anderson placed seventh with 390.15 points. Aguirre scored 475.95 for the gold.
On Monday, Cory Bowersox (Burke, Va./Austin, Texas) and Zac Nees (Hatfield, Pa./State College, Pa.) finished fourth in men’s synchronized 3-meter. The duo scored 365.43 points, 6.99 points behind bronze medalists Jorge Pupo and Rene Hernandez of Cuba. Mexico’s Rommel Pacheco and Rodrigo Diego won gold at 419.40. Bowersox also advanced to Saturday’s individual 3-meter final and scored 363.10 points to finish eighth. Pacheco dominated the contest, scoring 511.05 points to win gold by nearly 100 points over Diego. Nees scored 322.25 to finish 13th in the preliminaries.
In Monday’s women’s synchronized 10-meter contest, Olivia Rosendahl (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Rachel Rubadue (Columbus, Ohio) were fourth with 253.62 points, while Canada’s Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito topped the field with 294.33 points. In Saturday’s women’s individual 10-meter final, Rubadue finished sixth with 269.65 points, and Rosendahl scored 259.25 for eighth place. Filion finished first at 358.80, edging Benfeito by 0.15 points for the gold.
