Courtesy: USA Diving
Andrew Capobianco (Holly Springs, N.C./Bloomington, Ind.) won his second bronze medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games after teaming up with Michael Hixon (Amherst, Mass./Bloomington, Ind.) for third in synchronized 3-meter Saturday in Lima, Peru. Delaney Schnell (Tucson, Ariz.) and Amy Magaña (Indianapolis, Ind.) finished fourth and fifth in Saturday’s women’s 10-meter final.
Capobianco, who won bronze on 1-meter on Thursday, paired with Hixon for 404.13 points and bronze in synchronized 3-meter. The Mexico team of Yahel Castillo and Juan Celaya took gold at 429.81, and Canadians Philippe Gagne and Francois Imbeau-Dulac scored 414.21 points for silver.
Hixon and Capobianco led after the third round, when they scored 85.68 points on a front 2 ½ with two twists but fell to second after the fourth round. They led the Canadians by 3.24 points heading into the final round but earned just 67.26 points on their front 4 ½ tuck to settle for bronze.
The U.S. team improved its score by 16.05 points from last month’s FINA World Championships, where they finished eighth, but Capobianco said they are capable of more.
“It was better than we did at World Championships two weeks ago but it’s still a little bit disappointing. We know we can do better than that,” Capobianco said. “We were hoping to get the gold medal tonight but it’s alright, we’ll go back home and regroup and rebuild and then hopefully be back for next year.”
But first, they’ll dive in the individual 3-meter final on Sunday. In addition to the 3-meter synchro final, Capobianco and Hixon also competed in the individual 3-meter preliminaries on Saturday and advanced to Sunday’s final. Capobianco qualified third with 430.40 points in the prelims, while Hixon finished sixth with 394.80 points.
Saturday’s women’s 10-meter final was a close contest that came down the final round. Schnell finished with 354.85 points, 1.25 points behind bronze medalist Alejandra Orozco of Mexico. Magaña scored 345.55. Canadians Meaghan Benfeito (375.05) and Caeli McKay (365.70) took gold and silver.
While Benfeito had a comfortable hold on first heading into the last round, just 7.65 points separated second from fifth. Magaña was third with one dive remaining but scored just 67.20 points on her final dive – a back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists. The others in the top four all scored more than 72 points or more on their final dives. Schnell, who was fifth after round four, put down an inward 3 ½ tuck that earned 78.40 points to bump her up to fourth, but it wasn’t quite enough to put her on the podium.
Diving at the Pan American Games continues through August 5. In addition to Capobianco and Hixon in the men’s 3-meter final, Sunday’s competition also includes Magaña and Schnell in synchronized 10-meter and Sarah Bacon and Brooke Schultz in the women’s 3-meter preliminaries.
