Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to some disappointing news from About.com Diving: So Close, Boudia & McCrory Finish Fifth. Dang! We just can’t catch a break!

The Swimmers Circle also posted a breakdown of the event, but I thought I’d throw my two cents in with a data-driven perspective.

Using data from DiveMeets.com, along with the prelim and final scores, we can see exactly where Boudia and McCrory faltered. If they had done an “average” meet, they would have been good for silver with a 456.46. However, this graph comes with a silver lining, because the pair started and finished better than you would typically expect!

Yes, the headline is intentionally chaotic – but it accurately reflects the equally confusing but necessary diving event that took place to determine which synchro partnerships were best equipped to represent USA Diving on the World Cup circuit. Rather than forcing the best individuals together into partnerships, each duo was tested head-to-head against other mix-matched pairings. This is how David Boudia and Nick McCrory beat themselves to earn the top spot in men

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You can obviously read more about the event on USADiving.org, but if you want to join the 21st century, you can also become a fan of USA Diving on Facebook and RSVP to the event. Sara Hildebrand, Drew Livingston, Hayden Jones, and Christina Loukas are already listed as attending.

Who else can you expect to see at the meet? The Facebook event name-drops a list of athletes who will be competing:

2009 World Championship team members Brittany Viola (Orlando, Fla.) of the University of Miami, Nick McCrory (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Allison Brennan (Huntington Beach, Calif.), and Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif.). Divers defending their 2008 Spring Nationals 1-meter titles, Victoria Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) and Ryan Helms (Moultrie, Ga.) are also scheduled to attend.

Meet results will be posted on DiveMeets.com, and you can check the full list of entries here.

Aside from the webcast coverage, Universal Sports also has a great collection of photos from Getty Images, including pictures from the World Series diving event in Doha.

Check out this article they posted on Wednesday, with quotes from Thomas Finchum and USA Diving High Performance Director, Steve Foley. As mentioned in a previous post, the dynamic duo of Finchum and Boudia will not reunite until the World Series moves to Mexico next week. However, don’t count out the 10-meter synchro team of Thomas Finchum and Nick McCrory just yet. They took the silver medal at the previous World Series stop in China, placing behind the team of Lin Yue/Huo Liang (CHN).

Host team Britain’s Tom Daley will be tested with his new synchro partner Max Brick as this is their first competition diving together. More on the controversy surrounding the line-up change in this previous post.

2008 Olympians Kelci Bryant (Chatham, Ill./Indianapolis, Ind.) and Ariel Rittenhouse (Santa Cruz, Calif./Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) will compete in women

The team members were hand-picked following a four-day selection camp held at Ohio State University. Although the camp included a meet format, results from the meet did not guarantee a spot on the team. Synchronized teams will be selected in May.

Six former Olympians were among the divers chosen. Troy Dumais will dive men’s 3-meter. Chris Colwill will join Dumais on 3-meter and will also compete 1-meter. Christina Loukas will dive 1-meter and 3-meter, and Ariel Rittenhouse will join Loukas on women

There are some ups and downs to this format. As far as our World Team selection is concerned, we are more likely to get the best, most consistent divers to represent our country. On the other hand, this format makes it much more difficult for an up-and-coming athlete to break into the international scene. In swimming, where team selection is made by time, athletes have an opportunity to make the team by having a single great meet or swim. The down side? If athletes are shaved and tapered to qualify for the team, there’s no guarantee they will be in the same shape for the actual championships.

Highlights:
Christina Loukas, from Indiana University, was in the top 3 for all three 1m lists.
David Boudia, from Purdue University, had the high score for all 4 rounds of men’s 3m with 477.95 coming in the 3rd round.
Ariel Rittenhouse (Trojan Dive Club), and Christina Loukas traded off 1st and 2nd place performances in 3 straight rounds of women’s 3m.
Christopher Colwill, from Georgia Diving Club, was clearly dominant on men’s 1m, winning 2 of the 3 rounds and getting 2nd in the other.
Haley Ishimatsu (age 16, from Trojan Dive Club) won both rounds of women’s platform, while Nick McCrory and Thomas Finchum showed great consistency by staying in the top 3 for both platform lists.

>>More articles in Diving.
>>Diving World Team selection procedures.

Source: DiveMeet.com