BOUDIA & TWEARDY QUALIFY FOR WORLDWIDE MEETS LATER THIS YEAR  

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  – David Boudia and MacKenzie Tweardy, Purdue divers past and present, both qualified for an upcoming worldwide competition with their performances at USA Diving’s World Championships and World University Games Trials, contested the last five days at Florida State’s Morcom Aquatics Center.

Boudia won the 10-meter platform competition to qualify for the FINA World Championships this summer in Barcelona, Spain. Tweardy and synchronized 10-meter diving partner Sarah McCrady (University of Minnesota) placed third in the competition to punch their tickets to World University Games this summer in Kazan, Russia.

Boudia cruised to the victory on 10-meter, scoring 1586.55 points over three lists of dives to win the event by 273.95 points. He scored more than 92 points on five of his six dives in Monday’s final, including an inward 3 ½ tuck that earned six 10s for 96 points. His only dive that didn’t score more than 90 points was his back 3 ½ pike that still went for 7s and 8s for 79.20 points.

“It’s sort of a blessing and a curse to have a perfectionist attitude where a missed back pummels the whole list, but there’s goods and bads, and I’ll take it for today. I’m excited to go Barcelona,” Boudia said.

Boudia won silver from the 10-meter platform at the 2011 World Championships in China, becoming the first American man to medal in the event at the World Championships since 1986. That performance set the stage for his historic performance at the 2012 Olympic Games where he medaled twice, including winning gold from the 10-meter platform.

Tweardy and McCrady finished close behind the second-place team of Amy Cozad (Indiana) and Sydney Couch. Only 1.26 points separated the duos’ cumulative scores over the two rounds of competition. Event winner Cheyenne Cousineau (Ohio State) and Samantha Bromberg claimed USA Diving’s spot in the World Championships. Because Couch is set to graduate high school in 2014, the Cozad-Couch tandem was not eligible for the World University Games.

Purdue diving will be represented by a student-athlete at a fifth consecutive World University Games. Danny Cox (2011); Kara Cook, David Colturi and Ashley Karnes (2009); Amanda Miller and Zach Schultz (2007); and Carrie McCambridge (2005) are the recent Boilermakers who have competed in diving events at the World University Games. Karnes won bronze in 1-meter diving in 2009.

Current Purdue divers Nate Cox and Sean Mokhtari also competed for a World University Games berth in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform in Tallahassee, finishing in fifth place.

Boudia nearly qualified for the 2013 World Championships on a second event, with the men’s synchronized 3-meter final going down to the wire. Heading into the final, Troy Dumais and Michael Hixon held a 4.68-point lead over Boudia and Kristian Ipsen, and the contest stayed close throughout.  With one dive to go, the lead was cut to 3.72 and both teams were to perform the same dive, a front 2 ½ pike with 2 twists. Boudia and Ipsen dove first, earning 90.78 points to put the pressure on Dumais and Hixon, who countered with 94.86 points to earn the world berth.

“We’re going up against a bronze medalist and a gold medalist, so we knew it was going to be a good contest. A five-point lead isn’t very much and going into the last dive, I knew we were only up by three. The way they did their double out, I knew we’d have to do ours as well as we did. It feels great,” Hixon said.

The diving events at the World Championships will be held July 20-28. The World University Games are set for July 5-13.