U.S. Olympic Festival Roundup : Louganis, Mitchell Complete Sweep of Diving Events

Greg Louganis and Michele Mitchell both won second gold medals in diving Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Festival by successfully defending their 10-meter platform titles.

On Thursday, Mitchell and Louganis had retained their three-meter springboard titles at The Woodlands Athletic Center.

Although Louganis wasn’t as dominant as usual and did not score any perfect 10s, he piled up 1,344.45 points to 1,274.58 for runner-up Bruce Kimball of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Mitchell, a University of Arizona graduate from Scottsdale, Ariz., and the 1984 Olympic platform silver medalist, compiled 908.97 points to 859.71 for Wendy Wyland, 21, of Boca Raton, Fla.

In track and field, Carl Lewis’ sizzling come-from-behind anchor leg led the South to a clocking of 38.52 seconds in the men’s 400-meter relay, but the team was disqualified. Officials said Texas A&M; sophomore Floyd Heard, the national 200-meter champion, ran outside of his lane on the relay’s first leg.

With the disqualification, the East was the official first-place team with a time of 38.64.

Lewis has been bothered by a sore left knee. “My leg is sore,” Lewis said. “It will be difficult to tell just how sore until tomorrow. There is a 1% chance I’ll bypass the long jump. But unless I can’t walk, I’ll jump.”

In the women’s 400-meter relay, Evelyn Ashford, the world 100-meter record-holder, anchored the West team to victory in a festival-record 42.49 seconds.

Earl Bell won the pole vault with a personal best of 19 feet 0 3/4 inches, and Mike Conley won the triple jump with a meet-record leap of 57-5. World record-holder Willie Banks was fourth at 55-3 3/4,

In men’s individual gymnastics competition, Dan Hayden of Amherst, N.Y., second to Scott Johnson in the all-around last Thursday night, won three gold medals and John Sweeney of Phoenix celebrated his 23rd birthday with two golds.

Hayden finished first in the pommel horse, the still rings and the parallel bars, while Sweeney won the floor exercise and the vault.

Johnson, meanwhile, won the horizontal bar, placed second in three other events and third in two more to give him eight medals in this year’s Festival and a record total of 22 in his career.

In the women’s volleyball championship game, Keba Phipps, a high school senior from Lakewood, had 22 kills and nine blocks in leading the East over the South, 15-6, 13-15, 15-7, 15-13.

The 17-year-old Phipps will begin training with the national team in San Diego next week.

Lara Asper of Newport Beach came off the bench to help the South win the second game. Her setting led to six of the 14 spikes by Tonya Williams of Long Beach.

In a boxing exhibition between Soviet Union and American fighters, the Soviet team won seven of eight matches.

The only American winner was Adam Garland of Piscataway, N.J., who scored a 2-1 decision over Manvel Avetisian with a strong third-round performance. Garland caught the Soviet with a short right that brought a standing eight-count.

Todd Seiler of Sauk City, Wis., became the first wrestler in Festival history to win gold medals in two categories when he won the Greco-Roman 198-pound title.

Seiler, who won the freestyle title on Friday, beat Michael Guercio of North Babylon, N.Y., 14-1.