DIVING : Tearful Lenzi Wins One-Meter Title

With tears in his eyes, Mark Lenzi accepted the medal and floral arrangement accorded the Phillips 66 one-meter national champion Friday night at USC.

Lenzi did not cry out of joy. He wept for a friend who is seriously ill.

Dedicating his performance to his friend, whom he didn’t identify, Lenzi used an acrobatic and precise 3 1/2 somersault to overtake Dean Panaro in the ninth round.

His effort was rewarded by three scores of 9, an 8 1/2 and an 8. The 78.30 total turned Lenzi’s 19-point deficit into an eight-point lead over Panaro, who scored only 51.30 on his ninth dive, a reverse 2 1/2 somersault in the tuck position.

“It takes 11 dives to win, but that dive got me back into the contest,” Lenzi said. “I probably haven’t done any better than that right when I needed it.”

In the 10th round, Lenzi and Panaro had identical back 1 1/2 somersaults with 2 1/2 twists and Lenzi outscored Panaro by five points, gaining a 13-point lead going into the final dive.

Panaro, the 1993 NCAA one-meter champion from the University of Miami, came through in the last round with a graceful reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists. The judges responded with two 8 1/2 and three 8s for a 73.80 total, surpassing Lenzi’s final effort--on the same dive--of 72.90. But Lenzi’s lead held up for the victory, 618.66-605.82.

It was Lenzi’s fourth one-meter national title. The 25-year-old from Kimball Diving has three three-meter national titles and the 1992 Olympic gold medal on three-meter.

Diving Notes

Only two days after hitting his head on the board and incurring eight stitches, John Sharkey was competing in the one-meter semifinals and finals. “I had second thoughts the day after I did it,” Sharkey said. “I laid in bed and I didn’t think I could do it, but when I woke up the next day my scalp wasn’t as sore and I had fewer headaches.” Sharkey, 25, of the Coral Springs, Fla., diving team, also had to overcome his fear of hitting the board again. “The fear factor is there,” he said. “It’s something you have to overcome. Out of 6,000 dives, I’ve hit the board twice, that’s my little statistic to get over the fear factor.”

Sharkey finished ninth in the finals. “The long day got to me and I was a little disoriented,” he said. “That’s why I had some hits and misses.”

The third-place finish by USC’s Brian Earley marked another stride in his comeback from two fractured vertebrae and a bulging disk that sidelined him for one year. Earley has only been on the boards since June. “I was looking for a top-eight finish, so this is surprising,” Earley said. “I’m really happy.” . . . Kristen Walls of the Mission Viejo Nadadores and UCLA scored 435 points in Friday’s three-meter semifinals to gain the top seeding for Sunday’s three-meter finals. Veronica Ribot-Canales, a three-time Olympian for Argentina, earned the second seed with 433.38 points. If Ribot-Canales finishes in the top two, she will represent the United States for the first time in an international competition, Aug. 27-28 in the Alamo Challenge at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. Ribot-Canales switched her athletic citizenship to the United States on Aug. 3.

Today’s schedule: men’s three-meter finals, 11 a.m., followed by the women’s platform finals.