Wood Rises to Third, Then Falls Back : Diving: He stays in medal contention through seven rounds before going in reverse down the stretch and finishing eighth.

Ricky Wood wasn’t able to keep the company of Barcelona Olympic gold medalist Mark Lenzi or NCAA champion Dean Panaro throughout 11 rounds of diving Friday night at USC. Yet Wood took a giant step toward their competitive level when he stayed in medal contention through seven rounds.

In third place behind Lenzi and Panaro going into his eighth dive, Wood could not pull his legs back into a vertical line on his reverse 2 1/2 somersault and he created a significant splash, resulting in scores ranging from 3s to 4 1/2s, which dropped him into seventh place.

“I was just going for it all,” Wood said with a laugh. “I think it was the right approach.”

Wood, 20, of Sherman Oaks had no regrets about his aggressive style because he felt he had nothing to lose. And he wound up eighth, his highest finish ever on the one-meter springboard at the Phillips 66 national championships.

“This is great,” he said. “It’s one of the best feelings in the world.”

Wood, a 1991 graduate of Royal High, dived superbly despite a hyper-extended back suffered two weeks ago at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

“Tonight, it actually felt a lot better because I didn’t have to dive at all (Thursday),” he said.

Wood’s fourth-place finish on the one-meter board at the festival (before his injury) gave him confidence and inspiration. Another key to his dramatic improvement is the full-time training program he implemented in February.

With the permission and financial support of his parents, Gail and Bob, he quit his construction job in February to concentrate on his diving.

“They’ve been behind me 100% since I (started diving at) 5 years old,” Wood said.

The added repetitions at Rose Bowl Aquatics under Coach Van Austin have enabled Wood to learn new dives with a higher degree of difficulty.

The 6-foot, 160-pounder also has increased his weight training program in an attempt to match the strength of older competitors whose frames have filled out.

“It proves it here right now,” Wood said of his move to a higher level. “I can’t even describe how great I feel about it.”