Wood’s Artistry Carries Him to 8th-Place Finish in Diving

Ricky Wood is not the national three-meter springboard champion, but he is the most artistic diver in the country.

With an array of soaring somersaults, spins and slicing entries, Wood earned that title Saturday in the Phillips 66 national diving championships at USC.

The 20-year-old from Sherman Oaks led the 12-man championship field through the first five dives. Although he slipped to eighth place in the final six compulsory dives, he earned a berth on the national team and duplicated his career-best placing from the national indoor championships last spring.

Through the five required dives, Wood outscored the likes of Mark Lenzi, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, and Mark Bradshaw, a five-time national champion.

Unlike the others, he nailed his entries, barely ruffling the water, particularly on his back 1 1/2 somersault and reverse 1 1/2 somersault.

The latter dive inspired a roar from the small crowd and drew a series of 9s, the highest-scoring dive of the competition.

“I got everything I could get out of it,” Wood said. “That dive really put me into a groove.”

Wood didn’t necessarily fall out of the groove, but his lower degree of difficulty kept his scores from matching those of his older, more-acrobatic competitors.

Lenzi’s last six dives carry a degree of difficulty of 18.9, for instance, compared to Wood’s 17.8.

“It’s gonna take a little more work,” Wood said.

“I’ll learn two new dives in the next five or six months and, hopefully, I’ll be right up there with them.”

On his reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists, for example, Wood needs to add a twist in order to increase the degree of difficulty from 2.9 to 3.3.

“You can see how pretty a diver he is,” said his coach, Van Austin of Rose Bowl Aquatics. “All he needs is a little more strength.”