Lenzi Takes Long Way Through Preliminaries

Defending champion Mark Lenzi rallied after two poor dives in the preliminaries and joined teammate Scott Donie in the springboard semifinals.

Both medal contenders face stiff competition from Xiong Ni and Yu Zhuocheng, both of China.

Xiong, the top scorer in the preliminaries, finished the night with 463.02 points. Yu is second with 438.93.

Donie, 27, of Houston qualified in fourth place with 414.03, and Lenzi, 28, of Bloomington, Ind., worked his way up to ninth with 372.03.

Each of the 39 competitors took six dives as the field was cut to 18. Their points are carried over to today’s semifinals, in which the field was to be cut to 12 for the finals tonight. Preliminary points are not carried over to the finals.

Lenzi was tied for second after his first dive, but messed up his next two, totaling only 88.20 points, to fall to 26th. He shook that off and scored 71.61 to move into 16th after his fourth dive and followed with a 72.27 to take the 11th spot.