Stanford grad Kristian Ipsen and Michael Hixon used the huge point cushion they carried into the final to hold off a determined field and claim the two spots for men’s individual 3-meter springboard at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Diving on Saturday at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Four years after he lost an individual spot on the U.S. Olympic Team when he missed his second-to-last dive at the Olympic Trials, Ipsen left no doubt this time around, building on the 116-point pad he held over third place entering the final.
With Hixon in second, only 7.05 points behind Ipsen, the final was shaping up to be a two-man battle for the gold.
When Hixon missed his fourth dive of the evening, Ipsen was free and clear on his way to the win, while Hixon finished second to earn the opportunity to compete in two events in Rio, having already qualified in synchro with Sam Dorman on Wednesday.
Ipsen finished with 1,452.75 points, 67.3 ahead of Hixon’s 1,385.45. Dorman finished third with 1,300.15 points.
Ipsen, 23, qualifies for his second Olympic Games after pairing with Troy Dumais to win the bronze medal in synchro at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Embarking on his diving career in 1998, he burst onto the scene by becoming the youngest diver to win a junior national championship at the age of 8.
The alternate for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, he has enjoyed individual success in Rio, winning bronze in springboard at the 2016 World Cup event, his first individual medal at a senior international event.
A two-time Pac-12 Diver of the Year and three-time NCAA champion for Stanford, he stepped away from international competition for over a year, returning to the pool in 2014.
A two-time junior world champion, he has won a total of 30 national titles, 14 at the senior level and 16 as a junior.
Hixon, 21, began diving at the age of 7, coached by his mother Mandy, the diving coach at the University of Massachusetts. She remained Michael’s coach until he left to compete at the University of Texas, where he won NCAA 1-meter and 3-meter national championships before transferring to Indiana.
A six-time national team member, he won bronze at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. His father, David, is entering his 40th season as the men’s basketball coach at Amherst College.
The United States is seeking its first Olympic medal in individual springboard since Mark Lenzi won the bronze at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. Lenzi’s gold at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games is this last gold won by an American in the event.
USA Fencing
Stanford grad Alex Massialas, the world’s No. 1-ranked men’s foil fencer, lived up to that status by taking gold at the 2016 FIE Grand Prix event in Shanghai earlier this month.
The gold is Massialas’ first since November 2015, when he won the Prince Takamodo world cup event in Tokyo.
Gaining momentum in the build-up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, he now has six top-five finishes in the past 14 months, including silver medals at last year’s world championships in Moscow and this year’s Pan American championships in Santiago, Chile.
He has steadily climbed the world rankings ladder in the past four years, rising from No. 9 in 2012-13 to his current spot at the top.
The son of three-time Olympic fencer and national team coach Greg Massialas, Alex hopes to improve on his 13th-place finish at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
His sister, Sabrina, won gold at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, besting her brother’s silver medal from the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
USA Sailing
Castilleja grad Marion Lepert earned her first trip to an Olympic Games, qualifying to represent the United States in the women’s RS:X class at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. She nabbed her spot during competition at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in April.
The women’s RS:X was the closest qualification battle entering the Palma regatta, with only two places separating 2012 Olympian Farrah Hall and Lepert. Taking a conservative approach, the 20-year-old Lepert used a strong showing to come back from two places down and edge out Hall to earn her first trip to the Olympic Games.
Winner of the bronze medal at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, she is native of La Tronche, France, who currently lives in Belmont and is studying mechanical engineering at Stanford.
Stanford grad Helena Scutt, with teammate Paris Henken, become the first members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team in February.
By USA diving/Team USA
By USA diving/Team USA
By USA diving/Team USA
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