Herrera, Dorman Qualify for FINA World Championships
ATLANTA – University of Miami divers completed a successful weekend at the 2017 USA Diving Synchronized Trials, with two Hurricanes clinching trips to the FINA World Championships this summer.
Junior Briadam Herrera, a two-time All-American at the recent NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, won the 3-meter mixed synchro Friday along with partner Lauren Reedy of Missouri.
The duo’s score of 285.66 beat out second-place finishers Jordan Windle and Maria Coburn, who finished with 283.38.
“It’s a new event – they had it in the last FINA World Championships and it’s a possible Olympic event in Tokyo,” head diving coach Randy Ableman said. “U.S. sends one team. They trained together for a couple of days in Miami last week, and then they worked together in Atlanta leading up to this. They nailed all their optionals, and had the most difficult list of any team.”
Miami alumnus Sam Dorman, who won a silver medal for the United States at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, won the synchronized 3-meter with his Olympian partner Michael Hixon at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech.
Dorman and Hixon dominated the men’s 3-meter field with 809.31 points, including a score of 86.70 on an inward 3½ somersault tuck. The pair scored 79.00 or more points on three of their dives in the final.
An NCAA national champion during his undergraduate career at Miami, Dorman and Hixon will represent Team USA at the 2017 FINA World Championships in the synchronized 3-meter event in Budapest, Hungary from July 14-22.
For Herrera, a four-time ACC gold medalist who was a national runner-up in the 3-meter at the NCAA Championships, this weekend’s victory in the mixed synchro was another impressive accomplishment on an increasingly sparkling resume.
“He just keeps rolling,” Ableman said. “He’s qualified now for the worlds in Budapest and the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan in September. He has a lot to work for this summer.”
Dorman, Herrera and redshirt freshman David Dinsmore, who won the NCAA national championship on the platform in March, will all compete at the World Championships trials for individual events in May.
