Tower Twosome Impresses in Platform Preliminaries

AUSTIN, Texas – Miami’s platform duo dominated Saturday afternoon at the 2019 NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships, capturing a pair of top-three finishes in preliminaries at the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center.

Redshirt junior David Dinsmore and sophomore Zach Cooper will both take part in Saturday night’s eight-member finals with a chance for an NCAA national championship.

Dinsmore was the day’s top finisher, scoring 459.90 points to seal the third NCAA All-America honor of his career. Cooper, who finished seventh nationally in last year’s NCAA Championships on the tower, was third with 370.85 points.

Dinsmore, who won the NCAA national championship on the platform as a redshirt freshman in 2017, delivered a spectacular second half during morning preliminaries to end as the round’s top finisher. The Columbus, Ohio, native nailed a forward 4 ½ somersault tuck – a dive carrying a 3.7 degree of difficulty, and a new dive in his arsenal – for more than 90 points on his fifth dive to vault into second place.

His back 2 ½ somersault, 2 ½ twist – carrying a 3.6 degree of difficulty – sent him past Colin Zeng of Tennessee to clinch the top finish. Zeng was second 445.65 points.

“I’m feeling pretty good about this morning,” Dinsmore said. “There are some things we need to fix, but we’ve got a good mindset going into the finals.”

Cooper was strong from the outset, averaging 61.8 points on his six dives – including more than 70 on a back 2 ½ somersault, 1 ½ twist on his sixth and final dive. The performance sealed his second straight trip to the finals on the platform.

“I felt okay but could have done better,” Cooper said. “I’ve got to stay calm heading into the finals.”

The platform finals are slated to begin at 8:15 p.m. ET.