Indiana University Athletics
Loukas Advances to Finals in 1m
7/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
July 18, 2005
MONTREAL, Canada - Rising freshman Christina Loukas continued the trend of comeback dives for Dr. Jeff Huber's charges at the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montreal. After qualifying as the third-best diver from the prelim session of one-meter springboard competition, the IU standout out-dueled Germany's Ditte Kotzian for the final transfer spot from the second semifinal of the day. Overall, Loukas posted a 268.71 in the second set of dives.
In preliminary action, Loukas overcame a bit of a rough second dive to finish as the third-highest qualifier and move into the second set of semifinals. After falling as far as eighth place, Loukas battled back with a trio of solid dives. In the third round, she nailed a reverse one-and-a-half somersault for 54.00 points. She followed that up with a reverse one-and-a-half somersault with one-and-a-half twists for 57.72 points. She then closed out the morning session with a solid inward one-and-a-half somersault for 53.28 to complete a 269.37 tally.
In the semifinal, Loukas turned in a solid 55.38 with a forward two-and-a-half somersault to open up in third. In the second round, she posted a 50.37 on a backward one-and-a-half somersault to drop to fourth. In the third round, Loukas recorded a 48.96 with a reverse one-and-a-half somersault to fall to fifth. In the fourth round, she registered a 59.28 on a reverse one-and-a-half somersault with one-and-a-half twists to move into a tie for third. In the fifth and final round, Loukas capitalized on Kotzian's mistake (a 28.86 on her final dive) by nailing 54.72 to the scoreboard with an inward one-and-a-half somersault to take third. Overall, Loukas notched a 268.71 to transfer into this evening's finals.
This evening's finals begin at 5:15 p.m. local time.
