Ellen Owen completed a comeback from retirement and Mary Ellen Clark shook off a history of fading under pressure to win spots on the 10-meter platform team at the U.S. Olympic diving trials Saturday.
The men's platform team for the Barcelona Olympics will be selected Sunday.Owen was never challenged in the finals, which shaped up as a battle for the second Olympic berth between Clark, 29, and Jill McCambridge, a 33-year-old mother of three.
Owen led Clark by five points entering the finals, but outscored Clark on three of her first four dives.
"I knew I had a cushion, but that I could be caught," Owen said. "I went into it very focused."
Clark led McCambridge by 1.77 points going into the final dive of the eight-dive program. McCambridge went first, hitting an inward 21/2 somersault with a 2.8 degree of difficulty.
She received marks ranging from 6.5 to 7.0 for a 57.96 total, taking the pressure off Clark to hit a perfect dive.
"I thought Mary Ellen was going to faint on her last dive," her coach, Ron O'Brien, said. "She got her arms up and just about stopped."
Clark, who did a back 11/2 somersault with a 21/2 twist, received marks ranging from 6.5 to 8.0 for a 62.16 total.