LOS ANGELES — Holding a slight lead going into the final round, Michael Hixon came up big with a dive that earned mostly 9.5s to win the 1-meter springboard at the U.S. national championships Friday night.
Hixon totaled 392.20 points in the six-dive final at UCLA to earn his first senior national title. The 17-year-old from Amherst, Mass., was cheered loudly for his inward 2½ that clinched the gold medal.
"It was a little tight and I knew I had to stay with it," said Hixon, who had a single-digit lead.
Samuel Dorman finished second at 376.20, while Zachary Nees was third at 371.50 in the non-Olympic event. Michael Wright, who became the first black to win a national title last year, finished fifth.
Hixon is coached by his mother, Mandy, a former Ohio State diver who coaches the sport at Massachusetts.
"We get along really good," he said, adding his goal is to finish in the top six at next year's U.S. Olympic trials.
Hixon had to choose diving over basketball, which his father David coaches at Amherst College.
"I wanted to train harder for diving and I couldn't do both," he said.