Jeffrey Annexes Platform Diving Crown

The large metal scoreboard sat at the corner of the pool. But for Patrick Jeffrey of Team Orlando, it may as well have been invisible.

A 10-dive score of 584.16 points gave Jeffrey the title in Sunday’s final round of men’s platform diving at the Phillips 66 National Diving Championships at Frontier Pool. But Jeffrey was one of the last to know.

Because of his no scoreboard-watching policy - which he shares with most divers at this level - Jeffrey’s coach had to inform him after the meet that he had won.

“I wasn’t surprised because I knew I had dived well,” said Jeffrey, 30, a Olympian in the event in 1988. “I missed that one dive (his fifth dive), so I left the door open.”

While Jeffrey scored somewhat poorly on his fifth dive, he bounced back on his sixth and final dive of the day with four eights and three 8.5s. Jeffrey’s victory was sealed when Chuck Wade, the lone remaining challenger, balked on his final dive and had two points deducted from each score.

David Pichler, the gold medalist in the event at this year’s Olympic Festival, finished a distant second (558.24) to join Jeffrey on the U.S. team for the Diving World Cup on Sept. 5-9 in Atlanta.

In the women’s three-meter springboard, World Cup spots were claimed by 23-year-old Eileen Richetelli of Stanford Diving (494.43 points in 10 dives) and Angie Trostel of the Cincinnati Stingrays (491.10).

SMU diver Cheril Santini won the women’s all-around title by finishing third in the three-meter and onemeter springboard events and seventh in platform.

In synchronized diving, the team of Jenny Keim and Reyne Borup won the three-meter springboard with 253.56 points in five dives, while Wade and Pichler won the men’s platform with a five-dive total of 323.46.