Delaney Schnell will be bringing an Olympic medal home to Tucson.
Along with partner Jessica Parratto, the Tucson High graduate and UA diver took home the silver medal in the synchronized 10-meter platform Tuesday at the Tokyo Olympics. The United States duo posted a score of 310.80, nearly 53 points behind the Chinese tandem of Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi. The Mexican team of Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orzoco Loza earned the bronze with a score of 299.70.
Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell of the United States compete during the women's synchronized 10-meter platform diving final.
Parratto and Schnell were competing for just the third time together, having teamed suddenly at the U.S. trials after Schnell’s partner, Tarrin Gilliland, got hurt. The duo took first place at the trials, and Schnell took first in her individual event, as well. The Wildcat will take part in the women’s 10-meter platform preliminaries starting Aug. 3.
“Jess and I just ended up making it work,” Schnell said Tuesday. “Took a lot of faith in each other, a lot of trust in each other that paid off.”
They each had past success on their own. Schnell was the bronze medalist in individual platform at the world championships in 2019, and was named Pac-12 Diver of the Year this spring. Parratto was seventh in the same event at the Rio Games.
In 2016, Parratto earned a berth in Rio by beating Schnell and her partner at trials. No hard feelings, though.
Parratto and Schnell were next to last after their first dive, but worked their way higher over the next two rounds to earn the first U.S. medal in the event.
“Not a scoreboard watcher, but honestly I knew we were kind of behind,” Parratto said. “That lit my fire. I knew we could hit the dives.”
Chen and Zhang totaled 363.78 over five rounds. They received two perfect 10s for execution on their second dive in the mostly empty 15,000-seat Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orozco Loza of Mexico earned bronze at 299.70.
China was comfortably in first place going into the final round.
The second-place Americans led Japan by a scant 2.1 pointas, with Mexico another 1.32 points behind in fourth.
China, the U.S., Mexico and Japan all did the same dive in the last round, a back 2 1/2 somersaults 1 1/2 twists pike carrying a 3.2 degree of difficulty. Only Canada performed a more difficult dive during the competition.
The Chinese earned 84.48 points, barely creating splashes as they knifed into the water. The Americans scored 78.72, earning marks from 8.0 to 8.5 for synchronization. The Mexicans scored 71.04, while Japan fell out of medal contention by scoring 61.44.
Chen and Zhang were making their Olympic debuts, but already have a winning history. Chen, who is 15, won the individual 10-meter platform title at the world championships in 2019, when she was 13. Zhang, who is 17, won the platform synchro title at the world meet two years ago.
“We can feel the pressure,” Chen said through a translator, “but because we are very young, we have nothing to lose. We can be very brave.”
China won its first gold in Tokyo in women’s 3-meter synchro springboard and earned silver in men’s 10-meter platform synchro.
Sabino grad delivers game-winning RBI as Canada takes bronze
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Canada won its first Olympic medal in softball, taking the bronze with a 3-2 victory over Mexico on Tuesday.
Tucson native Kelsey Harshman, a Sabino High School graduate, broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth with a sacrifice fly for the Canadians, who went 4-2, finishing behind the U.S. (5-0) and Japan (4-1) in pool play.
In a game played in intermittent light rain, Emma Entzminger put Canada ahead with a two-run single in the second off former Arizona Wildcat Danielle O’Toole (0-2). Mexico tied the score on RBI singles by Cervantes in the third off starter Sara Groenewegen and by Suzy Brookshire in the fifth against Jenna Caira.
No. 9 hitter Janet Leung beat out an infield single to shortstop leading off the bottom half of the fifth and Victoria Hayward beat out a bunt single. Larissa Franklin sacrificed, and Harshman — who played at Sabino as Kelsey Jenkins — flied to left as Leung scored standing up as the throw was cut off.
O’Toole pitched 17 innings for Team Mexico, while fellow ex-Wildcat Taylor McQuillin made one appearance during the Tokyo Olympics.
The United States, featuring ex-UA catcher Dejah Mulipola, fell 2-0 to Japan in the gold-medal game.
Simone Biles withdrew from the women’s gymnastics team event at the Tokyo Olympics, and the Russian team won gold over the U.S.
