Sydney-Bound, Wilkinson and Reiling Are Flying High

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Before she came to the King County Aquatic Center on Saturday, Laura Wilkinson’s mother, Linda, gave Laura a card that said “Fly on God’s wings.”

Wilkinson flew.

The 22-year-old public relations major at the University of Texas received perfect 10s from six of seven judges for her reverse 2 1/2 somersault, flying perfectly, tumbling perfectly and ultimately landing perfectly a spot on the U.S. Olympic diving team by winning the 10-meter platform competition.

Joining Wilkinson, who is from The Woodlands, Texas, on the platform in Sydney will be 20-year-old Indiana University junior Sara Reiling from St. Paul, Minn.

Wilkinson finished with 869.79 points. Nearly 40 points back was Reiling, who scored 830.85 points. In other words, Wilkinson was able to climb to the top of the 33-foot platform for the final time Saturday knowing that she could do everything but land on the deck and still make her first Olympic team.

“But I still wanted to do a great dive,” Wilkinson said. “I wanted to finish on a high note.”

She did. Wilkinson, who began her athletic career as a gymnast, watching intently on television in 1984 when Mary Lou Retton was the Olympic star, scored 8s and 9s on her final dive, a back somersault with 2 1/2 twists.

There may not have been much drama in the final outcome by the time the final round of dives arrived, but for Wilkinson there was plenty of drama in just arriving at these trials.

In March Wilkinson broke three bones in her right foot while doing dry-land training. The 1999 U.S. Summer Nationals and NCAA platform champion wasn’t sure she could make it to the trials, much less win them.

“There have been so many ups and downs the last few months,” Wilkinson said. “The road became a lot longer than I ever expected but with all the time and effort, with everything I put into getting ready for these trials, I think maybe this feels even better.”

Wilkinson and Reiling had stood first and second after the preliminary and semifinal dives. Just behind them had been Kathy Pesek, winner of the recent 2000 U.S. National Indoors.

But Pesek, after her second dive Saturday afternoon, withdrew. Pesek, a 23-year-old University of Tennessee graduate, has been suffering from vertigo for the last 14 months and after a crooked landing, a teary Pesek ran to the arms of her coach, Dave Parrington, and told Parrington she was too dizzy to continue.

Erin Sones, 20, of Pasadena, a human biology major at Stanford, finished 10th. Erica Sorgi, 17, of Mission Viejo, who will join Sones at Stanford next season, finished 11th after ending up 12th in the three-meter competition.

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Mark Ruiz, who won the 3-meter Thursday night to qualify for the Sydney Olympics, is leading the platform competition after the semifinal round.

Ruiz has 684.45 points. In second place, with 669.00 points, is 31-year-old David Pichler, who fell from first to fourth on his last dive of the 3-meter trials. In third place is Rio Ramirez, a Cuban native who defected seven years ago and became a U.S. citizen last year.

Ramirez, who has 648.63 points, is not presently eligible to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. Because he competed internationally for Cuba, Ramirez needs to be a U.S. citizen at least three years or receive a waiver from Cuba allowing him to join the U.S. team. Cuba has not granted that waiver.