Rittenhouse, Stanley finish fifth individually at Pan Am Festival

Seven of the eight U.S. team members advanced to the individual finals at the Pan American Festival in Mexico City, with Ariel Rittenhouse (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Toby Stanley (Fishers, Ind.) leading the way with fifth-place finishes.

Individual events were held Saturday and Sunday, September 27-28, with synchronized events set for September 29-30.

Rittenhouse, a 2008 Olympian competing in her first international meet since 2010, scored 308.20 points to finish fifth in the women’s 3-meter springboard final. Teammate Amanda Burke (Southampton, Pa./State College, Pa.) placed sixth with 288.55. Canada’s Jennifer Abel won gold with 362.40 points, followed by Mexico’s Dolores Hernandez with 336.60 for silver and Canada’s Pamela Ware with 316.90 points for bronze.

Stanley finished fifth in the men’s 10-meter contest after scoring 419.60, while Mark Anderson (Lake Forest, Calif./Austin, Texas) placed seventh with 390.15 points. Cuba’s Jeinkler Aguirre scored 475.95 for the gold, finishing 5.75 points ahead of silver medalist Jonathan Ruvalcaba of Mexico. Canada’s Vincent Riendeau won bronze at 433.95.

The U.S. also had two divers in the women’s individual 10-meter final, with Rachel Rubadue (Columbus, Ohio) finishing sixth at 269.65 and Olivia Rosendahl (Los Angeles, Calif.) scoring 259.25 for eighth place. Canada took gold and silver, with Roseline Filion finishing first at 358.80 to edge teammate Meaghan Benfeito by 0.15 points. Mexico’s Gabriela Agundez scored 344.75 for bronze.

Cory Bowersox (Burke, Va./Austin, Texas) advanced to the men’s 3-meter finals and scored 363.10 points to finish eighth. Mexico’s Rommel Pacheco dominated the contest, scoring 511.05 points to win by nearly 100 points. Rodrigo Diego, also of Mexico, finished second at 411.95, with Brazil’s Ian Carlos Matos picking up bronze with 397.20 points. Zac Nees (Hatfield, Pa./State College, Pa.) scored 322.25 to finish 13^th in the preliminaries.

Competition continues Monday with Rosendahl and Rubadue in women’s 10-meter synchro and Bowersox and Nees in men’s 3-meter synchro. On Tuesday, Burke and Rittenhouse will pair up in women’s 3-meter synchro, and Anderson and Stanley will dive in men’s 10-meter synchro.