Former Gophers diver Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook hold second place after Olympic trials preliminaries

Former Gophers diver Sarah Bacon and diving partner Kassidy Cook stood second after the semifinals Sunday of the 3-meter synchronized competition at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis.

Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer teamed to take the lead, scoring 594.84 points.

Bacon and Cook scored 573.39 after difficulty with their second dive of the preliminaries.

Cook is dealing with a shoulder injury that's holding the pair back, Bacon said.

"Our prelim list definitely wasn't what we were looking for this morning," Bacon said. "Semifinal we did better. We are still capable of doing more than that.

"With Kassidy's shoulder injury she is being a little timid right now. We are hoping she can get that rested going into finals. Personally, individually, I feel great. I hit every single dive, every list this morning and semifinal tonight. I feel confident going into the final, and I hope that Kassidy's shoulder holds up and we can pull it off."

The final is scheduled for Thursday. Only the winning pair will qualify for the Olympics.

Gibson and Palmer added a double-out dive to their list, with a high degree of difficulty that few pairs attempt.

"This is our first time completing double out ever," Gibson said. "… I think this gives us a lot of confidence going into the finals. I haven't competed in over a year and half so a prelim and semi that were really consistent and solid was really nice. It reminds me I love the sport, I got this."

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