Diving National Score ?

Question
My son is going to his first USA Diving national (11 under), I see that they have a prelims and then the top 12 go to the finals. Do they add the scores from prelims to the finals score to get the winner or are the scores wiped clean and the winner is just based on the dive score from finals event? Thank you!

Answer
Kim -

In looking at the rule book for this question, I see that if your son makes the top 12, that his first 3 dives scores (called voluntaries with limit)are carried over to the finals and then he does only his 3 optionals (dives without limit) in the finals. So his first 3 dives in the prelims are added with the 3 optional dives he does in the finals for his grand total score. You can read about this by going to this link:

www.usadiving.org
Click on 'Resources' and then 'For Coaches'.
Click on 'Rule Book'.
Then click on 'Competition and Technical Rules' under Part 1
Now go to 'Junior Competition'
Scroll down to page J-16 and look for part 'G' and read paragraphs 1 & 2.

You can also go to divemeets.com which I am sure you are familiar with. Click on the meets name and then for his event, click on 'Rule' and 'Qualification Rule' for a shorter explanation.

Good luck!