Olympic hopefuls post 10s

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — With a string of perfect 10s, Laura Wilkinson and Troy Dumais appear to be Beijing bound.

Wilkinson, who won gold on the 10-meter platform at the 2000 Olympics, showed she's still the boss of the tower at the U.S. Olympic trials, holding off a challenger half her age in the semifinals Friday night.

The 30-year-old Texan received at least one 10 on three of her five dives and finished with 813.20 points. She had a comfortable advantage over 15-year-old Haley Ishimatsu, who finished with four 10s and the highest-scoring dive of the night but was still only second at 757.55.

Wilkinson can lock up her third trip to the Olympics in the finals Sunday.

"I felt a lot more confident," she said. "I knew what (Ishimatsu) was doing, but I was kind of oblivious at the same time."

Dumais, declaring he will settle for nothing less than gold in Beijing, was just as good in the semis of 3-meter springboard. The two-time Olympian received 10s on three of his six dives to build a commanding lead with 1038.30. Chris Colwill was second at 961.00.

The springboard finals are Saturday.

Dumais, a 28-year-old native of Ventura, Calif., finished sixth on springboard at the last two Olympics. He has bigger goals than just making it a third time.

"If I can't make it to the Olympics, then I can't win gold," Dumais said. "It's gold or go home for me."

While Wilkinson and Dumais showed they are still on top of their game, another prominent diver appeared headed for a short-lived comeback.

Twenty-time national champion Mark Ruiz, who retired after the 2004 Athens Games but returned nine months ago, plunged to 11th in the springboard semis, beating out only one other diver. Without an improbable rally, he has no chance of even being invited to next month's selection camp in Tennessee, which will be used to round out the rest of the team.