Photo by Darron Cummings
AP

Buena High graduate Troy Dumais performs a dive during the finals of the men's 3-meter springboard at the U.S. Olympic diving trials in Indianapolis on Saturday. Dumais says gold is his only goal at the Beijing Games.

Photo by Michael Conroy
AP

Troy Dumais hits the water on his final dive in the finals of the men's 3-meter springboard at the U.S. Olympic diving trials in Indianapolis on Saturday. Dumais won the event and a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

INDIANAPOLIS — Troy Dumais made it 3 for three.

Dumais earned his third trip to the Olympics with a dominating performance in 3-meter springboard at the U.S. trials Saturday, but he didn't take long to celebrate. He had barely crawled from the water when his focus shifted to the ultimate goal — winning a gold medal in Beijing against the powerful Chinese team.

"I'm going to get back in the weight room on Monday morning," said Dumais, a 28-year-old native of Ventura. "The flame is burning as bright as ever."

Already spotted a 30-point head start because of his international success, Dumais didn't need any extra help. He earned a couple of perfect 10s for his second dive, overcame a bit of a wobble on his next-to-last attempt and blew away the 12-diver field with a total of 1552.90 over three rounds.

"I wanted to treat this like the Olympics," the Buena High graduate said. "In my mind, I kept saying I was behind. I wanted to push myself. I'm not going to be 90-something points ahead of the Chinese going to the last round."

Dumais finished sixth on springboard at the last two Olympics in Sydney and Athens — totally unacceptable for someone who grew up worshipping one of the greatest divers in Olympic history.

"When I was a little kid watching Greg Louganis win all those medals, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to win more than him," Dumais said. "That may not be realistic, but it stuck with me. I'm not going to quit until I give it everything."

Only the trials winner is awarded a spot on the team, though Chris Colwill will be favored for his first Olympic berth when the rest of the American squad is named at a selection camp in Knoxville, Tenn., next month. Colwill, who is 60 percent deaf, was easily the runner-up Saturday with 1465.10 in one of the best performances of his career.

Colwill broke out a brutally tough dive in the final round, a reverse 2 somersault with 2 twists from the pike position. The crowd at the Indiana University Natatorium let out a collective gasp when the announcer called out the degree of difficulty — 3.9. No one else tried a dive higher than 3.5.

The 23-year-old Floridian, who recently graduated from the University of Georgia, received marks of 6.5 to 8.0. His coach, Dan Laak, pumped his fists on the pool deck when Colwill popped up from the water, clearly pleased he had pulled it off without any major problems.

"Throwing out the big dive at end, and doing it quite well, you can't ask for anything more than that," Colwill said.

Also earning invitations to the selection camp were Justin Wilcock (1363.40), Jevon Tarantino (1362.80), 15-year-old Kristian Ipsen (1304.45) and Burkley Showe (1267.25). Colwill and Tarantino are synchro partners in 3-meter and go into the camp as favorites to represent the U.S. in the team event at Beijing.

Mark Ruiz, who came out of retirement nine months ago in hopes of making his third Olympic team, finished 11th out of 12 divers. The 20-time national champion will retire again — this time for good.

"I'm not pulling off a Michael Jordan," he joked. "But I'm glad I did it. I can look back without any regrets at all."

Christina Loukas locked up her first trip to the Olympics with an easy win in the women's 3-meter, though the enormity of it all was a bit overwhelming.

"It's not really hit me yet," said Loukas, a 22-year-old from Riverwoods, Ill.

Loukas, a three-time Big Ten diver of the year at Indiana, had a breakthrough performance at this year's World Cup in Beijing. She just missed a medal with a fourth-place showing at the Olympic pool, and she carried that momentum into trials.

Loukas already had enough points to win before her last dive, but she hit it for a string of 9s and 9.5s. On the deck, she blew a kiss to the crowd and hugged coach Jeff Huber. No one was close to her overall score of 1092.10.

Also heading for the selection camp are runner-up Nancilea Foster (1002.85), along with Allison Brennan, Ariel Rittenhouse, Kelci Bryant and Tory Ishimatsu, older sister of 15-year-old platform phenom Haley Ishimatsu.