STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Vols in Pros

• Haynesworth raring to go for Titans
• Wells has setback with lower back injury
• Hannon joins 49ers' practice squad

Share and Enjoy [?]

Get Reprints

Want to use this article? Click here for options!

Former University of Tennessee diver Jevon Tarantino hopes to return to Knoxville one day to complete his degree work.

He has returned temporarily this week to work on his degree of difficulty and other Olympic diving challenges.

The 24-year-old - who left school early to pursue his athletic dreams - is one of several competitors taking part in the USA Diving 2008 Olympic Team Selection Camp through Sunday at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

"The first trials (in 2004) I was pretty nervous," he said following a practice on Wednesday. "I was a little unsure. But now I feel free to go on and win. I am not scared to lose and I am not scared to win."

Tarantino will be competing in the 3-meter springboard and the 3-meter synchronized with Christopher Colwill today and Saturday.

A team of judges will use the results of this week's competition and other factors to select the final U.S. diving teams members for next month's Olympics in Beijing.

Divers who finished first at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis last month have automatically qualified.

Tarantino finished fourth in his event, but said he has since corrected problems he was having with one dive.

He feels he has his mental focus in line as well.

"I have worked hard," said the bronze medalist of the last three national championships. "I know what it takes."

Tarantino came to UT from South Florida after being recruited by diving coach Dave Parrington, who is one of this week's team selection judges.

He competed for the Vols in 2004 and 2005.

Although the Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center was still a dream when he was with the Vols, he has enjoyed using it this week.

"It is unbelievable," he said. "I think it is the best aquatic center in the nation. And I have been almost everywhere."

Although the facility is state of the art, it could have used even a Fenway Park-style manual scoreboard during the opening competition Wednesday night in the men's and women's 10-meter synchronized.

As the pairs began the second of three rounds in front of about 300 fans, a scoring software glitch prevented the scores from being electronically tabulated and posted on the scoreboard.

After a 30-minute delay, the judges were forced to use flash cards for scoring.

Veteran Olympian Laura Wilkinson, who was competing with fellow Texan Jessica Livingston, considered the delay only a minor hassle,

"Nobody seemed to be too affected by it," she said.

The scores for the last two rounds were to be tabulated manually after the event, but Wilkinson and Livingston had the highest scores in the first round, as did David Boudia and Thomas Finchum for the men.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.