March 22, 2007

MELBOURNE, Australia – Former Gamecock diver, Allison Brennan, will move on the women’s 1-meter semifinals after placing eighth with 268.15 points in Thursday night’s preliminaries at the FINA World Championships.

The top 12 finishers advance, with two six-diver semifinals to determine the field for the finals. Brennan (Huntington Beach, Calif.) was in the top 12 for the entire competition. She never fell lower than 11th and was ranked as high as six for two rounds.

“I’m feeling very good (heading into the semis) because I know I can improve on some of my dives,” she said. “My goal in the semis is to make top three and then to preferably come out with a gold medal in the finals.”

Brennan will join two Russians – Irina Lashko (297.15) and Yuliya Pakhalina (285.30), and German Heike Fischer (269.75), Australian Sharleen Stratton (256.15) and Italian Noemi Batki (255.45) in Semifinal A.

Christina Loukas (Riverwoods, Ill.) was just two spots out of advancing to semis as well. Loukas placed 14th with 245.55 points.

Brennan will compete in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Friday (7 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday). Troy Dumais (Austin, Texas) will compete after that in the men’s 3-meter semifinals at noon. The finals for both events will be held Friday night.

Brennan, a four-time All-American, competed for the Gamecocks from 2002-2006 and was first NCAA Champion for the Gamecock swimming and diving program. She won the one-meter in 2004 and finished third in 2006. Brennan also was a two-time SEC Champion.