U.S. Olympic Festival Roundup : Louganis Takes Lead in Diving

HOUSTON â€”  Greg Louganis scored two perfect 10s and took a big lead in the men’s three-meter springboard diving Wednesday night at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

The 26-year-old winner of two gold medals at the 1984 Olympic Games trailed early in the competition before moving ahead of his rivals by strongly executing dives with high degrees of difficulty.

Louganis, of Boca Raton, Fla., had 724.53 points after 11 preliminary dives. Mark Bradshaw of Springfield, Ore., was a distant second with 697.32. Kent Ferguson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was third with 664.14.

The scores in the preliminaries carry over to today’s finals, with the top two finishers earning spots on the United States team for next month’s world championships.

U.S. Olympic Committee officials announced that the festival has already broken the record for ticket sales. The mark of 251,196 tickets sold was actually set Monday, but tabulation of figures is running about two days behind.

Revenues from ticket sales have reached $2 million, easily passing the $1.3-million high set at Indianapolis in 1982. The $2-million figure doesn’t include most of the revenue from Monday and Tuesday’s events.

With gymnastics, track and field and the basketball championship round still to come, organizers are confident of reaching their break-even mark of 350,000 tickets.

In water polo, Maureen O’Toole of Long Beach continued her hot scoring pace with eight goals as the North beat the South, 19-12.

O’Toole, who led the women’s water polo tournament in scoring last year, set a festival mark with her eight goals. She had six in an earlier game here, and her 20 goals equal her seven-game total of 1985.