U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS : Owen, Clark Make U.S. Platform Team

Ellen Owen completed a comeback from retirement and Mary Ellen Clark shook off a history of fading under pressure to win spots on the 10-meter platform team at the U.S. Olympic diving trials Saturday at Indianapolis.

Owen was never challenged in the finals, which shaped up as a battle for the second Olympic berth between Clark, 29, and Jill McCambridge, a 33-year-old mother of three. Owen led Clark by five points entering the finals, but outscored Clark on three of her first four dives.

“I knew I had a cushion, but that I could be caught,� Owen said. “I went into it very focused.�

Clark led McCambridge by 1.77 points going into the eighth and final dive. McCambridge went first with an inward 2 1/2 somersault with a 2.8 degree of difficulty.

She received marks ranging from 6.5 to 7.0 for a 57.96 total, taking the pressure off Clark.

Clark, who did a back 1 1/2 somersault with a 2 1/2 twist, received marks ranging from 6.5 to 8.0 for a 62.16 total--winning by 5.77 points.

Owen had 858.87 points, followed by Clark at 827.97 and McCambridge with 822.

Matt Scoggin of Austin, Tex., leads the men into today’s finals in platform diving with 672.93 points. Pat Evans of Cincinnati is second at 608.82, followed by Scott Donie of Houston at 601.26.

Three-time Olympian Inga Thompson joined two-time selectees Bob Mionske and Sally Zack on the Olympic squad announced at the U.S. cycling trials and national championships at Altoona, Pa.

Thompson, 28, of Reno, eighth in the 1988 Olympic road race, won the Olympic trials race Friday and finished second Wednesday in the national championship event.

Mionske, 30, of Madison, Wis., finished fourth in Seoul in the men’s Olympic road race. Zack, 29, of Boulder, Colo., finished 16th in the women’s road race in 1988.

Mionske will be joined by Lance Armstrong, 20, of Austin, Tex., and Tim Peddie, 22, of Boulder, Colo., on the men’s road team.

Jeanne Golay, 30, of Glenwood Springs, Colo., who won three races during the 10-day championships and finished second in the Olympic trials race, will complete the women’s three-rider team.

George Hincapie, 18, of Farmingdale, N.Y., Scott Mercier, 24, of Telluride, Colo., Nathan Sheafor, 30, of Boulder, Colo., and David Nicholson, 31, of Seattle were named to the men’s 100-kilometer squad.

Michael Matz completed an almost-flawless six-event performance, wrapping up first and second place in the U.S. equestrian trials at Gladstone, N.J.

Matz, 41, of Collegeville, Pa., qualified for the top two spots on the four-member U.S. equestrian team. He withdrew his runner-up score in compliance with the rules of the U.S. equestrian team.

Aboard Heisman, Matz jumped two clear rounds to complete an almost flawless performance, knocking down only one jump, over six qualification trials.

Matz finished second astride Olisco with 16.50 penalties.

Norman Dello Joio of West Palm Beach, Fla., will ride 8-year-old Irish, one of the youngest horses in the Olympics. Lisa Jacquin of Phoenix will ride 18-year-old For the Moment, one of the oldest.

Anne Kursinski of Flemington, N.J., a silver medalist at Seoul in 1988, will return to the Olympics aboard 9-year-old Cannonball.