U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS : SDSU Grad Pollock Earns Spot in Rowing

San Diego State graduate Aaron Pollock and partner John Moore earned spots on the U.S. Olympic rowing team by winning in the pair with coxswain event Saturday in Camden, N.J.

Pollock, 24, Moore, 27, a former Duke rower, and coxswain Steve Schellans covered 2,000 meters in 7 minutes, 6 seconds.

Pollock, in his second year with the national team in Philadelphia, and Moore are undefeated in the past two years in their event. They were heavy favorites.

“I was nervous that what we worked two years for would slip away,� Pollock said. “Luckily, we’re in a sport where the people who are supposed to win usually do.�

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 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.

“I thought Mary Ellen was going to faint on her last dive,� said Ron O’Brien, her coach. “She got her arms up and just about stopped.�

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.

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., 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.

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.