Shade Global

NBC Olympics

David Boudia and Steele Johnson continued to build on their runaway lead in the men’s synchronized 10m platform semifinal competition at the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials on Sunday from Indianapolis.

The pair now leads their nearest competitors by 124.98 points with a total of 835.56 points. Their highest scoring dive, a inward three and a half somersault tuck, reached 90.78 points. The mark was the only one to clear 90 points throughout the semifinal.

Their only flub during the semifinal was on the pair’s fifth dive, a forward four and a half somersault tuck, when Boudia entered the water underrotated. Still, that dive scored 68.82 points.

“I think [Johnson] would say his last dive he wishes he would’ve done a little better. I was the extremely weak link in this competition. I missed my last two dives terribly and those are the kind of dives that you don’t expect to do that,” Boudia said through USA Diving.

Boudia, the individual platform gold medalist from the 2012 Olympics, earned a bronze medal at the London Games in the synchronized event alongside then-partner Nick McCrory. The new odd couple – Johnson turned 20 on June 16, while Boudia is celebrating Father’s Day today – The pair teamed up soon after the London Games and found moderate international success. The pair finished fifth at the 2015 World Championships in the synchronized platform event.

Boudia and Johnson have a long history together, though; they both grew up in the Indianapolis suburbs and teenaged Boudia would often drive a then-10-year-old Johnson to practice.

Earlier Sunday in the preliminary round, Boudia and Johnson raced to a 70.26 point lead over their nearest competitors, totaling 416.52 points.

Their third dive, an inward three and a half somersault tuck, was their highest scoring of the round at 85.44 points.

Scores are cumulative through each round – preliminary, semifinal and final – at diving Trials. However, no teams are eliminated as they move into Thursday night’s final.

Pairs Ryan Hawkins and Toby Stanley sit in second place with 710.58 points, followed by Max Showalter and Zachary Cooper in third with 698.46 points while Benjamin Bramley and Maxwell Flory rounding out the field in fourth with 666.00 points.