Two former Hawkeyes, Veronica Rydze and Deidre Freeman, are one step closer to London after advancing past the preliminaries and semifinals of the Olympic diving trials.

The pair traveled to Weyerhaeuser Fins County Aquatic Center in Federal, Wash., to compete for the 3-meter synchronized spot on the USA Olympic diving team.

Rydze and Freeman competed in the women’s synchronized 3-meter springboard preliminaries on Sunday. The Hawkeye duo scored 258.54 — a personal best for the team— and earned third place behind the pairs of Abby Johnston (Duke) and Kelci Bryant (Minnesota) with a score of 314.10, and Kassidy Cook (Woodlands High School, Texas) and Christina Loukas (Indiana) with a score of 313.83.

The two Hawkeyes will compete in the 3-meter synchronized finals on Thursday at 5 p.m. CT.

Freeman paired up with Rydze during her redshirt season, and the two placed fourth in the 3-meter synchronized event at the 2010 national diving championships in August. The two Hawkeyes finished with a score of 237.72.

Rydze led the Hawkeyes after Freeman’s departure. The Iowa City native scored 325.28 and 346.10 in the 1 and 3 meter, respectively.

On their journey to the Olympic trials, Rydze and Freeman finished in fifth place at the USA Diving Winter Nationals in December 2011 and finished fifth again at the Canada Cup in Montréal in May, scoring 275.04, a personal best for the pair.

Freeman will also compete in the women’s 3-meter springboard event at 8 a.m. Tuesday. She will once again face Bryant, Cook, Johnston, and Loukas in the individual competition.

NBC will air five hours of the finals live on June 23-24 and also show nine additional hours of tape-delayed and live coverage.

— by Taylor Axelson