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The Woodlands’ Laura Wilkinson, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist in the platform, scored 362 total points in the preliminaries of the women’s 10-meter platform at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Ind., Wednesday.
Wilkinson’s point total was less than two points ahead of Haley Ishimatsu of Indianapolis who finished in second place with a total score of 360.70.
Wilkinson’s best dive of the competition was a reverse 3 1/2 somersault tuck in which she scored an 81.6.
The 30-year-old is trying to make her third trip to the Olympics after finishing fifth in the event at the 2004 Games.
Wilkinson’s The Woodlands teammate Jessica Livingston finished day one in third place with a total of 358.4.
Montgomery’s Michelle Cabassol, the youngest participant in the event at 15 years old, finished sixth with a score of 303.95.
Conroe’s Vennie Dantin finished in 11th with a score of 232.65.
On the men’s side The Woodlands Diving Academy was also well represented with three participants in the 10-meter platform prelims including Drew Livingston (466.55) and JJ Kinzbach (428.4) who finished in third and fourth place, respectively. Spring’s Harrison Jones rounded out the list of local divers with a total of 397.3, good for eighth place.
The men’s platform semifinals will take place today at 6 p.m. while the women’s semis are scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday.
The women’s 3-meter springboard prelims will begin at noon today.
The winner of each event gains an automatic spot on the 2008 Olympic team. The top six in each event at the Olympic Trials will travel to a selection camp in July where the remaining Olympic team spots will be announced.

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In a first-floor room at the Economy Inn in Morgan Hill, the clothed body of porn director Inkyo Volt Hwang, 38, lay face down, half off and half on the bed, an empty box of Milk Duds near his head.
Hwang’s body was found Sept. 29 a few feet from a shrine he constructed to his recently deceased wife, porn starlet Haley Paige, 25. Near two glass candles, he taped three computer-generated photos of Paige smiling and another of her casket. In a spiral notebook, he described how hard it was for him to deal with her death, a death in which police said he was implicated.
Early this month, the verdict on Hwang’s demise became public. It was no big surprise. The Santa Clara County coroner’s office said the Canoga Park man had committed suicide by an overdose of methadone pills.
Another sordid death in a sordid world? Maybe. As I pulled back the strands of this story, however, I encountered things I did not expect: a father’s grief, a daughter’s yearning, an unpopular man’s penance and even male chauvinists’ compassion.
This much seems clear: Hwang and Paige were hellbent for destruction in a life that mixed porn, drugs and violence in a lethal cocktail.
Hwang, sometimes known as “Chico Wanker Wang,” was a UCLA honors graduate, an erratic ex-con who swore he never could tell his Korean-born parents what he did. “This was a very dark, dangerous fellow,” said Luke Ford, a freelance writer who knew him. “He would talk about killing himself or other people
with a disturbing ease that wasn’t just humor.”
Sweet and sad
Paige, whose real name was Maryam Haley, came across as sweet and sad, a Woody Guthrie fan plunged into a world that mocked melody. Born of mixed Mexican and Welsh descent, she grew up in San Diego and worked odd jobs - a Blockbuster clerk, an aide to the Green Party - before drifting into the porn industry. She said she needed money for rent.

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