China's Yuan Cao will be the man to beat in the men's individual 3M springboard.
Cao recorded a preliminary-best score of 498.70 Monday to guarantee himself a berth in Tuesday morning's semifinal.
Mexico's Rommel Pacheco finished second with 488.25 points, and USA's Kristian Ipsen, a native of Clayton, California, finished third with 461.35 points.
Ipsen, who attended Stanford University and won bronze in the synchronized 3m in London with Troy Dumais, turned in a remarkably consistent list, scoring no worse than 71.75 and scoring as high as 84.00 on his final dive, a reverse 1.5 free with 3.5 twists.
Reigning gold medalist Ilya Zakharov of Russia got out to a terrible start with back-to-back poor dives, but he was able to claw his way back into 18th place as the final qualifier with a shockingly low 389.90 points.
Zakharov nicked the board with his right foot on his first dive while attempting a difficult inward 3.5-somersault tuck and was left with a disappointing 42.50. Then, attempting a back 3.5-somersault tuck on his second dive, he churned up a large splash and scored a 50.40.
USA's Michael Hixon, who scored silver in the synchronized 3m alongside partner Sam Dorman, will move on to the semifinal after totaling 421.60 points for a 10th-place finish. Hixon topped out with an 85.75 dive on his third attempt, a reverse 1.5 free with 3.5 twists, but was held back a bit by a poor entry on his next dive, a 47.25 reverse 3.5 tuck.
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The top 18 will be back at the diving well Tuesday morning for the 9am ET semifinal, where the top 12 will advance to the final Tuesday evening at 5pm ET.
High winds at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center made for an interesting preliminary in the men's individual 3m springboard as 18 of the 29 competitors booked their berth in Tuesday morning's semifinal.
Michael Hixon's list
1. Back 2.5 pike -- 3.0 -- 67.50
2. Forward 2.5 pike 2 twists -- 3.4 -- 76.50
3. Reverse 1.5 free 3.5 twists -- 3.5 -- 85.75
4. Reverse 3.5 tuck -- 3.5 -- 47.25
5. Forward 3.5 tuck -- 3.8 -- 81.70
6. Inward 3.5 tuck -- 3.4 -- 62.90
Total score: 421.60
Kristian Ipsen's list
1. Back 2.5 pike -- 3.0 -- 72.00
2. Inward 2.5 pike -- 3.0 -- 76.50
3. Forward 3.5 pike -- 3.1 -- 80.60
4. Forward 2.5 pike 2 twists -- 3.4 -- 76.50
5. Reverse 3.5 tuck -- 3.5 -- 71.75
6. Reverse 1.5 free 3.5 twists -- 3.5 -- 84.00
Total score: 461.35
