Dent sets sights on Olympic bronze

Taylor Dent, a former Corona del Mar High tennis standout, will hope

to win a bronze medal in the men’s singles competition at the Olympic

Games in Athens, Greece, after falling to Chilean Nicolas Massu, 7-6,

6-1, in a semifinal.

Dent, ranked 59th on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour,

faced Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who upset U.S. Open champion Andy

Roddick in the third round, late Friday night.

Massu and Dent battled through a 69-minute first set, where each

held serve until the tiebreak.

Massu, the 10th seed, seemed to gain momentum after taking the

tiebreak, claiming five straight games before Dent got on the

scoreboard.

Dent took one more game before Massu served out for the victory,

quashing the chances of an all-American final after the United

States’ Mardy Fish downed Gonzalez, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Fish will hand the U.S. its 32nd medal in Olympic tennis, while

Dent has the chance to claim his country’s 33rd.

* In other Olympic action:

Newport Harbor High alum Aaron Peirsol, who has already won two

golds -- in the men’s 100- and 200-meter backstroke races -- in these

Games, was put in position to collect his third after the U.S. 400

medley relay team, the defending Olympic champion and world record

holder, posted the fastest time in Friday’s preliminaries.

Peirsol did not compete in the preliminary but is expected to

handle the backstroke leg in today’s final for Team USA, which topped

all qualifiers with a time of 3 minutes, 35.10 seconds in the second

of two qualifying heats.

In an upset, the Australian team failed to qualify, finishing

ninth in 3:39.14.

Germany clocked a 3:36.65 to post the second-fastest qualifying

time while Great Britain was third among qualifiers (3:36.94).

Japan, Hungary, France, Russia and Ukraine will round out the

eight-team final, scheduled for 9 a.m. Pacific time.

Orange Coast College student and Newport Beach resident Jennifer

Parilla, the only American in the women’s trampoline competition,

finished 14th, failing to make it out of the qualifying round after

tumbling out of bounds during her second routine.

On the eighth of a possible 10 skills, a twisting somersault 15

feet in the air, Parilla, who finished ninth in the 2000 Games in

Sydney, Australia, got off-center and landed at the very edge of the

canvas. She bounced up, but had nowhere to go but onto the cushion

behind the trampoline, automatically ending her routine.

Parilla said she was thrown out of her rhythm when her name was

announced earlier than she expected before the second qualifying

routine.

Parilla had been ninth after the compulsories, still in position

to qualify for the final.

German Anna Dogonadze took the gold while 2000 gold medalist Irina

Karavaeva of Russia also failed to advance after a fall and placed

15th.

UC Irvine product Lanee Butler-Beashel finished 14th in the

women’s windsurfing race but improved her standing to 17th place

overall with 69 points. The women have five more races in an 11-race

series.

Newport Beach resident Peter Wells, a former UCI standout, dropped

one position to 25th in the men’s windsurfing competition following

his two races Friday. He has earned 103 points through six races with

five remaining.

Both Butler-Beashel and Wells will continue their competitions

today while locals in women’s beach volleyball and men’s water polo

take to the stage.

Former Newport Harbor standout Misty May, Dent’s cousin, and

partner Kerri Walsh, will attempt to add to their unbeaten record in

the women’s beach volleyball competition when they face Jia Tian and

Fei Wang from China at 10 a.m. Pacific time today in the round of 16.

The U.S. men’s water polo team (2-1), which features five former

UCI players, faces Russia at 12:15 p.m. Pacific time today.