Duke‘s Nick McCrory put together a very consistent six rounds of dives in the men’s 10-meter platform preliminaries on Friday. The eighth-place finish (480.90 points) pushed him into the Saturday semifinals (the top 18 advanced).

McCrory got better and better, as his last three dives were his best. His last dive, a back 2 ½ somersault with 2 ½ twists for a 3.6 degree of difficulty, scored the best (86.40 points).

The shocking part of the preliminaries was medal favorite David Boudia, McCrory‘s synchro partner. He just squeaked into the semifinals, as he came in 18th. His final two dives were poor.

Qui Bo, the 19-year old from China, led the preliminary round. Hometown favorite Tom Daley also squeaked in by finishing 15th with a solid final dive. Reigning champion Matt Mitcham of Australia also was not at his best but advanced (he finished ninth).

The semifinals will be broadcast live at 5am ET at NBCOlympics.com. The finals (the top 12) will be held later Saturday at 3:30pm ET. Both will re-air on NBC during primetime.

*In attendance at the prelims was Duke teammate Abby Johnston, who earned a silver medal in the women’s 3M synchronized diving earlier in the London Olympics.