Noblesville 15-year-old Josh Hedberg finishes 11th in world diving

The youngest ever to represent the United States in men’s diving at a World Championships turned out to be among the best in the world.

Josh Hedberg of Noblesville made the final and finished 11th Sunday to conclude the diving program at Budapest, Hungary.

Hedberg’s age is 15 years and five months. Previously, the youngest American in men's diving at a worlds was Indianapolis’ Thomas Finchum, who was 15 years, seven months in 2005.

More:Indy's Sarah Bacon makes U.S. diving history with 2nd world silver

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Yang Jian, 28, finished first with a score of 515.55 to complete a Chinese sweep of all 13 gold medals in diving. Another 15-year-old, Rikuto Tamai of Japan, took silver with 488.00.

Oleksii Sereda, 16, of Ukraine finished sixth at 477.45. Hedberg’s score was 375.10, compared with his prelim of 429.15.

Tamai, Sereda and Hedberg went 3-4-5 in Saturday’s prelims. In semifinals trimming the field to 12, Hedberg was 11th and Greenwood’s Zach Cooper 13th.

Hedberg was fourth in last year's Olympic Trials at Indianapolis, with two making the Tokyo team.

Elsewhere, Indianapolis diver Sarah Bacon finished fifth on 3-meter and Indiana University’s Carson Tyler won a bronze medal in mixed synchronized 10-meter.

Bacon, who won her second world silver on 1-meter Wednesday, had two high-scoring dives in the last two rounds and climbed from seventh to fifth on 3-meter Saturday. Her finish was highest by an American woman on 3-meter at worlds since Olympians Christina Loukas and Kelci Bryant were fourth and seventh, respectively, in 2011.

On Friday, Tyler teamed with Delaney Schnell in mixed synchro. They were 1.11 points behind silver medalist Ukraine.

Tyler was paired with Schnell instead of IU’s Tarrin Gilliland, who was sidelined by injury. Schnell and Katrina Young teamed for silver in women’s synchro 10-meter Thursday.

Tyler’s medal was the Hoosiers’ fourth of the World Championships, following Lilly King’s three golds in swimming. Another IU diver, Kristen Hayden, teamed with Brooke Schultz for seventh in synchro 3-meter Sunday.

China dominated the medal count with 17, featuring the sweep of 13 golds. Great Britain had six medals, and the United States and Canada three each. Two of the Americans’ medals were in non-Olympic events.

Contact IndyStar reporter David Woods at david.woods@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.