MOULTRIE – As he did the day before, Carson Tyler used the scores on his final two dives to advance in the men’s springboard competition on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics.

The Colquitt County and Moss Farms Diving Tiger, participating in his first Olympics, scored 78.75 points on each of his final two dives to clinch a berth in the finals.

The Olympic springboard finals will be televised at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The top 12 finishers in Wednesday’s semifinals advanced and Tyler found himself in 10th place with two dives remaining.

But the scores on his reverse 3 1/2 somersaults and reverse 1 1/2 somersaults 3 1/2 twist – his two dives with the highest degree of difficulty – sent him to a seventh-place finish with a score of 438.00.

The springboard competition began on Tuesday with 25 divers competing in the preliminary round.

Tyler finished 10th in the prelims to earn one of the 18 berths in the Wednesday’s semifinals.

As expected, divers from China took the top two finishes in the semifinals.

Zongyuna Wang was first with a 537.85 and was followed by Siyi Xie, who scored a 505.85.

Rounding out the top seven semifinal finishers are Jack Laugher of Great Britain, with a 467.05; Osmar Olvera Ibarra of Mexico, 463.75; Jordan Holden of Great Britain, 445.55; and Jules Bouyer of France, who finished sixth, just .30 points ahead of Tyler with a 438.30.

Andrew Capobianco, Tyler’s USA teammate, did not qualify for the finals.

Tyler is just the third American diver – and the first since 2000 – to qualify for the Olympics on both individual events.

He will begin competition in the 10-meter event in the prelims scheduled for Friday.

The semifinal and final will be held on Saturday.