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A historic Winter Games for Sudbury Syncro

Club reaches podium for first time in 20 year history
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A bronze medal performance at the recent 2018 Ontario Winter Games for the Sudbury Synchro Swim Club was more than just nice - it was downright historic. (Supplied)

A bronze medal performance at the recent 2018 Ontario Winter Games for the Sudbury Synchro Swim Club was more than just nice — it was downright historic.

For the first time in the 20-year history of the SSSC, a local synchro team reached the podium at the bi-annual Games. True, there had been one previous bronze medal OWG finish, but that was back in the time when the group operated as the Sudbury Y Synchro.

The 13-15 collection of talent, comprised of Bronwyn Ashley, Emily Binks, Maeve Caddel, Madison Hood, Sarah Ieropoli, Stacie Kohan, Amy Lacelle, Georgia Speck and Gillian Franklin, leveraged a second-place finish in routine scores to a third place overall final seeding.

With a combined championship score of 63.3959, the Chelsea Wandziak coached squad was behind only Durham (65.1952) and Nepean (63.9179). On top of that, the team also garnered top placement in the land drills competition, a non-medalled event.

That said, it wasn't just in team competitions that the Sudbury Synchro Club distinguished themselves. Amy Lacelle was clearly in top form as a soloist as well, earning another bronze medal under the tutelage of coach Courtney Stasiuk.

She was also one of three Sudbury athletes who would crack the top ten in the figures (4th - 65.2498), joining Stacie Kohan (6th - 64.6668) and Emily Binks (8th - 64.0833). That age bracket also produced a pair of top five duet rankings with Lacelle/Hood in fourth and Binks/Ieropoli in fifth.

Meanwhile, Lana Squires, Emilie Ladouceur, Chloe Cholette, Maxine Lafleur and Lily Burns all donned the Sudbury Synchro colours in the 11-12 division. With one swimmer falling ill, the remaining quartet re-swam their routine, a very gutsy performance for first-time Ontario Winter Games participants.

Back in 2004, current coach Lindsay Wandziak combined with partner Stephanie Westphal to win a gold medal at the Games in the Tier 5 bracket, with Chelsea Wandziak and Irina Cividino nabbing silver in the Tier 5 duet at the 2006 competition.


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