Members of the Sudbury Synchro Club were not about to limit their medal winning performances to one simple category while competing at the 2018 Ontario Open Age Group Synchronized Swimming Championships held recently in Etobicoke.
In earning a total of four podium placements, the local crew managed to post top three finishes in solo, duet and team competitions, with the 13-15 age bracket accounting for three of the four medals.
The outlier from that group produced the one and only silver medal, as the duet of Stacie Kohan and Georgia Speck (coached by Courtney Stasiuk) placed second in a field of 11 pairings.
The Sudbury duo were given scores of 65.2667, just back of a Nepean tandem at 65.6333, at the top of the 16-20 (age) duet class.
A second Sudbury duet medal came courtesy of Madison Hood and Amy Lacelle (coached by Chelsea Wandziak), as the locals followed entries from Nepean (65.5406) and Durham (63.4959), registering a final score of 63.4386, good enough for bronze.
A third place finish was also in store for Amy Lacelle in the solo category, her aggregate total of 63.8396 trailing only Niah Marshall (Durham) at 65.6042 and Molly Chen (Toronto) at 64.4897.
In fact, Lacelle would make it a troika of bronze medals when she combined with her 13-15 team to finish third behind Durham and Nepean. Joining her with the Chelsea Wandziak coached squad were Emily Binks, Madison Hood, Sarah Ieropoli, Stacie Kohan, Bronwyn Ashley, Gillian Franklin, Georgia Speck and Maeve Caddel.
Narrowly missing a top three finish was the Sudbury duet of Emily Binks and Sarah Ieropoli (coached by Lindsay Wandziak), who slid into fourth place in the 13-15 division with a score of 62.7876.
Yet another Sudbury highlight along the way as the local reps placed no less than four athletes in the top 15 (out of 207 swimmers) in the 13-15 Figures competition.
More amazingly perhaps, was the fact that they were all tightly bunched together, with Lacelle (11th - 64.8125), Speck (12th - 64.7085), Kohan (13th - 64.6250) and Binks (14th - 64.5628) back to back to back.
Following are some of the remaining figures scores and standings for the Sudbury and area athletes:
13-15 (207 swimmers)
- Madison Hood - 62.5418 (38th)
- Bronwyn Ashley - 61.6250 (58th)
- Sarah Ieropoli - 60.8540 (70th)
- Gillian Franklin - 58.1455 (131st)
- Maeve Caddel - 56.6040 (166th)
- swimmers coached by Chelsea Wandziak
10 and under (128 swimmers)
- Eva Jessup - 54.5625 (34th)
- Sarah Crittenden - 52.7290 (54th)
- Olivia Burke - 50.3750 (82nd)
- Lilliana MacIsaac - 49.4375 (94th)
- Justine Perron-Zathureczky - 48.2710 (108th)
- swimmers coached by Lindsay Wandziak
11-12 (219 swimmers)
- Emilie Ladouceur - 58.7500 (46th)
- Lana Squires - 57.8330 (59th)
- Maxine Lafleur - 56.4998 (84th)
- Lily Burns - 56.2500 (92nd)
- Sophia Flabiano - 55.7500 (103rd)
- Heidi Fink - 55.4168 (110th)
- Amy Seguin - 56.6665 (121st)
- Chloe Cholette - 53.9167 (134th)
- Rachelle Prevost - 49.5000 (193rd)
- Julianne Crittenden - 47.4168 (208th)
- swimmers coached by Courtney Stasiuk and Candice Larochelle
The 10 and under and 11-12 teams did not manage to make finals, though they did garner some very valuable competition experience through the following showings:
- 11-12 coached by Candice Larochelle finished 14th in a field of 32 teams
- 11-12 coached by Courtney Stasiuk finished 25th in a field of 32 teams *despite having one injured swimmer and competing with only five athletes
- 10 and under coached by Lindsay Wandziak finished 14th in a field of 19 teams
The duet of Heidi Fink and Amy Seguin posted a score of 55.2375 (11-12 duet), placing 15th among the 17 entries.
Finally, the Sudbury Synchro Club is hosting another TRY SYNCHRO evening on Friday, June 15, from 6:30 - 8 p.m. at the Laurentian University pool.
