With teams representing only Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie competing at the northern region synchro championship, it's small wonder that provincial officials of the sport opted, a few years back, to combine the event with the central region meet, a section which features considerably more competition.
And in that sense, it's also small wonder that coaches and officials with Sudbury Synchro take particular pride when their athletes show well in a much larger venue, even if their accomplishments are somewhat "unofficial," given the participation of two separate and independent regions.
Taking to the waters of the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre last weekend, local swimmers rose to the challenge at hand. Notably, Stacie Kohan recorded the top score of all 83 girls competing in the 13-15 figures event, taking gold at 64.0833, just ahead of a Toronto Synchro competitor at 63.4168.
Teammate Amy Lacelle nearly duplicated that feat, finishing second among the 76 central and north representatives in the 11-12 figures grouping with a score of 63.1668.
Also cracking the top 10 in the 13-15 age bracket were Georgia Speck (4th - 62.7500) and Emily Binks (9th - 60.5833). Perhaps even more impressive was a complete Sudbury sweep in the 13-15 duet competition.
With a total of 10 pairings entered from across the province, the locals returned home with gold (Georgia Speck/Laurel Duguay), silver (Emily Binks/Sarah Leropoli) and bronze (Madison Hood/Amy Lacelle), much to the delight of coaches Kristiina Muinonen, Lindsay Wandziak and Candice Larochelle.
While the above-noted results constituted the pinnacle of the Sudbury performance, other noteworthy rankings, across various age categories, included:
10 and Under
Team Championship Score 51.7654
Finished 8/12 and first northern region
Coached by Lindsay Wandziak
Duet - Lily Burns/Maxine Lafleur
Championship Score 53.7417
Finished 8/9 and first northern region
Coached by Chelsea Wandziak
11-12 Division
Team Championship Score 54.0262
Finished 7/13 and first northern region
Coached by Candice Larochelle
Duet - Emilie Ladouceur/Lana Squires
Championship Score 55.5792
Finished 6/7 and first northern region
Coached by Kriistina Muinonen
13-15 Division
Team Championship Score 61.6389
Finished 2/11 (behind only Toronto) and first northern region
Coached by Chelsea Wandziak
Duet - Maeve Caddel/Gillian Franklin
Championship Score 52.6292
Finished 9/10 and fourth northern region
Coached by Chelsea Wandziak
The Sudbury Synchro team is back in action from April 6-9, heading to Etobicoke for the Hilton Worldwide Invitational, with the crew looking to replicate their success at the event from one year ago.
