CALGARY (February 5, 2012) - The Queen's Synchronized Swimming Team travelled to the University of Calgary February 3-5th for the Canadian University Synchronized Swimming League Nationals.
This meet, held outside of Ontario for the first time in CUSSL history, attracted synchronized swimming teams from universities all across Canada. Queen's Synchro, bringing two competitive teams and one novice team, put up a strong showing and finished off their season beautifully.
In the novice team category, the Queen's team (Kristen Chen, Julia Cioffi, Emma Kanga, Sydney Proudfoot, coached by Emily Post) finished in 4th overall with their best swim ever. This team is made up of swimmers who all began synchro last year or this September, and have come incredibly far in synchro in the past five months.
In the competitive team category, the two Queen's teams were both off to a strong start following the preliminary event. The Queen's Blue team, made up of Jennifer Snowdon, Melissa McCoy, Nicole Amato, Claire Rinne, Colleen Gammie, Kaleigh Burns, and Kathleen Lance, coached by Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, was ranked 7th in the preliminaries with a score of 66.950, while the Queen's Yellow team, of captain Alex Cross, Danielle Allan, Laura Snowdon, Anna Stratton, Allyshia Van Tol, Megan Smallwood, Fiona Roth, Emily Verbiski, and Hannah Koke, coached by Lise Papineau) finished preliminaries in 4th place with a score of 70.267. These rankings were then used to seat all 18 teams for the final event.
Finals brought some fierce competition from opposing teams. The Queen's Blue team, with a fantastic performance, were able to maintain their 7th place spot, finishing with a score of 66.033.
During finals, the Queen's Yellow team managed to pull off a beautiful swim, surprising the competition by pulling into third place with a score of 71.733. Showing incredible improvement from their fifth place finish a month earlier at Eastern Canadian Divisionals, they were close behind the University of Calgary in first place and McGill University in second place, and ahead of very strong teams from Western (4th), Ottawa (5th), and Guelph (6th).
Memorable moments of the awards ceremony include the Yellow team receiving their bronze medals, nine Queen's Synchro members (Alex Cross, Danielle Allan, Georgia Carley, Kristen Chen, Krista Cook, Samantha Putos, Claire Rinne, Fiona Roth, Lise Papineau) receiving the All Canadian Award, and Alex Cross' nomination for the Anne Smeeton Award, for her outstanding contributions to the Canadian University Synchronized Swimming League.
CUSSL Nationals brings the end of Queen's Synchro's 2011-12 season. The club will return to training in September 2012.
