May 2, 2009
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Stanford, Calif. - After three days of competition, Stanford finished fourth at the 2009 U.S. Synchronized Swimming Championships. The Cardinal also completed a successful weekend as the host of the event from the Avery Aquatic Center. The competition includes the top Synchro athletes from around the nation from both college and club teams.
"It was a successful event with special credit to meet manager Sara Lowe and Avery Aquatics manager Rebecca Carpenter," said Stanford assistant coach Alison Bartosik.
In the team competition, Erin Bell, Alex Bollaidlaw, Debbie Chen, Taylor Durand, Maria Koroleva, Michelle Moore, Olivia Morgan and Corinne Smith finished third with a score of 93.083. The Santa Clara Aquamaids won the event with a score of 94.083. Performing in front of their home crowd, the Cardinal fed off the noise in the stadium for an outstanding performance.
"They had a great swim yesterday in the technical event and today was full of energy with help from the great crowd," said Bartosik.
Stanford had a pair of duets compete with the team of Koroleva and Morgan leading the way in fourth place. The Stanford freshmen achieved a score of 91.750 to trail the winning duet from Ohio State by just two points. Koroleva and Morgan were particularly strong on Saturday in the free routine, scoring a point better than their technical routine on Friday.
Placing seventh was the team of Chen and Durand with a score of 90.333. The pair of Stanford juniors were also better in the free swim on Saturday, scoring exactly one point better than the technical swim.
"I was really happy with the duets, I thought both had great swims," added Bartosik.
In the solo competition, Morgan swam as the pre-swimmer and compiled a score of 88.667. Having just missed the finals, Morgan swam first to set the standard for judging the rest of the competition.
The completion of the U.S. Nationals is also the end of the Synchro season for Stanford. However, several Stanford athletes will be back in the pool on Sunday at the Avery Aquatic Center as they attempt to qualify for the U.S. National team with phase three of the trials. Chen, Koroleva, Morgan and Smith will all attempt to move onto phase four of the qualifying, which takes place in Columbus, Ohio, on May 19-20.