The University of the Incarnate Word synchronized swimming team won’t be home for turkey and dressing this holiday week, but instead will be representing UIW and the United States of America in the 2009 FINA Trophy Cup in Montreal, Canada, this Thanksgiving weekend.
Seven current members of the UIW synchro team – senior Vanessa Calle, juniors Alex Stensby and Elizabeth Norton, sophomores Molly Knight and Anna Nelson and freshmen Kelsey Smith and Sami Davis – will take to the water in the three-day event that starts on Friday at the Olympic Park Sports Centre.
The FINA Trophy Cup is an international event that will pit Team USA/UIW against teams representing the countries of Russia, Spain, China, Japan, Canada, Italy, Great Britain, Brazil and Egypt. The Trophy Cup is a different event from the kind that UIW competes in during their collegiate season in that the event is judge totally on artistic merit – so the teams will do routines that involve props and more elaborate costumes than they would use in collegiate competition.
Stensby is a member of U.S.A.’s National Team #1 while Nelson is a two-time National Team athlete.
Joining the current Cardinals are two former UIW swimmers who bring with them experience at the international level as well.
Lyssa Wallace, a four-year member of UIW Synchro, is a current member of the National #1 Team and is likely to compete for the United States in the 2012 Olympics. She will join Liz Chinoransky, another former Cardinal, who is a two-time National Team athlete to give the UIW/USA squad some additional international experience for the big stage.
Wallace will swim a solo for Team U.S.A.
One of the events that the teams must compete in is a Thematic Team Routine – an event where the team can perform a routine that reflects their country’s culture – and UIW head coach Kimberly Wurzel-Lo Porto has her girls doing a routine to the music of Michael Jackson.
“We are wearing full costumes with hats, shoes, etc. for the deck work and stripping them off before they get into the water,” Lo Porto explained. “They will be swimming with socks, shoes, and the iconic white glove that Jackson was known for, on throughout the routine.”
The connection to Michael Jackson goes back to earlier in the year when the UIW synchro team held their annual Synchro Show and Auction event. Lo Porto and her Cardinals felt that the team could use those routines and music to get a good start on preparing for Trophy Cup and that the theme could really be used well in Montreal.
Fans of U.S.A. and/or Incarnate Word Synchro can check www.usasynchro.org for updates on the team’s progress, as well as at cardinalathletics.com.