With the coming of the spring semester at Incarnate Word, visitors to the Ann Barshop Natatorium may have noticed an increase in the number of songs, number of restarts and the level of intensity in the practices for the UIW Synchronized Swimming team.
Seyeon Min and Alex Stensby.
That’s usual for this time of year, as the synchro team is always about to start their collegiate competition season in late January, and this season is no different as the girls head to Missouri for a meet against Lindenwood University and Stanford University – but the 2010 season has an extra quirk to it, as Incarnate Word was selected to represent the United States in Canada for the FINA Trophy Cup.
Accepting that honor meant that practice time usually spent on preparing for the season was geared more towards creating a show based more on spectacle and flair than technical skill and ability – and it also meant that the team would start their regular season preparations later on, which put a different kind of challenge in front of the team and coach Kim Wurzel-LoPorto.
“It’s been really hard, but the girls have been really eager,” LoPorto said. “So, Emily (Van Vleck, the assistant coach) and I are up to the challenge. If the girls are up, then we’re going to go for it. The girls have been very receptive, they’ve come in on their own and gotten together without the coaches – and that has been a huge benefit for us this season.”
From everything that the Cardinals created for the Trophy Cup, only the main routine’s theme and music remains… and even that has been tweaked – including adding nearly a minute of music on top of what the team already had.
“We are using one of our Michael Jackson routines from Trophy Cup for our ‘A’ team,” LoPorto explained. “But, the whole routine has basically been redone. Coming away from Trophy Cup was an eye-opener and the program has been revamped.”
But, the underwater metronome goes on and the flurry of changes aren’t limited to just a twirl here or a new song – the various trio and duet teams for UIW have also changed from last year.
“Pretty much no team is the same as last year,” LoPorto said. “We combined new people.”
Sophomore Saki Fujise, junior Alex Stensby and freshman Rosilyn Tegart make one trio while the second ‘A’ unit trio is actually made up of four swimmers in freshman Briana Andreychuk, junior Molly Knight, sophomore Anna Nelson and sophomore Seyeon Min. LoPorto explained that the final three for that group will have to be decided later, but until then all four are working to make that trio unit as strong as possible.
“We’re just trying to get the best three together to have our strongest out there for Nationals,” LoPorto said. “They’re all very strong swimmers.”
Nelson, who is also one of five UIW soloists, ultimately may be asked to focus on her solo as the deciding factor.
The third trio team for UIW is junior Elizabeth Norton and freshmen Kelsey Smith and Leah Wallace – but due to an injury to Wallace, Norton and Smith will compete in a duet this weekend.
The other duet pairings consists of Stensby and Tegart, Fujise and Min and senior Andrea Patterson and junior Sarah Nicole Neufeld.
In the solo program, Nelson will be joined by Fujise, Tegart, sophomore Ingrid Lundblad and sophomore Natalie Krakoski.
Incarnate Word will bring its full roster to St. Charles, MO to compete against Stanford and Lindenwood. UIW traveled to Stanford last year and the California Cardinals had intended to travel to San Antonio this season, but due to budget cuts, had to find another way to meet UIW in the pool.
The Cardinals (the ones from Texas) will still have to make a trip to Palo Alto, California in March for the Collegiate National Championships since Stanford is this year’s host (Incarnate Word hosted last year).
But, up in Missouri this weekend, the three teams start things on Friday with the Figures and Elements competitions before taking the pool for the various routine competitions on Saturday.