Synchro takes the podium
Team awarded third at State
Junior Annie Breyak does a pop up in her extended solo at Park synchro’s dress rehearsal May 14. Breyak placed fifth in the extended solo division at State May 24.
June 4, 2019
After placing fourth at State for the last few years, captain Hope Cassman was excited when the team won third place her senior year.
“I would say getting third overall was our biggest accomplishment because the last few years we got fourth, so we were really trying to beat forest lake to gain our third spot back,” Cassman said.
Due to construction at the University of Minnesota pool, where State is normally held, this year’s competition took place in Rochester.
“Being at the Rochester pool versus the U of M pool was a big change,” Cassman said. “Their pool was a lot different from normal and the set up was completely different. Their sound system was not meant for synchro competitions, so that was a challenge for us, being able to hear the music.”
According to assistant coach Jessica Gust, the Rochester pool provided a different challenge to the swimmers.
“The pool that we swam in at Rochester was nice and deep so it’s just a little bit of a different topography in the pool but the girls really seemed to like it,” Gust said. “They said it was easy to see in without their goggles. The only tricky part was a sound system, which is always hard when you’re going to a place where you’ve never use their sound system before.”
Gust said swimmers’ prior experience in their divisions, specifically the short division, allowed the team to place in a multitude of categories, which contributed to their overall placement in third.
“I think we had a really really great breadth of talent. It helps to have a great short team that got to spend another year in short so they were really experienced,” Gust said. “We were able to get people placing in almost every single category, which because the scores are determined by total number of points across all of the divisions and all of the categories, so by being able to have people place in almost every single category. That is really what made it possible for us to be third.”
Cassman said she enjoyed supporting her teammates and seeing how their swimming progressed throughout the season.
“I loved cheering all of the other routines on. It’s really fun to watch how routines get written and perfected over the season, and then being able to see them at State all done and swam really well is very rewarding,” Cassman said.
