Park’s success at its second figures meet against Richfield resulted from hard work and preparation, according to synchro captain, senior Hope Cassman.

“I think the meet went well we had a lot of time to work on figures, so it really helped us compete against Richfield,” Cassman said.

According to head coach Linda Gust, the swimmers succeeded at the March 28 meet with varsity beating Richfield 25-4.

“It’s our second meet so we are seeing some improvements for all of our swimmers,” Gust said. “That’s pretty typical for this time of year because the week in between gives us enough time to see what they need a little bit of extra help with. I think overall they all did a really nice job.”

Gust said since the season is still beginning, the coaches will only focus on specific things to improve.

“We (the coaches) take notes so we have some particular things and based on what the judge panels might have talked about, then we do some specific drills to make sure we fix those pieces,” Gust said.

As the team moves from figures meets to routine meets, Cassman said the team decided to make finishing the creation process early a priority.

“We’re trying to work a lot this year on mental training doing journaling where we’ll write things down and just really making sure that we’re all focusing on getting all our work done as soon as we can,” Cassman said.

According to Cassman, the team creates its own routines and looks to finish writing them by the end of April.

“We choreograph and write (the routines) all by ourselves,” Cassman said. “(If routines are done by the end of April), then we’ll have a few weeks to dissect them before Sections and State. All of our music was due by the beginning of spring break so we had time to get everything worked in and trying to get everything done as soon as we can to perfect everything.”

Cassman said the first step to creating a routine is to decide on a music genre and theme.

“Normally you try and think of some sort of a theme and a style of music. Then you cut it down to the limit for whatever division you swim in. Then you will choreograph it, and then you will land drill or deck it, and then we try in the water and swim with it and then we will adjust it as needed,” Cassman said.

According to Cassman, most synchronized swimmers will pick either dark or fast-paced music to which they will swim.

“It’s either you’ll do more upbeat fast music or people will do like dark or scarier music,” Cassman said. “Those are always easier to write to, so this year we have a warrior-themed routine that’s a little more dark and we have like a hip hop themed routine, which is more upbeat.”

Cassman said a challenge of being on the team for many years is creating routines with fresh ideas can become more difficult.

“It can get really repetitive, and it can be hard to come up with original ideas,” Cassman said. “There are always girls who are really strong with those aspects and are helpful to go do if you’re stuck.”

According to gopark.org, synchro’s final figure meet before Sections is 4:30 p.m. April 12 at the middle school. The team’s first routine meet is 5 p.m. April 18 at Hidden Oaks Middle School.