ESG - Synchronized Swimming
Western looking to go 30 for 30
by MATT KRUEGER Reporter

The Western Region synchronized swimming team has plenty of history to follow at the Empire State Games this week in Westchester County. Western has never lost the team competition. The girls trying to make it a perfect 30 for 30 are, from left: front row - Jessica Bagley, Cassandra Grizanti, Alyssa Baumgartner, Trisha Melber, Katie Gillies, back row - Lauren Spatzer, Jessica Grogan, Meaghan O'Shei, Laurie Wakelam and Rina Hanna-Gregoretti. All the girls are members of the Tonawanda Aquettes.

The safest bet to make at the Empire State Games this year, is that the Western Region will win tons of medals and take home all the gold.

It's not exactly going out on a limb to make that prediction, since Western has won the team competition every year since the Games inception in 1978. That's a 29-year winning streak. None of the girls on this year's team was even alive when the streak began, and that includes coaches Jill Wright and Lauren Foster.

Also, Western swept the other regions last year, winning gold, silver and bronze in the solo, duet, trio and figures competitions. But it's the team championship that girls always place their focus. And nobody wants to be on the team that breaks that winning streak.

"We're always saying we're kind of scared of being that team," said Laurie Wakelam of Tonawanda, the only girl with two years of ESG experience behind her. "But I think we'll be fine this year."

"It does put pressure on them," added Wright, who helped Western win gold in 1997 and 1999. "Going in with all that behind you, you don't want to be the team to lose it. Of course, they're shooting for number 30. That's what the Games are about for us, keeping the streak alive."

Back for her third year, the 5-foot-7, 120 pound Wakelam is the shot loaded into the catapult on Western's tremendous lifts. And she'll wow the crowd during this year's futuristic routine.

"Our first lift in our routine is a pretty good one. I do a front flip off of it," she said. "It's really cool. I jump over someone in front of me."

Along with her team gold medal, Wakelam won the trio event with Katlyn Gedeon and Courtney Christman, placed second in figures and took third in solo last year in Rochester. In the 2005 Games in Hudson Valley, she won the trio with Susan Prinzbach and Christman and took second in duet with Christman.

Five other girls return from last year's team, Jessica Grogran (Orchard Park), Jessica Bagley (Kenmore), Trisha Melber (Tonawanda), Rina Hanna-Gregoretti (Tonawanda) and Lauren Spatzer ( Tonawanda).

New to this year's team are Meaghan O'Shei (West Seneca), Katie Gillies (East Aurora), Alyssa Baumgartner (Tonawanda) and Cassandra Grizanti (Tonawanda).

"I think they're great," Wright said of her team. "They have been swimming together all year. We just came back from the U.S. Open. We had a great performance at the National Age Groups a few weeks ago. We're ready."

For the second straight year, the Western Region team is comprised entirely of swimmers from the Tonawanda Aquettes. That gives Western a hefty advantage over the other five regions, since the team has already performed its routine 10 times in competition this year.

"It's nice to have the same girls all year long," Grogran said. "You're more comfortable with them. It makes the lifts work easier. You know where they're going to be, so you can trust them better."

The eight-swimmer team will consist of Wakelam, Grogran, Spatzer, O'Shei, Gillies, Melber, Hanna-Gregoretti and Bagley. They'll wear purple, orange and pink suits and swim to techno music.

The duets will be Bagley and Melber, Hanna-Gregoretti and Spatzer and O'Shei and Grizanti. The trios will be O'Shei, Gillies and Baumgartner, Grogran, Wakelam and Melber and Spatzer, Hanna-Gregoretti and Bagley.

The biggest challenge the girls might have this week is fighting off jet lag. The team returned from the U.S. Open at 9 p.m. Monday night, practiced Tuesday morning and turned around to leave early Wednesday morning for the Games.

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com