Maxime Sawicki

With precision, the McGill synchronized swim team executed their routine and left the competition floundering. The McGill White team won the competitive team event.

The six-time consecutive Canadian University Synchro Swim League champions put on a dazzling performance and look primed for yet another big season.

The highlight of the competition was McGill’s White team’s vampire-themed routine, which started off with a few neck-nibbling poses and ended up with freshman Carrie Mouck walking on water (and the arms and shoulders of her submerged teammates).

“We were really happy with how we swam,” Mouck said.

“[The choreography] is a pretty big group effort between all the swimmers and the coaches.” Mouck added. “Generally, the coaches will give us an idea of what they want, then we’ll play around with stuff, and then we put it all together.”

Head Coach Cassandra Bilogan was also enthusiastic about the teams’ performances.

“I think all the swim teams swam really well today, it’s always good in front of an audience, it gives them that adrenaline that they need to be really… showcase-y, I guess,” she said.

Laura McClemont performed the only non-novice solo. McClemont swam for the Canadian national synchro team from 2003 to 2009 but quit the program in order to focus on finishing her degree.

“While I was swimming on the national team I was [a] part-time [student] because I was swimming 40 hours a week,” she said.

Still, synchro for McGill is different this year than it has been in years past since the squad recently transitioned from competitive club to varsity team status.

Coach Bilogan and coach Lynn Macrae both felt that the newfound status has produced a tangible benefit to their team, however slight.

“It’s those little things,” Macrae said. “I think the swimmers and the coaches have all noticed the transition from club to varsity even though day-to-day it doesn’t change so, so much, Even getting a little additional pool time, having all the varsity gear, it’s very motivating overall. We feel like these past years winning championship-after-championship… it’s nice to finally get the recognition.”

“I think that we went to varsity and didn’t get cut because of our performance—this is our seventh consecutive year we’re going for winning national championships,” Bilogan added.

The athletes also feel that they are being taken seriously as an organization.

“Our sport is often marginalized as just being a bunch of weird bathing suits and flopping around in the water. But [varsity status] validated us as being a real sport,” said McClemont.

With six consecutive league titles hanging around the pool, and a chance for a seventh this year, no one should be questioning the validity of McGill’s synchro team.

The team competes next at the Eastern Canadian Championship Meet on January 16 at Queen’s University.