Synchronized swimmers prove difficulty of sport

What do you get when you cross an aspiring group of young athletes and a passionate coach/ex-college athlete?

The birth of the UNL Synchro-Swim Club.

The club was started this year by sophomore elementary education major Erin Gustafson.

Fourteen women make up the team that will travel to its first competition in late February. They practice for up to four hours four times a week.

"These girls have an amazing amount of dedication," said Coach Angi Hautzenroder. "They are so easy to coach because they have such big hearts and every single one of them is into the sport; even the ones who are new to the sport have gotten into it."

Synchronized swimming is not the easiest sport, Gustafson said. The women have to be able to swim well and look good while doing it.

During their routine, the women hold their breath for up to 30 seconds while under water.

"One of the things we do for practice is sit in the deep end of the pool and tread water with milk jugs full of water that we hold over our heads," Gustafson said.

"To be a synchronized swimmer you have to be able to do 10 things at once. You have to have strength and agility."

The UNL Synchro-Swim Club will compete Feb. 23 and 24 at Keuka College in Keuka, N.Y. against four highly ranked national programs, Hautzenroder said.

"This competition will be a great opportunity for the girls," she said. "Not only to gain much needed experience, but, provided that the team does well, we will be able to show the University Athletic Department that they are worthy of consideration for sponsorship as a varsity sport."

Hautzenroder said she hoped the club would become a varsity sport at UNL in the near future.

Right now, the girls pay for all equipment and travel expenses themselves.

All of this feeds into the dream Gustafson had to establish the university's first synchronized swimming club and have it become a varsity sport.

Gustafson, who belonged to the Lincoln Southeast High School synchronized swimming team, the SynkraKnights, for two years, didn't want to say goodbye to the sport when she came to college.

So, she said she decided to get a group of her friends together, recruit some others, talk to the Campus Recreation Center and form a club.

She also needed a coach.

Hautzenroder proved to be the perfect match.

Hautzenroder went to Keuka College in Keuka Park, N.Y., after high school to further her synchronized swimming career.

After her freshman year there, she received first place honors at the national competition on her form and was then named team captain her sophomore year.

She returned to Lincoln after graduating college in 2001 and became coach of LSE's synchronized swimming team.

This fall, she started coaching UNL's synchronized swimming club.

Along with the New York competition, the team will be doing a couple of exhibitions this spring, Gustafson said. The first will be at LSE on May 9, 10 and 11.

Club members hope to hold an exhibition at the university in April, but no specific date has been set, Gustafson said.

If interested in joining the synchronized swimming club, contact Erin Gustafson at (402) 436-8516 or e-mail her at Unlsynchro@hotmail.com.