Members of the Gloucester Synchro Tier 7 senior team compete during the Eastern Divisional Championships at the Nepean Sportsplex on Saturday where they finished in fourth place. Fred Sherwin/photo

They may not be able to match other teams in terms of how long they practice, but in terms of heart, spirit and competitive drive the members of Gloucester Synchro can more than hold their own against some of the top synchronized swim teams in Eastern Canada as witnessed at the Nepean Sportsplex on Saturday.

Competing in the Eastern Divisional Championships, Gloucester Synchro walked away with four top 10 finishes, including a third place finish in the Tier 6 Select event, sixth place in the Tier 7 junior event and ninth place in the Tier 6 (15 and under) category. The Tier 7 senior team also did well, finishing in fourth place with 76.75 points.

This is only the third year members of the Gloucester Synchro Club have competed at divisionals with other A-level teams. Previously they only competed in B-level events, culminating in the provincial tier championships, where they usually walked away with a chest full of gold medals.

Last year, the Tier 7 senior open team finished third in the varied event at the Eastern Divisionals and then went to win the gold medal at nationals.

During the off season the national governing body decided to get rid of the varied event, leaving the girls with a tough decision, compete in the more prestigious senior team event or enter the free combo event and try and improve on their sixth place finish from a year ago. The girls decided to take the team route and ended up winning a silver medal at last month's provincial championships in Etobicoke.

Heading into this weekend's competition, the girls knew they were in tough. Besides swimming against Olympium Synchro from Toronto who beat them out for the gold medal at the provincial championships, they were also up against the perennial national champions from Quebec, Montreal Synchro and Synchro Elite which finished fifth at last year's nationals.

While their competition train up to 40 hours a week, the Gloucester Synchro team members are only able to practice seven to eight hours a week due to other commitments and a lack of adequate facilities.

The inability to train longer hours is a drawback in that they don't have as much time to perfect their compulsory technical routine which makes up half the final score. When you only have eight hours a week to train, it's a constant struggle between trying to perfect your free routine and setting aside sufficient time to work on compulsories.

The Tier 7 senior team is made up of Angela Beanlands, Chandra Costello, Chelsea Coté, Chelsey Densmore, Liza Walker-Byron, Tanya de Maurivez, Courtney Luce, Julia Roberts, Erika Scholz and Jessica Graham.

Beanlands, Densmore, Walker-Byron, Graham and Roberts are also on the Tier 7 junior team which finished in sixth place along with Heather Potter, Amy Morrow, Heather Follett and Janine Ryan. The result is impressive in that they only dropped two places from their fourth place finish at provincials despite the presence of several top notch teams from Quebec.

The same can be said for the Tier 6 15 and under team of Dana Bloom, Ivy Follett, Josée Potvin, Erika Bryson, Vanessa Graham, Melanie Schroeder, Kathleen Eldridge, Isabelle Lemay and Megan Smallwood, which finished in ninth place out of 19 teams compared to fifth place at provincials.

"I think the girls did really well, especially when you consider that most of them have never competed at Divisionals before. This is a big event," said Tier 6 coach Nathalie Kahale.

A big part of the motivation for the girls is in seeing how they stack up against the best synchro teams in Eastern Canada, says Kahale.

"It's not about winning with these guys. It's about personal bests. They push each other all the time in practice and they give 100 per cent."

The Tier 6 Select team of Kiera Bloom, Laura Clark, Pascale Guimond, Christina Lamontagne, Sarah Simoneau, Chloe St-Denis, Erica Tice and Ellen Wakarchu pushed each other to the club's only medal winning performance of the meet.

After finishing in third place in the combined figures portion of the competition, the team placed second in the free routine to solidify their hold on the bronze medal.

The Tier 7 senior and junior teams will spend the next six weeks practising for the Canadian Open Championships being held in Calgary from May 12-15, while the Tier 6 team and the Tier 6 Select squad have an extra two weeks to train for the Canadian Espoir Championships being held in Saskatoon during the first week in June. For most of them, it will be their first time competing on a national stage.