DURHAM -- Following preliminary and final swims at the recent Canadian Open Synchronized Swimming Championships in Winnipeg, Durham Synchro Club's Tier 7 junior team is ranked fifth in the country.

In preliminaries, Christa Hutton (Whitby), Katie LePage (Whitby), Julia Maclean (Ajax), Brianna MacLellan (Whitby), Chelsey Matthews (Uxbridge), Allie Mear (Whitby), Carrie Mouck (Scarborough) and Alaina Wade (Pickering) competed against 16 other teams representing top Tier 7 junior teams in Canada.

In the finals, the Durham squad achieved a final routine score of 82.5 (their highest to date), to take fifth place on the top-six podium behind Synchro Elite, Montreal Synchro, Calgary Aquabelles, and Toronto's Olympium.

Matthews and LePage exceeded their goal of top 15 in the duet competition when they finished 13th out of 25 teams that qualified out of eastern and western divisionals. Upon their return, the girls enjoyed two weeks of rest and relaxation before hitting the pool again to begin training for Canada Games 2007. Matthews, LePage and Maclean were named to the team prior to nationals, and will travel to Santa Clara, California this summer for a week of training.

In other club news, the Tier 1 to 4 athletes are competing in Tier Championships in London, Ont. from May 25 to 28. Durham's three Tier 6 athletes are competing at the Canadian Espoir Championships at Etobicoke Olympium from June 7 to 10 in figures, solo, duet and also vie for spots on the national 13-to-15 team.

Durham Synchro is one of the largest synchronized swimming clubs in Ontario. Visit www.durhamsynchro.com.