 |
| Capital District YMCA Sculpins’ Morgan Lebrecht, front
left, Courtney Mann, back left, and Athens’ Deanna DeSimone perform their trio
routine during the East Zone Synchronized Swimming Championships at the
Unversity at Albany Saturday. (Contributed
photo) |
By Casey Bolduc
Published: Friday, March 12, 2010 2:13 AM EST The Daily Mail
ALBANY — Athens resident Deanna DeSimone is making waves
in her final season with the Capital District YMCA Sculpins as she was named
Scholar-Athlete of the year, East Zone Senior All-Star and won the High-Point
Trophy with her team at the 2010 East Zone Synchronized Swimming Championship at
the University at Albany this past weekend.
One hundred sixty athletes
from 22 different synchro clubs gathered at the school to determine the top
swimmers in the northeast. The Sculpins accumulated 53 points throughout the
competition to win the High-Point Trophy, staying ahead of second-place
Tonawanda by 10 points. The first-place overall finish is the best showing the
club has had at the event in over 10 years, according to Deanna’s mother,
Helen.
“We haven’t accomplished anything like this before,” said Deanna,
who is competing in her ninth season with the club. “It’s a really big deal for
the program and we’re real proud of it.”
DeSimone and partner Kayla Moses
took first place in the duet competition while teammates Courtney Mann and
Kathryn Savery finished fifth and Rebecca Crawford and Kate Corsaro came in
seventh. DeSimone, Mann and Morgan Lebrecht finished second in the trio
competition.
The 17-year-old swimmer received the Kim Miller Collegiate
Scholarship which is awarded to an East Zone athlete — with a 3.0 GPA or above
through four years of high school — planning to continue synchronized swimming
in the fall at the collegiate level. Miller was a member of the Hamden
Heronettes synchro team out of Hamden, Conn. who was diagnosed with bone cancer
in 2001. After chemotherapy, she continued to compete and went on to swim at
Millersville College in Pa. until she lost her battle with the illness in 2005
at the age of 19. Miller’s parents made the trip to Albany Saturday to present
the $1,000 scholarship to DeSimone in person.
“I was surprised I was
chosen, but it really meant a lot to me,” said DeSimone. “I didn’t know her
personally, but to hear her story and get the scholarship directly from her
parents was emotional.”
At the closing of the competition, DeSimone and
four teammates were named to the East Zone All-Star Team for finishing in the
top 16 of the 160-person meet. With their strong scores and first-place finish
at the event, DeSimone and several of her teammates qualified to compete in the
U.S. Junior Nationals in Austin, Texas from March 24-28; the U.S. Nationals from
April 8-10 in Stanford, Calif.; and the U.S. Open in Irving, Texas on July
14-18.
After graduating from the Academy of Holy Names in Albany in the
spring and completing her ninth and final season with the Sculpins in July,
DeSimone plans to take her abilities to the next level and continue synchronized
swimming at Canisius College in Buffalo.
On the Web: www.sculpins.org