Walnut Creek Aquanuts Medal at Synchronized Swimming Jr. Olympics
SportStars
The Walnut Creek Aquanuts finished a fifth day of competition in Riverside, CA at the U.S. Junior Olympics where they competed against the top age group athletes in the country. Two hundred and fifty 11-12 year olds and three hundred and seventy one 13-15 year olds have completed the solo, duet, team and figure competitions. 11-12 WCA soloist Dalia Ovadia placed 6th out of 31 in the solo event. She joined Giordanna Zuniga for the Duet event where they took the Silver medal!
The 13-15 Combo event competed as well as 16-17 solo. In the Combo WCA took bronze and n solo Eva Eleftheriadis from Concord took 30th.
11-12 Team member Morgan Woelfel. Photo by Stephen Moore
The 11-12 Team of eight athletes had an electric swim with Morgan Woelfel toping their lifts to win the Bronze medal in the Team event. The 13-15 Aquanut squad just missed the podium with a fourth place finish in the Team event out of 37 teams from around the nation. Today WCA took another Bronze in the Team Combination event which included nine 11-12 athletes and one swimmer from the 13-15 team. Two sisters, Atira and Ayla O’neil, had a rare opportunity to swim together in this combo event today. Normally they are in different age groups but today swam on the same Bronze medal winning combo team! Over the next three days of competition WCA swimmer Eva Eleftheriadis will compete in the 16-17 solo and figure events.
13-15 Team (4th) Eva Handlers (Top) Migz Photography
11-12 Duet Giordanna Zuniga(R)/Dalia Ovadia (L) Photo Stephen Moore
Synchro Sisters WCA – Santa Clara Aquamaids 4 part mini-series releases at www.olympicchannel.com
Meanwhile in Bari, Italy, another 13-15 Aquanut squad had the opportunity to compete against Italy’s best thirteen to fifteen year olds at the Italian National Championships. While they placed high enough to advance to the finals, they could only swim honorary since they were a foreign team. 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist and their coach, Tammy McGregor, took the opportunity to take her team international despite their honorary status for exposure and international experience.
Friday, July 14 starts the FINA World Championships in Budapest where Team USA and WCA swimmer Rachel Jager will compete on the world stage.
Thank you for your support of the Walnut Creek Aquanuts!
“The Walnut Creek Aquanuts is a world-renowned synchronized swimming club based in Northern California. Our mission is to develop athletes from novice to elite, building both bodies and minds and instilling skills that will serve our swimmers throughout their lifetime.”
