Walnut Creek Aquanuts score medals at U.S. Nationals, Classic
Walnut Creek Aquanuts had strong showings at the U.S. Junior and 13-15 National Championships and the Classic Invitational last month.
Nationals is the most prestigious American synchronized swimming meet for Junior and 13-15 age groups. The Aquanuts came home from Riverside with five gold medals and the overall high point award.
Junior coach and Olympic gold medalist Tammy McGregor also won the Junior Coach of the Year Award. She has coached most of this year’s junior team for the past four years.
The free combination event brought the Aquanuts gold medal number one before Yara Elian won the solo event. Marlena King of Clayton took fourth place in the country. WCA won gold in the final junior team event with their “Rock vs. Classical” routine.
In the 13-15 events, WCA got gold in both the team (eight swimmers) and free combination (10 swimmers) events. Giordanna Zuniga of Concord was part of the two team gold medalists. The 13-5 B team with Reece Revell and Morgan Woelfel of Concord took seventh.
On the final day of Nationals, WCA placed Megan Kerner and Alexis McCracken on the 13-15 National Team that will represent the U.S. internationally this summer at the Youth World Games in Slovakia.
At the Classic Invitational in Washington Concord and Clayton swimmers competed for WCA. Zoe Eleftheriadis took fifth in the 13-15 solo competition. Amalee and Alessandra DelliGatti were in the 13-15 duet and Geetha Chandrasekaran was on the 11-12 team that was first in combo and fifth in team.
Clarke Memorial Swim Center in Walnut Creek is hosting the Region B Championships this weekend, where WCA hopes to qualify for the Junior Olympic Championships in Buffalo, N.Y. at the end of June.