The theme for the 2007 USA Synchro Senior South Zone Championships was Swim Your Wild Wild Best – so that is exactly what PTX did. Just a year after losing their long-time grip on the South Zone High Point Trophy, they were determined to find a way to claim it for themselves once again – this time while playing host to the meet at their own pool on the North Lake Community College campus in Irving, Texas (March 8-11, 2007).

After semi-finals and figures on Friday and Saturday, PTX found themselves in a strong position with the top seed in both duet and trio, as well as a 3rd seed in both team and duet, and a 4th seed in solo. But if some things didn’t change in finals, PTX was going to find themselves a few points shy of their friends from Tampa Bay (Synchrays) for the overall point trophy.

As finals began on Sunday, PTX quickly claimed their 1st place finish in trio with a convincing swim from Christine Grisham, Vanessa Mosharaf, and Cassidy Ramage. With duet next, Claire Evans and Cassidy Ramage left no doubt they would be taking home the Gold, while Grisham and Mosharaf clinched a 3rd place finish to ensure the team would still have a chance to make their move on Tampa Bay in solo and team.

Claire Evans entered the Solo finals with both a tough draw and the pressure of knowing that in order for the team to close the point gap on Tampa Bay, she had to find a way to take home the Bronze. With an inspiring swim of power and determination, Claire showed that even the early draw can receive solid scores when you leave no doubt in the judges’ minds. With the competitor Claire had to beat swimming immediately after her, the wait was a short one to realize Claire had met her goal of advancing to the 3rd place spot and keeping the team’s hope alive to challenge Tampa Bay for the trophy.

Entering the final event, team competition, PTX still trailed Tampa Bay by one point provided both maintained their current positions in the final standings – PTX knew 3rd was just not going to be good enough. The Synchrays had been swimming very well and would surely not falter and just give the trophy away – so the only option was to score well enough to take away 2nd place from their friends from Tallahassee, a position change that would garner them 2 extra points and just enough to edge out the Synchrays for the trophy. The PTX team routine swimmers Claire Evans, Anna Flinchbaugh, Laura Gardina, Christine Grisham, Caitlin Miles, Vanessa Mosharaf, and Cassidy Ramage stood on the deck and watched as the Tallahassee Serinas swam a very solid routine – knowing they were next and would need their Wild Wild Best to pull off the upset. With the home crowd behind them, the PTX swimmers swam extremely well – including completing a difficult lift that they had failed to execute in semi-finals. As the scores were read, you didn’t need a computer program to figure out PTX had definitely outscored the Serinas – and with the slight edge in figures, PTX would be able to claim the Silver regardless of how Tampa Bay closed out the competition with the last swim of the day.

Just as expected, the point differential in the race for the South Zone High Point Trophy came down to 1 point, with PTX edging out their friends from Tampa Bay. It was a wild finish, one where PTX found that swimming their Wild Wild Best would be just enough.

Meet Results

Dallas Morning News article (click here)