Early Days

Synchronized Swimming has an unusually long history of nearly 50 years at the College of William Mary. Originally called the Mermettes, it first existed
in the form of a kinesiology class beginning in 1952. It continued as a class and as a club until it lapsed in 1987. We are sadly lacking in information about what went on prior to 1995. Last year we gave a shortened version of what we at the present time knew of the history of Mermettes. Also, last year the college kindly gave us new mailing labels for all the alums they had identified as previous Mermettes. We hoped to have each send us a history of experiences with the club. The enclosed picture above is from the show done March 3, 1953. Thank you to Susan Rosar Sheehan for the copy of this picture featured in the Richmond Times Leader newspaper.

The 1980's

In the early 1980s the club was very successful at the NICA ( National Institute for Creative Aquatics) National Championships. The Duet of Chris and Jen Wrigley won many awards, and the team received many awards as well. For anyone coming to visit these award certificates are still
featured in the swimming pool office. They were found in an old storage area in Adair Gym during some renovation. We were able to present Chris Wrigley Porter her certificates at a show at school. Currently Chris is teaching Synchronized Swimming at the new Midtown Aquatic Center in Newport News where we are hosting the 2001 Collegiate synchronized Swimming Championship. Chris found Synchro again when she saw the Daily Press article promoting the 2000 South Zone Championship which was held at Midtown this past March. It is our dream that this program grow and grow.

The Mermettes Excel

In 1994 Synchronized Swimming was revived as a Recreational Sports Club by a freshman eager to continue swimming synchro at the collegiate level. That first semester the club had fourteen members! The next season, during the 94-95 school year, was the first year of actual competition in its 40-year history with members who had never swum synchro before.

With the founding student as first coach, the Mermettes beat two other
experienced teams at Regionals and qualified for Nationals. Having never
expected to do so well, we were unprepared to attend. That job was left
for the next year. The club traveled to Regionals and then on to the Collegiate National Championship where they placed 7th overall during the 95-96 season.

Year three brought a new coach to William & Mary. Barbara McNamee came from her stint at the Atlanta Olympic Games to teach classes in Kineseology and Coach the Team. Our team had 14 members who traveled to Nationals and placed 8th in an increasingly impressive field of competitors. In 1998 the team placed 10th and the Duet, Trio, and Team Routines all bettered their placement. The first ECAC Conference Championships was held at Wheaton College. The team placed 3rd overall and finished above one of the Varsity programs present.  Thanks to a Grant from the US Olympic Committee we are able to compete at the varsity level and attend the clinics available to us. In 1999 the team applied for Varsity status, and kept working hard to develop the program to a new level.

The Tradition Continues 2000

The team was successful in 1999, attending many meets and meeting about 25 different colleges during the season. We visited the Big Ten and Ohio State and swam against Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana and the University of Iowa. Stanford University came to William &Mary as did Keuka College. At the National Championships our solo and duet both finished in Finals. The two teams were 11th and 17th respectively.  It is increasingly difficult to keep up with the skill and interest that is being exhibited in the Collegiate program at this time. As a Club sport it is hard to bring in seasoned competitors from the Age Group programs around the country and be able to be competitive.  Last year we are fortunate to have two new swimmers from Columbus, Ohio and from Houston, Texas.Their expertise expanded the possibilities for us. This coming season we have a very strong swimmer, Anna Shatz, from the Dolpholinas joining us. there were many applicants, but few were chosen. William & Mary had a banner year for applicants with exceptionally high credentials. We look forward to a great season this coming year and hope to continue to grow little by little.

The Fifth Competitive Season

The fall of 1999 arrived with Hurricane Floyd in our midst. As all of the students arrived and settled in the rains came. Classes were canceled and practice as well. While the fourth competitive season may have "finished with a flourish" as Coach McNamee described it, the fifth began with a deluge of hurricane and snow days. After returning for spring semester and the first meet of the season, the Mermettes were sledding instead of swimming. Despite ten inches of snow and a lack of practice due to the closure of Adair Pool, W&M Synchro ventured to Richmond for the first meet of the season. We had a brief pre-meet warm-up digging one of our cars out of a snow bank! Just a week later, with snow finally melting, the Mermettes hosted their first home meet at Ft. Eustis pool in Newport News. We were fortunate to compete against Stanford University, University of Richmond and Mary Washington College. After a rather one-sided competition, Stanford generously put on a quick clinic for us. We received pointers on patterns, lifts, and body ex-tension. The Mermettes also hosted ECAC Championships at the new Newport News Rec. Center, and South Regional Championships, the qualifying meet for Collegiate Nationals, at Adair Pool. We qualified two teams, two duets, and two trios for Nationals in Columbus at Ohio State University. Gold team, swimming to music from "Riverdance" placed 12th, while Green team, swimming to "Victory at Sea"; placed 16th.  Routine finish scores and figure group places are averaged together, yielding each club's final national rank.  Thanks to some mighty efforts on figures, W&M Synchro is ranked 11th in the nation.   W&M C figure swimmers swept top twelve for the division, while freshman Blair Curley placed 2nd in B figure competition. A little later in the spring, the Mermettes were proud to graduate six seniors, Laura Bird, Deanna Chandler, Jennette Gayer, Ulala Kelleher, Jenny Stevens, and our assistant coach, Becca Kane. Next season we will also miss our club past president, Erin Linder, who has so capably guided us through the 2000 season. She will be studying in Manchester, England for one year. She will return to the team for the 2002 season and hopes to have the opportunity to work with Synchro in Great Britain while in Manchester. The Mermettes are eagerly anticipating an exciting 2001 season, culminating in Collegiate Nationals, which we will be hosting at Newport News Rec. Center. With a strenuous schedule fast looming before us, our club officers for 2001 will be kept busy. A hearty thank you to newly elected officers for accepting their sizable responsibility, president Blair Curley, VP Susan Tuck, treasurer Alana Smith, secretaries Maura Buehner and Sarah Ball, and national meet coordinator and general dogs body, Maria Hegstad.

ECAC C Figure Winners

The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference was held in the new Midtown Recreation Center in Newport News, and hosted by The College of William & Mary. Hosting such a prestigious event was hard, but reqarding. It was nice to have our student friends and family be able to attend. William &Mary placed six of the top eight in C Figures. With senior Jennette Gayer placing first and freshman, Emily Howard placing second.  In B Figures, freshman Blair Curley placed first. Our routines did very well with Green team placing the top of all of the B Teams and Gold Team placing 4th overall. The event was held on the first weekend of our Spring Break and everyone was looking forward to a real break from school and Synchro. Next year we will travel to Buffalo for the competition which will be hosted by Canisus College and our break may be used to have a hard practice session prior to hosting the National Championship.

The Sixth Competitive Season (2000-2001)

It was probably the first time most of the Mermettes had seen their coach, Mrs. Mac, in the pool. It was definitely the first time any of us had seen her in the pool wearing everything (glasses, shoes, clothes…) BUT her cell phone! With a splash and a wail, the Mermettes celebrated a successful sixth competitive season by throwing Coach McNamee into the pool at Collegiate Nationals.
The Tribe placed fourteenth overall this year at nationals. W&M qualified a solo, one duet, two trios and two teams to compete in the meet. However, another reason for celebrating was the honor of hosting the meet at the Midtown Aquatic Center. As you can imagine, this was also a lot of work! In addition to weekly meets, practice, extra land drilling, fundraising and all the other duties that attend a normal competitive season, we were stuffing meet entry envelopes, copying schedules, faxing press releases, planning and organizing. Roughly 250 athletes competed, representing 28 Universities. The Mermettes even appeared briefly on WAVY-TV 10!
The 2001 season saw us logging miles to Fredericksburg, VA; Newport News, VA; Columbus, OH and Buffalo, NY. Early in the season it became apparent that in the wake of our large 2000 graduating class, we no longer had enough cars to get everyone to our away meets.Fortunately, sophomore Alana Smith stepped up to the challenge of driving one of W&M’s notorious 15-passenger vans. Three cheers for Alana—we made the 200-mile roundtrip to Fredericksburg
without a hitch—and our steely chauffeur didn’t flinch but once (when backing into a parking slot!) at Mary Washington College.

The trio of sophomore Blair Curley, freshman Anna Schatz and
junior Maria Hegstad traveled to the Ohio State University Invitational in February. After a storm-forced landing in Pittsburgh (during which we entertained stranded fellow passengers with a land drill demo!) we eventually arrived in Columbus. The trio, swum to music from “The Matrix” placed 2nd and Curley and Hegstad’s duet, swum to “Robin Hood,” placed 5th. A big thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Curley for hosting us for the weekend, and for taking us to Bucca di Beppo’s—our very favorite Italian restaurant!
Canisius College hosted the ECAC championship this year, so the Mermettes traveled to Buffalo. We were one of 7 clubs competing. Gold team, swimming to a medley of music from the movie “Aladdin” and similar themes, placed 5th. During our stay, the Canisius College Griffs hosted a dinner at their college—we enjoyed seeing what our fellow competitors look like dry and non-jello-ed!     
The Mermettes are very proud to announce the graduation of two seniors this year, Elizabeth O’Gorman and Giovanna Leddy. Here’s wishing Elizabeth the best of luck next year as she pursues a master’s degree in bio-ethics. Giovanna will proceed on to Medical School.
We’ll also miss rising juniors Emily Howard and Alana Smith, while they
attend study abroad programs in Washington DC and Europe.
We have welcomes to extend as well, to our incoming freshmen: Katie Lauer from the Columbus (OH) Coralinas age group team and Kim Marsh from the Keuka (NY) Kokanes. We’re very excited to have two experienced recruits joining the team, and we’re anticipating a strong 2002 season.

Congratulations and thanks to the club officers who will be leading us into that season: President Anna Schatz, VP Jayme Mills, Secretary Katie Haverkos, Treasurer Alana Smith, Fundraising Chairs Erin Linder and Maria Hegstad and Team Captain Sara Torgerson. A big thank you to the 2001 season’s outgoing officers for a terrific job this year, particularly with the added responsibilities of prepping for Nationals. And an especially big thank you to immediate past president Blair Curley, who put in a tremendous amount of
effort coaching and impromptu meet managing even after an injury sidelined her
for the season. Way to go, Blair!
As always, we’d like to close by thanking our alumni for their support during the season. Your donations are most gratefully received, and become even more imperative as the grant which provided our budget during the last 4 years has expired. Expect to see the Mermettes doing a lot of fundraising during the coming school year! We’d also like to remind you that we love having a cheering section at our meets.

2004 YEAR IN REVIEW The 2004 competition season was both challenging and successful for the W&M Mermettes. We competed at home and away in eight different meets. The season culminated in a 10 day bus trip to New York and Michigan for our East Coast Athletic Conference and National meets. Before the last two meets, however, the team had an incredible season. At our annual W&M Invitational, the first meet of the season, we competed against both local Virginia teams – University of Richmond and Mary Washington as well as the University of Incarnate word and Stanford University. Following the opening meet, the team traveled to Mary Washington and Ohio State to compete. We then returned to our home pool for another meet with Ohio State University as well as the South Regional competition. At all of the individual meets, the Mermettes made an incredible showing placing in both figures and routines. At the Regional Competition, in A figures, Ellie Browne finished 12th , Kim Marsh finished 13th and Katie Lauer finished 15 th . In B figures, Anna Schatz finished 11th and Amy Rossnagel finished 29 th . In C figures, Merry Von Rodem finished 1st and Patience Bosley finished 9th . And in D figures, Jana Chavers finished 2nd , Claire O'Shea 6th , Kristin Gulden 7th , Michele Macary 11th, Laura Newkirk 16th , Collette Southern 25th and Claudia Raezer 27th . The Mermette trio, Katie Lauer, Merry Von Rodem and Ellie Browne came in 5th . Katie Lauer and Kim Marsh's duet finished 5 th and Ellie Browne and May Rossnagel's duet finished 9th. Additionally, Patience Bosley, Claire O'Shea and Michele Macary swam an honorary trio and finished 8th and Patience Bosley and Jana Chavers swam an honorary duet and finished 12th . Kim Marsh's solo came in 5th place. Finally, in the team competition, the Gold team finished 5th and the Green team finished 8th. At the ECAC meet, William and Mary also made an impressive showing. Competing at Cornell University in Ithica, New York, William and Mary came in overall in 12th place. In C figures, Merry Von Rodem placed 5th and in D figures, Jana Chavers placed 2nd . In the trio competition, Katie Lauer, Ellie Browne and Merry Von Rodem placed 4 th and Patience Bosley, Claire O'Shea and Michele Macary placed 9th. In Duets, Amy Rossnagel and Ellie Browne placed 3rd and Patience Bosley and Jana Chavers placed 12th . In the Team Competition, the Gold team placed 5th and the Green team placed 9th . Lastly, at the Synchronized Swimming Collegiate National Championships, held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, William and Mary placed 12 th in the country. The entire team made an impressive showing. Placing in C Figures was Merry Von Rodem in 10th . Jana Chavers finished 6 th in D Figures. Kim Marsh's solo finished 15th, Katie Lauer, Ellie Browne and Merry Von Roedem took 13th and Patience Bosley, Claire O'Shea and Michele Macary took 20th in the trio competition. In Duets, Katie Lauer and Kim Marsh finished 13th , Amy Rossnagel and Ellie Browne finished 18th and Patience Bosley and Jana Chavers finished 29th . And in the team competition, the Gold team finished 12th and the Green team finished 26th. For the first time swimmers from William & Mary, Kim Marsh and Katie Lauer, qualified and attended the U. S. Synchronized Swimming elite National Championship. Their Duet finished 19th in the country and Kim's solo finished 24th. We are all very proud of their success. The William and Mary synchronized swimming team is coached by Mrs. Barbara McNamee. After one of our most successful years since Mrs. Mac began coaching the team, the Mermettes are quickly getting back to work preparing for the 2005 season. From new routines to new figures to new figure groups to brand new swimmers, the team is already busy in the pool. We hope to see many fans this year in another busy competition season that will take us from Florida to Massachusetts. Best of Luck to this year's W&M Mermettes!