TOWN OF TONAWANDA — More than eight months of intense training, including hours spent either under water or afloat, will culminate throughout the weekend and into next week as the Town of Tonawanda Aquettes host the 2010 United States Synchronized Swimming's eSynchro Age Group Championships at the Town of Tonawanda Aquatic and Fitness Center.

The championships, which began yesterday with the 11 and 12-year-old age group practices, will attract more than 1,200 athletes from ages 11 to 19 for the country's largest national synchronized swimming competition.

Aquettes head coach Karen Alvarez said that the teams are excited to perform on such a grand scale, right in their own backyard.

“It’s very exciting just to be at home and have the hometown crowd and all our families come, and their friends, to cheer them on,” Alvarez said following Friday’s practice swim. “They’ve been working so hard, so this is kind of the end of it. We’re really looking forward to it.”

The Aquatic Center — which is draped in the Aquettes’ colors of blue and green for the championship week — is a prime location for the squad to showcase all its hard work wrapped into one week of competition, A-Team (18-19-year old) captain Alexis Clune said.

With the national championships coming to their home pool, the recent Mount St. Mary grad said it has made the past year one of the most exciting ones for the team.

“When we were swimming earlier and some of the other teams were showing up, I was immediately proud,” said Clune with a smile brewing with excitement. “This is our pool. This is where we swim every single day and the nation is coming to it.”

The Aquettes are certainly nothing short of prepared, said A-Team teammate, Julia Grizanti.

Grizanti, 15, said the team has been training since October for various meets. Typical practices usually take place weekly from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

In the late winter months, the Aquettes hit the water for six-hour practices and sometimes even twice a day, she said.

“We’ve been practicing every single day, besides Sunday, and it’s usually practicing your routines over and over again and then our individual figures,” Grizanti said. “It’s kind of grueling, but it’s worth it.”

Though younger than most of her teammates, Grizanti will swim with the 18-19-year-old group because swimmers are allowed to “swim up” in older age classes.

That top team, Alvarez said, will surely be gunning for a spot on the podium.

“Our top team— the 18-19 team — we’re fighting for a medal,” she said. “They’re definitely in medal contention for the week. They’re pretty good. A couple of kids on the team tried out for the national team.”

Grizanti, a current student at Kenmore East, recently went to U.S. national team trials where she earned a spot on the roster.

The budding synchronized swimmer will be heading to California to train for two months with her national squad teammates, before she heads to the national tournament in August in Indianapolis, and then in September to the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

Regardless, Grizanti said she is hopeful the team can snag a medal this week in front of her friends and family

“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun because everyone will cheer for us and we’ve invited so many of our friends,” she said. “I think it’s going to improve our performance knowing that there are so many people cheering for our team.”

The 11 to 12-year-old age groups as well as the 12 through 15-year-old age groups will hit the water beginning today through Tuesday.

The 16-17-year-old swimmers and the 18-19-year-old age group will compete starting Wednesday, all the way through to Saturday to wrap up the week’s events.

The Aquettes registered as an amateur team in 1961 and is made up of more than 35 swimmers. Since its inception, the team has produced 385 Niagara figure championships; 1,226 Niagara association solo, duet, trio and team titles; 116 Empire State Game titles; 770 east zone, regional and sectional titles; and three international titles earned in Denmark and Sweden.  

For more information visit, www.ttasynchro.com