Columbia Heights synchronized swimming: Changing the routine

Unaware where her Columbia Heights team sat in the synchronized swimming hierarchy, then seventh-grader Rachael Rodeck got her answer at the section meet.

"I heard people calling us Crumbly Heights," she said.

Those decade-old tweaks remain with Rodeck, now in her first season as the Hylanders head coach. Her team will perform in the East section meet taking place Friday and Saturday at Richfield. Though competing against larger programs including Forest Lake and Stillwater, the Hylanders believe their best routines will measure up.

"I want this team to be respected," Rodeck said. "I want them to be known as a team to be reckoned with. Teams knew they would beat us in the past. Now there is some uneasiness."

The Hylanders finished sixth among 14 teams at state last season, a jump from 12th in 2006. One of the highlights was a fourth-place showing in the long team division. Assistant coach Hannah Riddle, who was then a senior at Prior Lake, was stunned to see little Columbia Heights place ahead of her Lakers.

"It was like, 'Who are they?'" she said. "You didn't see it coming."

Swimmers perform routines set to music and can qualify for the state meet as soloists or as part of duets, trios or teams. Routines are further divided into short, long or extended divisions based on time increments and the swimmers' abilities.

The Hylanders will perform an extended team routine for the first time in program history, and they return two swimmers -- RaeAnn DeBruyne and Meagan Fishbeck -- who placed second at state last season as a short duet. Columbia Heights qualified four routines for the state meet last season.

"In my years, we were lucky if one routine got to state," said Rodeck, a 2004 Columbia Heights graduate and six-year participant in synchronized swimming. "We're getting more competitive."

As a senior, Rodeck helped a short trio take second place at state, a finish she attributed to the coaching of Amy Carr, a former standout at Stillwater. In 2005, Rodeck became a volunteer assistant coach, then took over this season when Carr left the program.

Rodeck, the president of the University of Minnesota synchronized swimming club team, brought in Riddle (a current club teammate) and former Columbia Heights teammate Erin Haeg as assistant coaches. As proof of her belief in quality coaching, Rodeck is paying both assistants out of her salary.

With three coaches on deck, swimmers receive more individual attention and instruction is more easily absorbed. The test will come at sections. As Rodeck said, "How many routines we send to state will determine how well we did."

Now a junior in her fifth season with the Hylanders, DeBruyne can be certain these are better days regardless of the outcome at sections. She recalled watching Columbia Heights' synchronized swimming meets as a sixth-grader and knows the program has taken several steps forward.

"We're improving more quickly even though we're doing tougher routines," she said. "That's allowed us to keep up with the bigger teams."