SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING : Porter and Ohio State Teams Lead the Way Into the Finals

Clowns and belly dancers, Marilyn Monroe and Joan of Arc, Prince Ali and music from calypso to classical--it’s the finals of the U.S. Open Synchronized Swimming Championships today at Irvine’s Heritage Park Aquatics Complex.

Three days of preliminary competition narrowed the field of 217 entrants to 97 competitors in solo, trio, duet and team finals, beginning at 10 a.m.

The top eight entries in each event were seeded Friday following the scoring of compulsory figures.

National team member Emily Porter, 20, of Mesa, Ariz., led the solo competition with 43.726 points, more than two points ahead of second place, a considerable margin in a sport in which medals usually are decided by fractions of points.

In the team event, scoring leader Ohio State will aim for another championship with its circus theme routine.

The Ohio State trio also leads, followed by the Buffalo Swimkins and the San Diego Sweetwater Dolphins, who moved up from fourth with their strong figures scores.

The San Diego club also moved into medal contention in the duet event, behind Cincinnati.