NORTON, MA- Seven Wheaton College synchronized swimming athletes will compete in three events on Thursday during the U.S. National Championship, which will take place at Stanford University's Avery Aquatics Center in Palo Alto, California.

The Lyon competitors will take part only in the preliminary rounds, as senior Sharada Strasmore (Weston, CT/Weston), juniors Laura Montes (San Juan, PR/Academia San Jose) and Jenna Swinkin (Hamden, CT/Hamden), and freshmen Christiana Butera (San Diego, CA/Academy of Our Lady of Peace), Amanda Chils (Lakeland, FL/George Jenkins), Rachel Cordo (Wayzata, MN/Wayzata) and Anastasia Hare (Buffalo, NY/Buffalo Seminary) are slated to participate.

Montes and Strasmore will each perform a solo routine, competing in a 33-athlete field, while the duos of Cordo/Swinkin and Butera/Chils are entered in the 32-tandem duet event. Each of Wheaton's seven competing swimmers will play a role in the 17-entrant team routine.

The Lyons last sent an athlete to the national meet in 2007, when Montes competed in solo. Wheaton most recently performed a duet in 2002 and a team routine in 1996.

As a team, Wheaton had tremendous success this season under second-year head coach Rebecca Story, winning four competitions, finishing among the top three during an additional trio of occasions, and extending its top-10 streak at the U.S. Collegiate Championship to 21 years after a ninth-place showing last month in San Antonio, Texas.

During the U.S. National Championship, more than 100 elite athletes will vie for titles in the solo, duet and team events in the nation's most prestigious competition. The meet will mark the 64th year of national competition in the duet and team routines and the 60th year of solo.