A 13-year championship streak has ended for OSU’s synchronized swimming team.Stanford University went home with their first title at the 1998 Collegiate Synchronized Swimming Championships at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center on March 26-28.”We were disappointed,” OSU coach Linda Lichter-Whitter said. “We knew it was going to be hard to beat Stanford.”OSU beat Stanford last year by merely one point, Lichter-Whitter said. Stanford had the exact same team members as last year while OSU lost eight of their seniors, Lichter-Whitter said.”I saw some of the best swimming we’ve had all year,” Lichter-Whitter said. “We still managed to win team, an event no one has ever beat OSU in.”Assistant coach Holly Vargo Brown agreed with Lichter-Whitter, stressing that the coaching staff was extremely proud of how OSU performed.Ohio State placed third and first in team, and second and fourth in Duet and Trio but overall couldn’t manage to slip by Stanford, who took top honors in four events, upsetting OSU. “We never gave up,” Lichter-Whitter said. “We fought until the very end and pulled first in the team. I couldn’t be more pleased.” Seniors Ana Cukic and Lisa Nielson were runners-up in the Duet and Denise Martinez and Heather Moore finished fourth. Cukic, Nielson and Moore finished second in the Trio event while Stephanie Johnson, Andrea McGirr, and Martinez finished in fourth place.”We were upset by the loss, but not devastated,” Ana Cukic said. “We went out there and accomplished our goal. We did the best we could and we swam really well.”Heather Moore, Lisa Nielsen, Denise Martinez, Stephanie Johnson, Joy Williams, and Katie Edwards were all named to the 1998 All-American team. Olympic gold medalist Heather Pease lead Stanford, placing first in A Figures, Solo, Duet, and Trio, winning the individual high point title. National team member Vanessa Shaw joined Pease in Duet and junior national team member Shannon Montaque joined Pease and Shaw in Trio.Pease gave Stanford a tremendous edge, said Lichter-Whitter. “Pease is a very strong, high quality athlete,” Vargo Brown said. “OSU, however, showed a great depth and strength by working as a team.””We were happy for Stanford,” Cukic said. “We all knew that it was the first championship win for them and we were good sports about it.”The next stop for the team is in five weeks at the Jansen Nationals, where OSU will compete against club teams for the national title, Lichter-Whitter said.The Jansen Nationals will judge teams on both technical and free programs, Vargo Brown said. Team members will continue to work hard in the next 3-4 weeks to prepare for the nationals, she added.”Individual team members still have specific goals to shoot for,” Vargo Brown said. “The nationals will be their last chance to do it.”