Killman, Koroleva remain in 10th place after Monday's free routi - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Team USA's Mary Killman (McKinney, Texas) and Mariya Koroleva (Concord, Calif.) advanced to the Olympic Games synchronized swimming duet final Monday at the Aquatics Centre in London's Olympic Park.

The U.S. duet, making their Olympic debut, scored 88.270 points to place 11th in the free routine, and they are in 10th place in the overall standings at 176.170. The duo totaled 87.900 points in Sunday's technical routine.

Mary Killman

The top 12 teams advance to Tuesday's free final. The medal standings in the final are based on the combined points from the free routine in the final and the preliminary technical routine.

The top three scorers from Sunday stayed in the same order after Monday's competition. Russia's Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina qualified first with 196.800 points. China's Xuechen Huang and Ou Liu (192.810) were next, followed by Spain's Ona Carbonell Ballestero and Andrea Fuentes Fache (192.590).

"We wanted to go out and do the best that we could, to show off the routine that we recently wrote," Killman, said. "We went into it 10th and we came out 10th. Being able to go into the final and still be able to hold a good position is great."

Killman, 21, and Koroleva, 22, swam to an Olympic theme, with a medley of John Williams' "Olympic Fanfare" and "Call of the Champions,"original music by Salvador Niebla, and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." The duet totaled 44.200 points for technical Mariya Koroleva merit and 44.070 for artistic impression.

The swimmers, along with U.S. coach Mayuko Fujiki, wrote the new free routine just three months ago.

"It was a very big move for us. We decided that to be able to come to the Olympic Games and do the best we possibly could, we wanted to write a program that completely fit us and was really inspiring to our swimming," Killman said.

Added Koroleva: "We were a huge part of the whole process, coming up with the music and the suit designs and doing the choreography. We were able to put our style to the swimming. I feel like this routine is truly ours."

The final begins Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern. The event can be seen live at NBCOlympics.com and will be broadcast at 4 p.m. Eastern on MSNBC. The U.S. duet will compete second in the final.

Full standings can be found here.

Overall synchronized swimming duet standings

1. Russia: 196.800

2. China: 192.810

3. Spain: 192.590

4. Canada: 189.250

5. Japan: 186.400

6. Ukraine: 184.340

7. Italy: 181.440

8. Greece: 178.040

9. Great Britain: 176.890

10. United States: 176.170

11. France: 176.040

12. Republic of Korea: 174.160