A host of the newer swimmers from Coral Springs Swim Club spent their most recent Saturday morning competing at the Boca Raton Simple Developmental Invite. The Simple Invite meet, hosted by Boca Raton Swim Club, featured Sizzler type events (25 yard distances) for the 8 & under swimmers, along with 50 yard distances of each stroke and the 100 yard individual medley for the 14 & under contingent. The purpose of the developmental meet was to, like a Sizzler, introduce new and inexperienced swimmers to competition and the logistics of...

Reese Balkcom, of CSSC’s National Team, got her feet wet in terms of competitive swimming at the very young age of five years old. Her family was living in Texas at the time, and after completing swim lessons covering everything from being safe in the water to learning the strokes, she transitioned to the competitive swim team in her community. After about five years with her team in Texas, Reese’s family relocated to South Florida and she found a new swim home with Coral Springs Swim Club. She began with...

CSSC’s John Albornoz and Mariana Montes were each victorious in the individual point competitions at the 2024 IMR/IMX Challenge, held April 26-28 at the Sunrise Civic Center pool. An IMR/IMX meet consists of events of varying distances, with swimmers earning a certain number of points depending on the placing of the swimmer. Points are then tallied to determine pentathlon (five events) champions and sextathlon (six events) champions. The distances of the events are shorter within the IMR challenge and longer in the IMX competition. The age category is also instrumental...

After an extremely lengthy hiatus from hosting swim meets at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex, with the last being the Michael Lohberg Invitational in June of 2023, CSSC finally returned home, to host the Coral Springs Closed Invitational, April 19-21. Coral Springs Swim Club, which is the best in the business in terms of efficiency, proficiency, and hospitality invited eleven Florida teams, as well as teams from the Bahamas and Jamaica to compete during the debut of the newly renovated pool venue. Fittingly, the winner of the first event on...

Alex Warner was on fire at the Sunrise Sizzler, held Friday, April 19th at the Sunrise Civic Center pool. Warner, competing in the boys’ 9 & over age group, took the top spot in the 25 yard backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle events, with his wins coming in a variety of ways. In the backstroke race, Alex earned a time of 17.62, which was more than two seconds faster than the second place finisher, a huge margin of victory in a 25 yard distance. The breaststroke race was just the opposite,...

CSSC team members traded in the comfort of a swimming pool for the uncertainty of a recreational lake, as 35 swimmers traveled to Dania Beach recently, to compete in the Florida Gold Coast Open Water Championships. The one day meet, hosted by Hurricane Aquatics on April 13th, and held at Tigertail Lake Recreation Center, featured swims with distances of 2 kilometers and 5 kilometers in both men’s and women’s age groups. To put that into perspective, a 5K swim is the equivalent of 5,468 yards, or more than three 1,650...

It seems to be a common occurrence at swim meets lately that a current member of Coral Springs Swim Club breaks a club record held by a former swimmer. This time, it was Michael Tiani, who, at the Sunshine State Showcase meet, broke the club record in the boys 10 & under 500 yard freestyle, touching the wall in a time of 5:47.09. Tiani came in approximately 4 seconds under the previous record which had been set in 2021. Not only did Michael grab a record, but he also took...

The Academic Village pool in Pembroke Pines was the site of yet another record setting performance for a member of Coral Springs Swim Club. Competing at the 2024 Florida Gold Coast Short Course Senior Championships, Carolyn Powell smashed the club record in the girls 15-16 50 yard backstroke, clocking in with a time of 26.47 seconds during the leadoff leg of the 200 yard medley relay. In relay events, the time a swimmer posts during the first leg of a relay counts as an official time. Powell bested the former...

Coral Springs Swim Club sent a very sizable and mighty contingent to compete at the Sunrise Sizzler, held Saturday, March 16th at the Sunrise Civic Center pool. Swimmers from Red, Green, Gold, and Silver groups turned in dominant performances, especially in the 9 and over age category. CSSC completed the meet tied with South Florida Aquatic Club for the most first place ribbons, a convincing team effort. In addition, in the 9 & over group, four Coral Springs Swim Club team members grabbed six of the eight available first place...

John Albornoz was one of the top seeds in the 13-14 boys age category heading into the start of the 2024 FGC Short Course Yards Age Group Championships, and he certainly lived up to expectations. Albornoz, by the closest of margins, won the individual high point title in that 13-14 boys group, finishing the meet with 65 points, just one point ahead of the second place finisher. From the beginning of the swim meet, Albornoz was the one to beat, as he won his very first event, the 1650 yard...