Carolyn Powell Has Record Setting Performance at Senior Champs

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 record time of 27.16 seconds that was posted by Lindsey McKnight back in 2009. Addison Palumbo, Mariana Montes, and Reese Balkcom joined Carolyn on that 4x50 yard medley relay team to improve their seed time by almost four seconds and finish in 13^th place.

Powell swam three individual events to score 37 points for Coral Springs Swim Club at Senior Champs.  Her best result was eighth in the 100 yard backstroke, as she qualified for the “A” final in that event. In addition, Carolyn posted results of tenth in the timed final of the 50 yard freestyle and twelfth overall in the 100 yard butterfly, a result of second in the “B” final.  Her time in the 50 yard freestyle represented a new best time by almost a full second.  Lastly, Powell joined Montes, Balkcom, and Amanda Robins to secure a twelfth place spot in the 200 yard freestyle relay.

Mariana Montes had an outstanding 200 yard butterfly finals swim, improving her prelims time by over two seconds, and as a result, placed sixth overall at Senior Champs, swimming that event in the "A" final.  However, Montes’ success was not limited to that one event, as in six of her seven entered events, Marina qualified for the evening finals races. She was a finalist in the 100 yard butterfly, 100 & 200 yard backstrokes, 100 yard individual medley, and was a top finisher in the 500 yard freestyle timed final swim. In total, Montes scored 21 points for CSSC, was an important contributor to the relay teams, and swam an extremely large number of yards during the course of the weekend.

In addition to her relay swims, Reese Balkcom swam two individual events, namely the 100 yard freestyle and 200 yard freestyle.  Addison Palumbo added the 100 yard breaststroke to go along with her race in the 200 yard medley relay, and Amanda Robins competed in the 100 yard individual medley, while also swimming on the 200 yard freestyle relay team.

The boys of Coral Springs Swim Club were represented by Anthony Palumbo at Senior Champs. Palumbo qualified for finals of the men’s 200 yard backstroke, and while he was just off his best time during prelims, he did improve that time during finals for a solid showing.  Anthony also competed in the 100 yard backstroke, 200 yard individual medley, and 500 yard freestyle, for a strong schedule of events.  The FG Senior Championships marks the culmination of short course season, with all teams, including CSSC, now transitioning to long course practices and swim meets.