Albornoz and Montes Win Individual Point Competitions at IMR/IMX Challenge

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 in determining the distances of the events in the pentathlon or sextathlon. 

John Albornoz was the champion of the boys 13-14 IMX sextathlon competition, scoring a total of 3272 points during the course of the weekend. Albornoz earned his victory via results of second in the 200-meter breaststroke, third in both the 200- and 400-meter individual medley, and sixth in the 200-meter backstroke. Albornoz also earned a victory in the 50-meter butterfly and third place in the 100-meter freestyle, with those events not counting toward IMX points.

Mariana Montes was the victor of the girls 15 & over IMR pentathlon with 1670 points for Coral Springs Swim Club, securing first place by earning second place points in both the 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter butterfly, as well as seventh place points in the 100-meter backstroke.  Montes also grabbed the fifth spot in the longer IMX sextathlon by touching the wall second in the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley, seventh in the 200-meter backstroke, and 18^th in the 400-meter individual medley, which was a mixed boys and girls event.  The 2153 points that Montes earned in the IMX sextathlon was only 40 points from a fourth-place finish.

Carly Chin had an excellent swim meet, and as a result, was the runner up in the girls 13-14 IMR pentathlon individual point competition with 1332 points. Chin’s best result was fifth in the 200-meter freestyle, and she also grabbed two seventh place finishes, those coming in the 50-meter backstroke and breaststroke. Madison Laski snared the fifth spot in the 13-14 IMR pentathlon with 1043 points.  Joining Chin and Laski in the girls 13-14 IMR pentathlon top ten were Zoey Kucuk-Lake in the eighth spot, and Alexa Anthony in ninth.

Carolyn Levy-Powell once again performed at an extremely high level for Coral Springs Swim Club, posting 100% top five results in the girls 15 & over category.  Levy-Powell took the top spot in the 50-meter butterfly and backstroke, along with second in the 100-meter freestyle, third in the 100-meter butterfly, fourth in the 200-meter backstroke, and fifth in the 100-meter backstroke.  Due to the fact that she did not swim the bulk of either IMR or IMX competition events, some of her results were split between both categories, and some did not go toward points, resulting in a finish of sixth in the IMR pentathlon.

Anthony Palumbo and Roman Kondrashov each posted fourth place results in their respective age groups during the IMR pentathlon portion of the Sunrise meet.  Palumbo earned 1148 points in the boys 15 & over age group, which were accumulated by finishing sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke, eighth in the 100-meter butterfly, and tenth in the 200-meter individual medley.  In his other events, Anthony touched the wall second in the 50-meter backstroke, sixth in the 100-meter freestyle, and eighth in the 50-meter breaststroke, for all top ten results.

Roman Kondrashov gained 1386 points to come in fourth in the boys 13-14 IMR pentathlon.  He did so by finishing fourth in the 100-meter backstroke, ninth in the 100-meter breaststroke, and eleventh in the 200-meter individual medley. Roman also grabbed seventh in the boys 13-14 IMX sextathlon, with results of fourth in the 200-meter backstroke, ninth in the 400-meter individual medley, and the eleventh spot in the 200-meter individual medley contributing to a total of 1699 points.

Joshua DeSouza earned 947 points in the boys 15 & over IMR pentathlon to finish seventh, posting results of seventh in the 200-meter freestyle, and tenth in both the 100-meter butterfly and backstroke. Finishing up results of the IMR/IMX competition for the senior swimmers, Addison Palumbo took eighth in the girls 15 & over pentathlon with 1110 points.  Top results for Palumbo included sixth in the 200-meter freestyle, and seventh in the 100-meter breaststroke.  Amanda Robins was tenth in the same competition, earning 724 points, helped along with an eleventh-place spot in the 200-meter freestyle.

Moving over to the individual point competitions in the younger age categories, Leah Ortega shone during both the 10 & under IMR and IMX competitions. Ortega was the runner up in the IMX pentathlon with 1571 points, and finished fourth in the IMR pentathlon competition, scoring 1370 points.  Even though she did not post a top ten result, it was her consistency across the board that earned Ortega two outstanding finishes in terms of overall points. Additionally, five of seven of her events were open girls, meaning she was competing against all of the older age groups.  The 200-meter freestyle was 12 & under, however it was mixed, signifying boys and girls competing together. In her lone girls 12 & under event, the 200-meter individual medley, Leah finished a very strong 13^th, yet was the second 10 & under swimmer to touch the wall.

A number of Ortega’s 10 & under teammates finished in the top ten in point scoring for Coral Springs Swim Club.  Emmeline Keyser was right behind Ortega with a third-place result and 1031 points in the IMX pentathlon. Keyser was also seventh in the IMR pentathlon, scoring 1214 points.  Rinia Johnson took fourth in the IMX pentathlon with 986 points, and sixth in the IMR with 1270 points. Lastly, Emma Barahona completed four in a row for CSSC with a fifth-place finish in the IMX competition, tallying 613 points for the girls. Best results for this group of 10 & unders included second for Keyser in the girls’ 10 & under 100-meter freestyle, third for Johnson in the same event, and ninth for Barahona, also in the 100 free.

The 10 & under boys were led by Preston Ehrlich, who was the runner up in the IMR pentathlon with 2330 points, and finished eighth in the IMX pentathlon, totaling 1318 points. Like Ortega, Ehrlich was competing against older swimmers in many of his events, but still posted a fourth-place result in the boys 10 & under 100-meter freestyle, and 18^th in the boys 12 & under 200-meter freestyle, but sixth among 10 & under swimmers. Also having success for CSSC was Dev Patel, who took seventh in the IMR pentathlon with 1223 points.  Patel was the seventh-place finisher in the boys 10 & under 100-meter freestyle.

Sofia Zolghadr and Hayley Cohen took top spots in the point competition for the girls 11-12 age category.  Zolghadr was fifth in the IMR pentathlon with 814 points, as Sofia’s best finish was 15^th in the open girls 50-meter butterfly, yet seventh for swimmers 12 & under. Hayley Cohen was right behind Zolghadr in the IMR for CSSC, earning 766 points in her sixth-place position. She was also ninth with 1404 points in the IMX pentathlon.  Cohen, who has become accustomed to competing and succeeding against older swimmers and boy swimmers, was the top 11-year-old finisher in the mixed open 400-meter individual medley.  She also grabbed ninth in the open girls 50-meter breaststroke, again the top 11-year-old, seventh in the girls open 100-meter butterfly, and fifteenth (but first for 11-year-olds) in the 11 & over 100-meter freestyle, among her outstanding results.

Michael Tiani boasted the best finish for the CSSC 11-12 boys, earning 1297 points in the IMR pentathlon to finish in the seven spot, and just 18 points from sixth.  Like his counterparts in the younger age group and similar to the 11-12 girls competitors, Tiani was tasked with swimming against older athletes in many of his events. His best finish was eighth in the mixed 12 & under 200-meter freestyle, and also had outstanding results as an 11-year-old in the open boys 50-meter butterfly and boys 11 & over 100-meter freestyle.

A multitude of swimmers did not place in the individual point competition, partly because they did not swim enough events, but still posted strong results for Coral Springs Swim Club.  The following swimmers earned one or more top ten result:

Angelo Baldanza: 100-meter freestyle (sixth).

Reese Balkcom: 50-meter butterfly (seventh), 100-meter freestyle (eighth), 50-meter backstroke (tenth).

Sean Carlucci: 100-meter breaststroke (tenth).

Jayden Guo: 50-meter butterfly (eighth), 50-meter backstroke (ninth).

Sebastian Rincon-Villegas: 50-meter backstroke (eighth).

Kamran Varghese: 50-meter breaststroke (sixth), 50-meter backstroke (seventh).

Lastly, extra acknowledgment should go to the youngest swimmers of CSSC for competing within those mixed or open age group events, making it very difficult to place in the top ten.  The following 12 & under swimmers mixed it up with the big kids, swam strongly and finished very well in those events: Emily Camacho, Skyla Carroll, Lukian Fleury, Hunter Gruver, Maya Halabi, Logan Lalinde, Oscar Lans Mendoza, Ronith Mothe, Justin Nation, Ryan Robins, Joey Scalia, Gabi Tallas, and Matias Tiani. The Sunrise IMR/IMX provided challenges for all ages and abilities, and kudos to the members of Coral Springs Swim Club for excelling at the competitive meet.