By Gary Curreri

Meghan Robenhymer said swimming has taken her pretty far.

The 14-year-old Coconut Creek teenager took third in the Girls 13-14 50-yard breaststroke, second in the Girls 13-18 100-yard breaststroke, and was on two winning relays to help the Deerfield Beach Dolphins win its eighth consecutive South Florida Recreational Swim League Summer Championships recently at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex. The two-day meet was held in the Michael Lohberg Pool of Champions.

“This is my entire life,” said Robenhymer, a freshman at Monarch High School and nine-year veteran of sport. “I was average when I first started. The work I bring to it made myself better.”

Robenhymer started swimming at a preschool program and was told she had really good form.

“They said I should tryout for the recreation league,” Robenhymer added. “I was on that team for a couple of years and then I switched to Dolphins. It’s great to be winning races. It shows that all the hard work paid off.”

Parkland’s Emily Chen also turned in a strong performance for Deerfield Beach as she won three individual events and was on two winning relays at the event.

Chen, 14, who holds 12 individual league records dating back to when she was 7, added the Girls 13- 14 100-yard freestyle and the Girls 13-14 100-yard IM records to her credit. The Deerfield Beach High School freshman started swimming when she 7.

“It has just been fun,” Chen said. “It has been a really great venture. I’ve been with the same coaches the whole time and it is just a great atmosphere. The sport means almost everything to me. It is practically my life now.”

Chen hopes for a long swimming career, first high school and then college.

“It is definitely a dream to think of the Olympics,” Chen said. “It is always fun to watch. From afar, whatever is best for me in the long run. The sport definitely shaped my personality — from teamwork and how to support each other to learning how to lose. I learned not to be a sore loser.”

Chen said it has helped her stay determined.

“You just keep trying,” Chen said. “You just keep going. If you never try, you are never going to go anywhere.”

The Deerfield Beach Dolphins won the Large Division with 4,455 points, while the Tsunami Swim Team based in Coconut Creek won the Medium Division with 2,219 points. The Margate Motion Swim Team was fourth in the Medium Division with 1,346 points.

The victory marked the eighth consecutive summer championship victory for the Dolphins since 2007, and 20th overall during the same span when counting the fall and spring seasons.

Ninth year Deerfield Beach Dolphins coach Rafael DaSilva said the victory was huge for the program. The Dolphins have 90 swimmers on its roster and had 83 swimmers compete.

“This meet is the most important meet of the year,” DaSilva said. “It is the biggest championship of all three. This is where it started. The fall and the spring championships were added later.”

“There are always more people because, in the fall, you have high school swimming and, in the spring, you have water polo and some do middle school swimming,” DaSilva added. “There is a lot of competition per se to get the kids involved. The summer is where you prepare the kids for high school swimming and you have the bigger number and more quality swimmers returning. You have more teams and this is the only meet where you make the divisions based on sizes from team to team.”

Emily Chen (Below in zebra swimsuit), 10, and her younger sister, Ava (above in blue), 6, help the Deerfield Beach Dolphins to the girls team championship with 675 points and 1,160.50 points overall in the South Florida Recreational Swim League Winter Championships. Submitted photos

By Gary Curreri

Two local Deerfield Beach Dolphins Swim Team members showed a little sisterly love and turned in solid performances in the South Florida Recreational Swim League Winter Championship swim meet at Palm Beach Gardens on Dec. 10.

Emily Chen, 10, and her younger sister, Ava, 6, helped the Dolphins to the girls team championship with 675 points and 1,160.50 points overall. The boys team scored 485.50 points.

Emily Chen, who swam a time of 33.57 seconds, on her backstroke leg in the 50-yard medley relay for 9- and 10-year-old girls, broke a four-year-old record of 34.29 seconds when she broke the record in the individual 50-yard backstroke competition for 9- and 10-year-old girls with a time of 33.48 seconds.

This 5th grader at Park Trails Elementary School in Parkland also won first places in the 50-yard freestyle, 50-yard breaststroke, individual medley and freestyle relay contests. In 2011, she was undefeated in all swim competitions she entered, and, in both 2009 and 2010, Chen was voted the Most Valuable Swimmer of the Year for her age group by Dolphins’ coaches.

Not to be outdone, Chen’s 6-year-old sister, Ava, a 1st grader at Park Trails, took first places in 25-yard breaststroke, 25-yard butterfly and fourth place in 25-yard freestyle for 5- to 6-year-old girls in the same competition.

The two sisters practiced swimming four times a week at the Deerfield Beach Aquatic Center under the direction of Coach Rafael deSilva.

Deerfield Beach’s Rachael Ryan captured three events as she won the Girls 11-12 100-yard IM, 50 butterfly and 50-yard freestyle events, while Michelle Bachert, Ata Aktarma, Bruna Pavan and Max Maurente each won two events. Other individual winners for the Dolphins included Sean Ragonese, Drew Novak, Adian Vinograd, Hayley Johnson, Caitlin VanDyke, Emma Leonard, James Anderson III, Larissa Anthony, Teaghan Skulszki, Gabriella Castillo, Bonnie Kohner  and Otavio Metzker.

Johnson selected

Blanche Ely wide receiver Avery Johnson has been selected to the fifth annual Under Armour All-America Game set for Jan. 5, 2012  at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Johnson was one of four South Florida football players picked to play in the event. Johnson had six touchdowns this season, helping the Tigers advance to the Class 7A playoffs.

Emily Chen won three events and helped the Deerfield Beach Dolphins win the South Florida Recreational Swim League large division title for the eighth consecutive season in the summer championships at Coral Springs Aquatic Complex. Photo by Gary Curreri

By Gary Curreri

Emily Chen enjoys swimming as much as she does competing with her teammates.

The 10-year-old member of the Deerfield Beach Dolphins recently flexed her muscles during the South Florida Recreational Swim League summer championships at Coral Springs Aquatic Complex.

Chen won three events while teammate Greg Kohner also helped lead the team to win the large division title for the eighth consecutive season, including the last four summer titles. It amassed 1,818 points to easily best runner-up Boca Raton Mantas, who has 673 points.

“I like just having fun and being able to be with my friends,” Chen said. “I felt very good about my races. Improving your time is important, and that makes you feel good, even if you don’t win the race. The best thing about swimming is being with your friends and having a good time.”

Kohner also swam well as he also captured three events and set three meet records along the way.

“I like swimming because it is the best sport for you,” Kohner said. “You get the workout and you are weightless. It is not that much strain on the joints. It is the only sport that I play where I actually feel good after a workout.”

Dolphins swim team head coach Rafael DeSilva and his fellow coaches dressed in costumes each day. He said it is all part of keeping it fun for the swimmers. This year, they have 193 swimmers on the competitive team and 225 in their program.

“We do more than just swimming in the program,” DeSilva said. “We want them to become better swimmers. We worked them tremendously on their techniques the last five years. If you put the fun, technique and the work ethic together, the results will come.”

DeSilva said they don’t leave anybody out when it comes to swimming in meets.

“Everybody swims three events,” DeSilva said. “We motivate them to swim and have that personal improvement. We celebrate a whole lot more when the kid improves their time than if a kid breaks a record. That, of course, is also nice.”

The league also established the Julie Cusmano Outstanding Parent Award that went to Margate Motion parent Miguel Arteaga.

South Florida Recreational Swim League president Chris Hoch said the parent award was named in honor of Deerfield Beach Dolphins parent Julie Cusmano who has had children in the program and did a lot for the league. This was her final meet since her son aged out.

“We are going to miss her,” Hoch said. “She has done a lot for the league.”