Braddock’s George Gonzalez, Cutler Bay’s Olivia Dinehart are Dade 2022 swimmers of the year

George Gonzalez had a breakout sophomore season that helped lead the Braddock boys’ swimming team to its best finish at state in school history. Olivia Dinehart capped her stellar high school career at Cutler Bay with one final memorable season.

For their efforts, Gonzalez and Dinehart are the Miami Herald’s 2022 Dade swimmers of the year.

Gonzalez was integral in Braddock securing a runner-up finish in the Class 4A meet, the first time the Bulldogs ever finished in the top-two as a team.

The sophomore won the 100-yard freestyle and was the leadoff swimmer of Braddock’s title-winning 400-yard freestyle relay. Gonzalez also had a runner-up finish in the 100-yard breaststroke and helped Braddock’s 200-yard medley relay to a third-place finish.

“Pretty successful,” Gonzalez said. “Last year, I didn’t think I would have done this well. I never would have thought I’d win my events at state. It’s pretty crazy.”

He certainly did come a long way from his freshman season. Just look at the improvement in his two individual events.

Gonzalez shaved more than three seconds off his time in the 100 freestyle in 12 months, going from a 48.38-second performance at the 2021 state meet that was dead last in the preliminary round to 45.25 seconds this year to win the title.

As for the 100 breaststroke, he dropped more than four seconds off his time — going from a 1:00.08 and 16th-place finish at state last year to a 55.92-second performance and runner-up finish at state this year.

“I feel like I was putting in the same amount of work, but there was just a big explosion between last year and this year in my skill,” Gonzalez said. “I dropped a lot of time. I’m really happy.”

Gonzalez still has two more years of high school left to keep improving those times. He has bigger goals beyond that, though, with eyes on swimming collegiately and, hopefully, in the Olympics.

Dinehart, meanwhile, finished her high school career with one more state title in her signature event.

The senior repeated as the Class 1A champion in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:01.60. She never finished worse than second in the event during her four years at Cutler Bay, also winning in 2021 and finishing as runner-up in 2020 and 2019.

“It was very special,” said Dinehart, who repeated as the Miami Herald’s Dade girls’ swimmer of the year. “It kind of makes everything worth it that I’ve done. Just to have a final triumph is really awesome.”

Dinehart beat King’s Academy junior Alyssa Bozzuto by just 12 hundredths of a second for the breaststroke title but didn’t immediately know that she touched the wall first.

“So I actually couldn’t see anything because I didn’t have my glasses on,” Dinehart said with a laugh. “I couldn’t see the scoreboard but my friends were behind the box cheering for me so it was a relief. The girl I was racing was great. It was stressful, but having everyone there excited for me was really fun.”

Dinehart this season also finished sixth in the 200-yard individual medley, an event she also competed in at state all four years. She also participated in two of Cutler Bay’s relays — the 200 medley that finished sixth and the 400 freestyle that finished seventh.

Next up, Dinehart will head to the Southeastern Conference. She is committed to Auburn University.