South Florida HEAT’s Madarassy, Aquinas’ Wathen are Broward Swimming Coaches of the Year
Adam Madarassy’s South Florida HEAT, a small but mighty girls’ swimming team, once again showed it could hang with one of the top teams in the state. Alec Wathen’s boys’ swimming team at St. Thomas Aquinas had a stellar season of its own.
That’s why Madarassy and Wathen are the Miami Herald’s Broward Swimming Coaches of the Year for 2023.
Madarassy’s South Florida HEAT girls’ swimming team once again finished as runners-up in Class 1A behind Jacksonville Bolles if only because of the team’s size — not its talent.
South Florida HEAT’s girls team only had a half-dozen players, but all of them excelled in their individual events.
Erika Pelaez, the Miami Herald’s Broward Girls’ Swimmer of the Year for a third consecutive year, set the tone with another pair of individual state titles and state records (50 freestyle and 100 backstroke). Their 400 freestyle relay of Pelaez, Sofia Jorge, Alanis Santiago and Gioia Balzano, also set a state record en route to another state title. South Florida HEAT’s other two relays — the 200 medley and 200 freestyle — logged runner-up finishes.
As for the rest of the team’s individual efforts: Balzano finished fourth in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 200 freestyle; Jorge was fifth in the 100 butterfly and seventh in the 200 freestyle; Santiago was ninth in the 100 freestyle and 13th in the 200 freestyle; Schoenborn was seventh in the 100 backstroke and ninth in the 200 IM; and Elyse Wood was ninth in the 100 butterfly.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ boys’ team, meanwhile, posted a fifth-place finish in Class 3A with 158 points — the most of any Broward boys’ team at state.
Among the Raiders’ top performers at state: Gabriel Tortola was runner-up in the 200 freestyle and fifth in the 100 freestyle; Juan Vallmitjana-Behrendt was fourth in the 500 freestyle; the 200 freestyle relay team of Alex Mansur, Cole Jordan, Vallmitjana-Behrendt and Tortola finished third; and the 400 freestyle relay team of Mansur, Vallmitjana-Behrendt, Juan Orjuela and Tortols came in fourth.