Pine Crest and Fort Lauderdale coaches are Broward’s Swimming Coaches of the Year
Pine Crest has been a model of consistency when it comes to swimming and diving success for years under coach Mariusz Podkoscielny.
Fort Lauderdale has experienced this in the past and is developing a similar standard under coach Adam Drucker.
This season didn’t produce team state championships for either program.
But each had notable performances from their athletes and put them in positions to vie for higher milestones in the near future.
As such, Podkoscielny and Drucker are the Miami Herald’s Broward County Swimming and Diving Coaches of the Year.
Podkoscielny, a multi-time winner of this award, secures another one on the boys’ side after leading Pine Crest to a county-best third-place finish in Class 1A. Meanwhile, Drucker led Fort Lauderdale’s girls’ squad to a county-best third-place finish in Class 3A.
The Panthers finished with only one state champion in 1-meter diver Allen Levitis.
But Pine Crest posted several top finishes against the toughest classification in the state as it competed against both Jacksonville Bolles and Boca Raton St. Andrews.
Juniors Jake Jones and Leo Hauser, along with senior Kingsley Bailey and sophomore Brady Baur led the Panthers 200 medley relay to a sixth-place finish, which was among the highlights.
Drucker has seen his girls’ team flourish into one of the best in Broward.
Led by sophomore Da’Jah German, who had top-6 finishes in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, the Flying L’s once again dominated the county at several meets this season. German, her sister, D’Ziah, junior Katherine Voet and senior Sydney Cronin, also put together a top-5 finish in the 400 freestyle relay in Class 3A.
