Belen, Mater Lakes, Miami Beach coaches are Dade Swimming Coaches of the Year
Miami-Dade County swimmers turned in another strong season overall.
Some perennial powerhouses in the sport such as Belen Jesuit surged back among the top teams in the state.
A rising power in Mater Lakes claimed another first state championship.
And a contender from the early days of high school swimming in Florida, Miami Beach, earned a milestone it hadn’t in decades.
The coaches driving those programs are the Miami Herald’s Swimming Coaches of the Year.
Belen Jesuit’s Andy De Angulo is the Miami-Dade Boys’ Swimming Coach of the Year after guiding the Wolverines to a state runner-up finish in Class 2A. It was the highest finish for any boys’ program regardless of classification this season.
On the girls’ side, Mater Lakes’ Sarah Smith led the Bears to their first state team championship a year after the boys accomplished the same feat.
Smith will share honors with the coaching duo of Charles Pilamunga and Michael Goggins of Miami Beach High, which finished fourth in Class 3A - one of its best performances in recent memory.
The individual performances of freshman Penelope Lopez Casula and senior Gioia Balzano made that accomplishment even more remarkable.
The duo became the first girls’ swimmers at Miami Beach to win state titles since Ruth Hoerger won the last of her 10 career individual state titles in 1940.
Balzano secured championships in the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly while Lopez Casula won the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle.
The two were the first individual state champions overall for Miami Beach since Marion Parks won a diving state title in 1957.
Smith repeats as Coach of the Year honors after Mater Lakes’ girls scored 240.5 points, pulling away from Tampa Academy of the Holy Names’ 180-point effort for the Class 2A title. The effort was led by sophomore Jianna Amores, who won the state title in the 100-yard butterfly with a 52.58 and earned her first gold in the 100-yard backstroke with a 55.35. She also anchored the team’s first-place-winning 400-yard freestyle relay.
De Angulo, one of the top coaches in Dade for some time, saw Belen’s boys finish a close second to Jacksonville Bishop Kenny (244.5-217).
The Wolverines’ efforts were led by the De Angulo brothers, senior Chris, and sophomore Alec. Chris De Angulo took first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 56.14, beating second place by 0.14 seconds. Alec De Angulo earned gold with a 1:52.49 in the 200 individual medley.
This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
