Pine Crest’s Podkoscielny, South Florida HEAT’s Madarassy are Broward Swimming Coaches of Year
They guided their teams through the rigors of Florida’s toughest swimming classification.
The work paid off.
Mariusz Podkoscielny led Pine Crest to a third-place finish in the girls meet, while his boys team finished ninth. Adam Madarassy’s South Florida HEAT teams finished in fourth (boys) and seventh (girls).
And they did this while in a stacked Class 1A field that includes powerhouses such as Jacksonville Bolles, Boca Raton St. Andrew’s and West Palm Beach King’s Academy.
For their efforts, Podkoscielny and Madarassy are the Miami Herald’s Broward County Swimming Coaches of the Year.
Pine Crest had one state champion on each team this year — Kevin Mendez won the boys’ diving title for the sixth consecutive year and Julia Podkoscielny won the 200-yard individual medley.
Beyond that, the Panthers had seven combined additional top-five finishes at the Class 1A meet. On the girls’ side, Podkoscielny finished second in the 100-yard backstroke, Riley Botting third in the 500-yard freestyle, Ava Anderson third in diving, the school’s 200-yard freestyle relay third, Hanna Smith fourth in the 100-yard freestyle and the school’s 200-yard medley relay fifth. For the boys’ team, Allen Levitis finished as runner-up to Mendez in the diving competition.
For South Florida HEAT, sophomore Erika Pelaez won both of the school’s individual state titles, setting the state record in the 100-yard backstroke and coming within less than one-tenth of a second of setting the state’s 50-yard freestyle record. Madarassy’s teams also had top-five finishes in the girls’ 400 freestyle relay (third), girls’ 100-yard breaststroke (Micaela Sierra, fourth), boys’ 200-yard freestyle (Kaii Winkler, second), boys’ 100-yard freestyle (Winkler, second), boys’ 200 medley relay (second), boys’ 200 freestyle relay (second) and boys’ 100-yard breaststroke (Dario Martin, fourth).
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