Gulliver Prep’s Chris George, Mater Lakes’ Caesar Asadi are Dade Swimming Coaches of Year
After a two-year hiatus, Chris George’s girls swimming team from Gulliver Prep hoisted a state championship trophy again.
Caesar Asadi’s boys team from Mater Lakes Academy had a podium finish of its own.
They were the top teams in the pool from Miami-Dade County this season.
As such, George and Asadi are the Miami Herald’s Dade Swimming Coaches of the Year.
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The Class 2A state championship for Gulliver Prep was the sixth girls’ swimming title in school history and fourth under George. The other five came in consecutive years from 2014-2018, with George overseeing the final three years of that stretch before finishing third in 2019 and improving up to second place in 2020.
And the state title this year was the epitome of a team effort. Gulliver Prep only took home a state title in one event — the 200 medley relay that featured Giovanna Musiello, Reese Rosenthal, Elyse Wood and Cassandra Kraft.
But the Raiders did have seven other top-five finishes at state: Musiello finished third in both the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke, Aria Torretta was fourth in the 200 IM, Kraft finished fourth in the 50 freestyle and Wood came in fifth in the 100 butterfly. Gulliver’s 200 freestyle relay also came in second place while the 400 freestyle relay finished third.
As for Asadi’s Mater Lakes Academy team, the Bears boys finished in third place in Class 2A, the highest placing among Miami-Dade teams.
In addition to Mater Lakes winning the 400 freestyle relay and coming in second in the 200 freestyle relay, the Bears also had big performances in the 200 freestyle from Matthew Tarafa (third place) and Augustin Rodriguez (fourth place). Tarafa also finished seventh in the 100 freestyle, Rodriguez seventh in the 500 freestyle and Antony Robiana seventh in the 100 breaststroke.
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