Crowd cheering and coaches surveying their swimmers, the natatorium bustled with nervous swimmers and equally nervous mentors, all of them striving for the first place spot. Over the course of the past two weeks, the Jesuit swim team has taken their talents to three swim meets and swam their hearts out, always yearning for the gold.
Ranger Relays (October 1st)
Hosted by Jesuit, this event took place at the Lewisville Aquatic Center and welcomed over 425 swimmers and 16 teams. The competition first holds a preliminary round in which teams only compete in relays, where they earn points for the seeding of the shootout. The shootout happens at the end of the meet, and the top eight teams send their fastest swimmers to race in 50 yard sprints, where all but the last place swimmer advance until one remains. Jesuit placed 7th in the preliminary round, but in the shootout, represented by Ivan Lopez ’20, Colin Feehery ’19, Noah Nguyen ’18, and Jack Ayres ’17, they fell short of winning their 4th consecutive Ranger Relays.
Joshua Betanzos ’18 shared his opinions on the meet, commenting, “Ranger relays is by far the best meet of the year,” and although the swim team fell short of the podium, he sees “a lot of room for improvement from the young guys.” Perplexed by the slew of disqualifications, Timothy Bedard ’17 said, “I don’t know what the deal with the freshmen was, but they were false starting every single event.” But he added that “for the most part their showing this year was pretty good.”
Southlake/Allen Double Dual Meet (October 6th)
Making the trek to Southlake’s CISD Natatorium, the swim team continued their season with, according to Coach Doug Moyse, the “most difficult dual meet of the season,” against reigning state champions Southlake Carroll and Allen, who was able to take down the swim giants from Southlake in the 200 medley last year. Coaches Moyse and Maggard commented that they “like facing a difficult regular season opponent which challenges [the team] to swim [their] best to be competitive.” Falling to both schools, the squad, despite some great individual efforts and taking down Allen in two relays, lost to Allen 168-118 and to Southlake 235-65. Coach Moyse concluded, “We believe these tough opponents will help us later in the season as we prepare to attempt to win our third consecutive district swimming title!”
Noah Nguyen ’18, a member of the relay that bested Allen’s “A” team, although disappointed with the loss, said, “What really matters is the team bonding.” He finished, “We’re going to go back to the pool, and we’re going to come back better than ever.”
Bronco Pentathlon (October 8th)
A smaller meet reserved for JV members of the team, the Bronco Pentathlon allows novice swimmers time to develop and get used to the competitive scene. The meet consisted of each swimmer swimming 50 yards of each stroke. Despite taking first place last year, this year’s JV team, consisting of only 7 members grabbed the 4th place spot. Coach Doug Moyse awarded first-year swimmer Jorge Carpizo ’17 the title of “swimmer of the meet” for finishing first in three of his heats. Freshman Abraham Martinez said that he thought “the meet was pretty amazing,” and his JV teammate Will Fynes ’18 added that he “had a great breaststroke swim and [he looks] forward to the next meet.”
On October 11th the Rangers continue their season at the Plano meet and look to improve upon their success.
