Jesuit Swimming and Diving Finishes Third at 2023 North Zone TISCA

Jesuit Swimming and Diving continued to build on its already incredible season with a 3rd place finish at the 2023 North Zone TISCA Invitational. This marked the fourth consecutive year the Rangers placed top 5 in the meet. Jesuit had 8 top-5 event finishers, giving a strong showing at a what is essentially a preview of the Regional meet. 

“i am happy to see the team place well and perform well in an incredibly competitive meet” -Luke lary ’26

Notable Swims

200 Medley Relay- Once again the medley relay, made up of freshman Jonah Ruhl, sophomores Luke Lary and Sam Kennington, and senior William Savarese, would experience success. They finished prelims in 4th with a time of 1:38.14. They would improve in finals with a third-place finish. Along with a 3rd Place finish, they would clock a time of 1:36.49, which is a second off the school record (1:35.25 set by Matt Thompson, Brooks Haller, Hamilton Jordan, and Andy Osterland).

200 Freestyle- Jesuit would have a trio of finishers in the top 5, scoring a mountain of points. William Savarese and Jonah Ruhl would go 1-2, finishing in times of 1:38.30 and 1:43.92, respectively. Sophomore Sebastian Suwanda would close out the Jesuit finishers with a time of 1:48.00, finishing 5th. With his time, Savarese is .19 off the school record of 1:38.11 set by Matt Thompson in 2008.  

100 Breastroke – Jesuit’s 100 breastroke core consisted of Senior Teddy Scherer (14th), Junior Oliver Miller (24th), and Freshman Grant Wilton (21st). While Wilton and Miller would both achieve best times, this race made the highlights for the actions of one of the swimmers. This will be discussed in a later section.

400 Freestyle Relay- The Ranger’s 400 Free “A” Relay Squad (William Savarese, Luke Lary, Sebastian Suwanda, and Jonah Ruhl) would finish 3rd with a time of 3:12.30. Savarese would clutch up with a split of 44.87, helping Jesuit out touch the relay from Flower Mound Marcus. Jesuit’s “B” relay also stepped up to the plate. The team consisting of sophomore Sam Kennington (50.93), freshman Drew Shippey (51.98), senior Alexander McSorely (52.35), and junior Flynn Hughes (50.40) finished 3rd in the B Final with a time of 3:25.66. They would score a crucial 22 points, helping Jesuit to a 3rd place finish over Flower Mound Marcus.

Men for Others- Stories from the Pool Deck

During the meet, the actions of two swimmers caught the attention of the swimmers and even some of the officials. These two swimmers are William Savarese ’24 and Oliver Miller ’25.

William Savarese

Before the 400 Free Relay, Jesuit’s swimmers were preparing themselves in the warmup pool. That is when William Savarese noticed a swimmer who had passed out, lying on the bleachers. Savarese, a certified lifeguard, immediately stopped his warmup, exited the pool, and immediately assisted the passed-out swimmer by lifting his legs. Then, with the help of some other swimmer from Tyler Legacy High School, helped him sit up and stayed with him until lifeguards and emergency medical staff arrived.

Oliver Miller 

Miller came to Lewisville to swim only one event: the 100 breaststroke. Initally, he was disqualified after he dove in before the buzzer goes off. He got out of the pool, got back on the block, but he was asked to step down by an official (by rule you cannot dive in into the water until the buzzer goes off). However, the officials conversed for about 10 minutes, discussing what had just happened. They then determined that he had dove in before the starter had finished saying “take your mark.” By rule, he is allowed to swim his race. After the official apologized to him, he continued in a respectful manner, never getting angry or raising his voice. One official said, 

“i am impressed by the sportsanship that swimmer [reffering to miller] showed even when the offical made a mistake.”

Looking Ahead

Jesuit has two meets to close out the 2023 calendar year. On November 28th, Jesuit returns home to welcome the Greenhill Hornets. After that, it’s a family reunion to close out the year as Jesuit Swimming & Diving welcomes back its alumni at the 1st Annual Jesuit Alumni Meet.

View full results from the meet here.

Stay tuned to the Roundup for continual coverage of Jesuit Swimming & Diving