Jesuit, Ursuline Tag Team to Win Park Cities Quad Meet.

Jesuit Swimming and Diving started the semester off strong at the Park Cities Quad Meet in University Park, Texas. The meet, hosted by Highland Park High School, featured five schools: JJ Pearce High School, Highland Park High School, Tyler Legacy High School, Jesuit Dallas, and Ursuline Academy (Jesuit and Ursuline competed as one team).

The meet took a tournament format over the span of two days, from January 5-6. On Day #1, J.J. Pearce dueled Jesuit and Ursuline, while Highland Park dueled Tyler Legacy. The winners of each respective matchup would face each other on Day #2 while the losers of the Day #1 matchups would also duel each other. The Jesuit-Ursuline Tag Team (known as Jursuline during the meet) went undefeated during competition, defeating the JJ Pearce Mustangs on Day #1 179-147, and the Highland Park Scots 189-137. These two wins put Jesuit at 8-0 on the season.

Note About Scoring

If you look up the results from this meet, you will get a variety of numbers depending on where you look. For this example, I will use the duel against JJ Pearce. Jesuit Athletics posted the result of the meet as 105-51 win for the Rangers. However, Ursuline Athletics posted on their Instagram a score of 178-147 in favor of the Bears. These sets of numbers are wildly different. In order to understand this, we need to dig deeper into the results. 

Due to the format of the meet, a win or loss was determined by the combined score of the men’s and women’s events. This is highly unusual, because in a regular high school dual meet, TAPPS or UIL, the men’s a women’s events are scored separately, as if two separate meets are being ran. The score of 178-147 listed by Ursuline Athletics was the combined score of the Jesuit and Ursuline swim teams. The result (105-51) listed on Jesuit’s Athletics website is the score of the men’s events only. Below is listed the full scoring for combined, for men only, and for women only.

Jesuit/Ursuline vs. JJ Pearce

Women: 1. Richardson Pearce- 92  2. Ursuline Academy- 64

Men: 1. Jesuit Dallas- 105 2. Richardson Pearce- 51

Combined: 1. Jesuit/Ursuline- 179 2. Richardson Pearce- 147

Jesuit/Ursuline vs. Highland Park

Women: 1. Highland Park- 90 2. Ursuline Academy- 66

Men: 1. Jesuit Dallas- 113 2. Highland Park- 43

Combined: 1. Jesuit/Ursuline- 189 2. Highland Park- 137

Day #1: vs. JJ Pearce

On Day 1, Ursuline picked up 4 event wins, while Jesuit picked up 9 event wins, enroute to a 179-147 victory over the Mustangs. The win set up a rematch with Jesuit’s district rivals Highland Park, whom Jesuit beat earlier in the season 126-40.

Highlights

200 IM- A pair of Jesuit freshmen showed that they came to play. Jonah Ruhl won the event with a time 2:01.20. He was followed by teammate Drew Shippey, who finished with a time of 2:07.29. Neither swimmer was far off their best times and the 1-2 finish gave Jesuit incredible momentum the rest of the meet. 

“two days of uncertainty and competive racing tunrned out to be quite successful with two big wins” -Drew Shippey ’27

50 Freestyle- The 50 Freestyle was one of Ursuline’s four event wins on Day #1. Junior Caroline Rippel took the win with a time of 25.88. Fellow Ursuline Junior Ariana Burlingame would be the Bear’s next finisher, finishing third with a time of 27.19. Rounding out Ursuline’s top 3 in the event was senior Nicole Estrada, who finished fifth with a time of 27.48.

200 Mixed Freestyle Relay- This was one of the more unusual events during the meet. In the context of swimming, the term “mixed” is used to describe a relay consisting of 2-man, 2-woman team. This differentiates from the typical 4-man or 4-woman relay team. The Jesuit/Ursuline “A” Relay took the win. The “A” Relay was led off by Jesuit sophomore Sam Kennington, who split a 24.13. Following Kennington were Ursuline sophomore Natalie Estrada (26.04) and Jesuit sophomore Sebastian Suwanda (22.99). Ursuline junior Caroline Rippel served as the anchor leg, splitting a 24.30. Jursuline’s “B” relay finished third, out touching the Pearce “B” relay by a third of a second. Jesuit Senior Teddy Scherer led off, splitting a 24.64.  Ursuline swimmers Ariana Burlingame and Nicole Estrada followed Scherer, splitting a 27.52 and 24.06, respectively. Jesuit senior Jaden Guinta would anchor the “B” relay, splitting a 26.51.

100 Breastroke- Both Jesuit and Ursuline picked up wins in the event. Freshmen Grant Wilton scored the win for the Rangers with a time of 1:07.00. Junior Oliver Miller (1:11.37) and Senior Charlie Fent (1:11.83) would finish third and fourth, respectively. On the women’s side, Ursuline Senior Margaret McKinney would take the win for the Bears. Her teammates Emma Roderiguez and Addison Van Hyfte would round out Ursuline top 3 finishers. 

Day #1 of the meet would conclude with a duel between Tyler Legacy and the host team, Highland Park. Despite a close finish, Tyler Legacy was outdueled by the Scots 164-162, setting up a rematch between Jesuit and Highland Park in the championship meet.

View the full results from Day#1 here.

Day #2: vs. Highland Park

Day #2 saw a showdown of longtime rivals. Jesuit and Highland Park faced off in a rematch from last November. In that meeting Jesuit won 126-40. This time around was no different. Jesuit dominated with a score of 113-43. Ursuline would contribute 66 points, bringing the combined score to 189-137.

Highlights

50 Freestyle- Jesuit finished the event in 1st, 3rd, and 4th place. Sam Kennington, who’s proved himself a lethal sprinter for the Rangers, tied Highland Park’s GB Stalnaker, both finishing with a time of 23.15.  Seniors from Jesuit Teddy Scherer and Alexander McSorley rounded out Jesuit’s top 3, finishing third and fourth, respectively.

100 Freestyle- Both the Bears and the Rangers went 1-2 in the event. Sophomore Natalie Estrada and Junior Ariana Burlingame finished first and second, respectively. Burlingame dropped one and a half seconds off her seed time, improving from a 1:01.00 to a 59.35. On the men’s side, sophomore Sebastian Suwanda leapfrogged Highland Park’s GB Stalnaker to steal points and secure the win with a time of 49.66. He was followed by his teammate Jonah Ruhl, who secured second with a time of 49.75.

200 Mixed Freestyle Relay- On Day #2, Coach Girard and Coach Doug decided to switch things up. The decision was made to have Ariana Burlingame and Natalie Estrada switch relays. The gamble almost paid off, as the Jursuline “A” Relay (Sam Kennington, Burlingame, Sebastian Suwanda, Caroline Rippel) still won the event with a combined time of 1:38.26. The “B” relay (Alexander McSorley, Estrada, Nicole Estrada, and Teddy Scherer) almost ran down Highland Park’s “A” relay but were ultimately out touched.

100 Backstroke- Both Jesuit and Ursuline would win the 100 backstroke. Junior Flynn Hughes (57.92) and Freshmen Drew Shippey (1:00.12) went 1-2 for the Rangers, picking up crucial points. Rounding out Jesuit’s top-3 was Junior Michael Hasenfratz, who finished with a time of 1:03.41. Caroline Rippel scored the win for the Bears with a time of 1:03.45. The women’s podium in that event was rounded out by Ursuline senior Margret Mckinney, who touched the wall at a 1:11.61.

View Day #2’s full results here.

“The unique format of the meet provided THE OPPURTUNITY to see the team battle through two tough opponents back-to-back”    -Luke Lary 26

Looking Ahead

Jesuit concludes the regular season on January 11th with a tri-meet against Frisco schools Wakeland and Heritage. There Jesuit will celebrate its seniors on Jesuit Swimming and Diving’s Senior Night. Diving will start at 4:10 p.m., with the swimming portion to begin at 6 p.m.

The postseason begins the Junior Varsity District Championships at the Gull on January 16th. The Varsity’s postseason begins with the UIL District 7-6A Championships on January 27th at the Alfred J. Loos Aquatic Center in Addison, Texas. After that, Jesuit Swimming and Diving makes its return to the Lewisville ISD Westside Aquatic Center for the UIL Region 2-6A Championships. Preliminaries is set to take place on February 9th with finals on February 10th.  Qualifiers will travel down to Austin and the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center at the University of Texas for the UIL 6A State Championships.