On October 23rd, the Jesuit Varsity Swim team competed in a double dual meet against Southlake Carroll and Allen, unfortunately coming up just short in third place. Despite many personal and team bests in various races, the Rangers were unable to beat out the competition.
Highlights from the meet included junior Brendan Feehery’s individual victories in both the 200 yard individual medley and the 100 yard backstroke. Additionally, Feehery ’16 was a member of the 200 yard freestyle relay team that earned first place, besting both Allen and Southlake.
Furthermore, senior captain Nolan Daniels won the 50 yard freestyle, the all-out sprint of the swimming world. Besides his individual honors, Daniels ’15 added last second heroics to the 200 yard freestyle team’s performance, propelling them to a victory in the event despite starting over a second behind the competition going into his swim as the team’s anchor leg. He almost achieved the same feat in the 400 yard freestyle relay as well, but came up just short to Southlake Caroll, last year’s state champions, in second place.
The 200 yard freestyle team, consisting of Brendan Feehery ’16, Nolan Daniels ’15, Jack Ayres ’17, and Aedan Quinn ’16, posted a season best time that was only 2 seconds off of what they posted at
state last year, a positive outlook for the remainder of the season. The results in that race and others were especially impressive given the fact that the Rangers competed without a taper, rest, shave, or fast suits, which would have helped to decrease their times significantly.
Senior Roberto Denegri explained the team’s shortcomings, saying, “as a team, we try to be one with the water. At the Allen meet, we were two with t
he water, and we lost. We want to try to once again become one with the water and get another W.” However, Junior Michael Boyson described that, despite the loss, the team “did really well overall, especially considering the tough competition.” Junior Sam Betanzos agreed with his teammate, saying, “as a team, we did fairly well against a serious opponent. Southlake and Allen are arguably two of the best swim teams in the state,” describing that the way the Rangers were able to compete against them this early in the season was a respectable achievement. A handful of 2nd and 3rd place finishes proved that they were not far from the top of the podium.
In order to build on their current strong points, Coach Doug Moyse cited starts, finishes, and turns as skills in need of improvement throughout the entire team. In addition to working on those techniques every day in practice, Moyse explained that additional work on relay exchanges has paid dividends in the pool, describing how “one month ago [they] were disqualified three times for early takeoffs and out of eighteen relays [they] swam at this meet, only one of [their] relays went early.”
The Rangers look forward to preparing for their next meet on November 22nd and 23rd where they will compete against many of the fastest schools in Texas. A TISCA meet, the extremely competitive event will be the team’s second biggest meet of the year.
