The Jesuit swim team has dived into its new season with a challenging schedule and high expectations. After a strong 2024-2025 season that culminated in a second-place finish at the state championship, the Blue Jays are focused on heading back to Sulphur for the State Championships.

Second year head coach Brett Dipuma ’14 is confident in his team’s ability to achieve that goal. “The team has one goal and expectation,” Dipuma said, “to win a state championship.” The Jays will lean on senior captains Aidan Villars, a returning All-American, and Grant Castillon, a candidate for All-American this season, to lead the team both in and out of the pool. Though the team is young, Dipuma believes the group is ready to “build upon the positive culture” established in previous years and elevate their performance from a state to a national level.

Early Season Meets

The season opened on September 5 with a challenging dual meet against the defending state champions, Catholic High. While the Blue Jays did not come out on top, the experience prepared them for the competitions ahead.

The team quickly rebounded at the Mandeville Invitational, taking first place with 98 points to defeat St. Paul’s (53) and Mandeville (18). The victory was a full team effort, with several swimmers winning their events:

200-yard Medley Relay: Freshmen Liam Phan and Harrison Tschirn, and juniors Dillon Nguyen and Luke Barnett
200-yard Individual Medley: Senior Ben Breithaupt
100-yard Backstroke: Castillon
50-yard Freestyle & 100-yard Breaststroke: Nguyen

Dual Meet vs. Holy Cross

The team continued its success in a dual meet against Holy Cross on September 30. The swimmers really jumped out at this meet, securing first place in numerous events.

The Jays swept the top three spots in the 200-yard freestyle, led by Villars (1:48.93), sophomore Aiden Kee (1:55.67), and freshman Harrison Tschirn (1:59.00). Villars also claimed victory in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.52.

Other event winners included:

Breithaupt won both the 500-yard freestyle (5:18.00) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.28).
Sophomore Conor Samuels won the 100-yard butterfly (54.67).
Phan won the 100-yard backstroke (58.85).

With a strong start to the season, the swimmers are focused on building momentum toward the upcoming district (Oct. 28), metro (Nov. 8), and state (Nov. 22) championships. Support the Blue Jay swimmers by following the roster and schedule here.