JESUIT SP RTS
State Champions
Jesuit swimming ends a 71-year drought for Hillsborough County schools
Jesuit State Champions Swimming Team
Student-athletes from the Jesuit’s baseball and lacrosse
programs signed with the colleges of their choice Nov. 8 at a
special early morning signing ceremony in the President’s Board
Room at Jesuit.
Family, friends, and coaches fi lled the room to celebrate the
event. The eight Jesuit seniors who signed Letters of Intent
on Nov. 8 were:
• Jack Anderson, baseball, Florida State University
• Joel Brewer, baseball, University of South Carolina
• Seth Cashen, lacrosse, Bellarmine University
• Robert Hales, baseball, Spalding University
• Chris Jennings, lacrosse, Lynchburg College
• Everett Lee, baseball, Wesleyan University
• Jake Lemon, lacrosse, Canisius College
• McGuire Weaver, baseball, Florida State University
The fi ve baseball players helped Jesuit capture the Saladino
Tournament championship last season and advance to the 5A
State championship game.
The three lacrosse signees helped the team to a 14-3 record
last spring and are led by Lemon, the Spectrum Sports 2017
Player of the Year for the Tampa Bay area after scoring 46 goals
in 17 games.
The ultimate victory, fi nally, was
theirs. After years of knocking on the
door, Jesuit swimming seized its fi rst
State title on Nov. 3 in Stuart.
Three second-place relays – the
relays score double the points of the
individual races – and a wave of top
fi nishers across numerous events propelled
the Tigers to a historic victory:
Jesuit became Hillsborough County’s
fi rst team State champion in swimming
since Hillsborough High in 1946.
Jesuit’s Class 2A championship came
20 JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • WINTER 2017-18
after three straight years of top 3 placings
at State, including runner-up results
in 2014 and ’15. This time, though, the
Tigers racked up 271 points to outdistance
powerhouse Pinecrest Gulliver
Prep by 27 points. The Tigers were honored
at Convocation the next week, and
then by Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn at
his downtown digs a few weeks later.
Brendan Driscoll ’19 claimed Jesuit’s
lone individual State title, powering to
victory by more than fi ve seconds in
the 500 freestyle. Driscoll was honored
in January with the Hicks Award as the
county’s Outstanding Swimmer.
A slew of other Tigers earned top
fi nishes at State, most notably the silver
medals earned by all three relays, the 200
medley, 200 freestyle, and 400 freestyle.
Sam Sands ’18, anchoring the meet’s fi nal
event, the 400 free relay, pulled Jesuit up
from 7th place to 2nd.
The Tigers’ top individual performers
were Driscoll – 1st in 500 freestyle, 3rd
in 200 freestyle; Jennings – 3rd in 100
breaststroke, 3rd in 50 freestyle; Sands –
3rd in 100 freestyle, 5th in 50 freestyle;
Nick Shaffer ’21 – 5th in 100 backstroke,
9th in 200 IM; and Diego Perez-Aracena ’18
– 5th in diving.
Swimming is the seventh sports
program at Jesuit to win a State title and
the school’s 20th State champion overall,
joining soccer (6), baseball (4), cross
country (4), basketball (3), football (1),
and track & fi eld (1).
Several Jesuit swimmers in recent
years, including Austin Sellers ’15 and
Tommy Shaffer ’16, won individual State
titles or were part of State champion relay
teams, including gold medal-winning 200
freestyle relays in 2015 and ’16. But the
team title remained just out of reach until
this year.
Fall Signing Ceremony