The swim and diving teams competed in the 5A TISCA Meet Thursday-Sunday with the Redhawks making strides from last year. 

“Overall the team did excellent. I am very proud of each and every swimmer and diver,” head swim and dive coach Zach Gnoza said. “This was a tough meet that had qualifying time standards and to take 17 out of 22 athletes was huge. We only took 6 last year.”

Sophomore Aubrey Henderson placed 6th in her first TISCA meet, alongside only four Frisco ISD divers.

“I was really happy I even qualified because that meet is a really hard meet to qualify for,” Henderson said. “It was an 11 dive meet and I had a few dives that I was worried about, but I pushed through and ended up placing higher than I was expecting and was about 10 points away from my PR which is kind of sad, but it’s consistent and I am getting there.” 

The girls’ swim team saw school records broken, along with all of the team qualifying for finals, and senior Maria Oushalkas breaking her own school record in the 100 butterfly.

“I was honestly surprised that I broke my record at this meet,” Oushalkas said. “That was a personal best for both high school and club. I had swam a meet the weekend prior and gone slower so to drop a whole second was insane to me. I was over the moon about it though and getting to swim against my sister and have her there by my side to celebrate made it that much sweeter.”

Oushalkas believes the energy the team brought in this meet made it the best of the season.

“This meet has been the best of the season,” she said. “Not just because a lot of us dropped time, but because of the energy we all had going into finals. My team and I did fantastic in our swims and this has definitely built confidence in the team for districts and onward.”