Boys Swimming: Lockport’s Knowles a double-winner
By Tim O’Brien For Sun-Times Media February 18, 2012 11:24PM
Lockport's Jake Gillis, swims in the 200 yd butterfly, at Saturday's IHSA Sectional Boys' Swim and Dive, hosted at Carl Sandburg High School. | Paul James Bergstrom~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 20, 2012 8:15AM
Lockport’s Jake Knowles remembered how his sectional meet went last season as a sophomore.
Swimming against Sandburg’s Stan Grotkiewicz in the 100-yard freestyle, Knowles lost by .11 of a second while still advancing to the state meet.
This Saturday at the Sandburg sectional, Knowles flipped things around, beating the Sandburg duo of Grotkiewicz and Stephen Zieler in the same race.
“Those Sandburg guys have been flying all season,” Knowles said. “(After last year), I didn’t want that to happen again. It was a great race.”
Lockport finished third overall with 234 points behind host Sandburg (307) and Stagg (271). All event winners advance to this week’s state meet at Evanston with all swimmers finishing under a state-qualifying team advancing as well.
Knowles won the 100 free (:48.00) ahead of Zieler (:48.02) and Grotkiewicz (:48.09) in the meet’s best race. Knowles also won the 100 breaststroke (:59.05) for the Porters. Diver Austin Mastela (440.70) took first with Tyler Pastore (423.20) taking second. Pastore is a strong candidate to advance at large in diving.
“They were right there, and it was so close,” Knowles said. “I was so happy to win.”
Lockport’s Dan Oldendorf won the 200 freestyle (1:46.91) and also advanced in the 500 freestyle (4:45.95).
Rounding out the team scores were Joliet Central (6th, 66 points), Lemont (10th, 31), Romeoville (11th, 22) and Joliet Catholic (13th, 9).
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