Boys Swimming: Eagles cruise past competition

Updated: December 22, 2011 8:02PM

Throw out the stopwatches and times.

For now, Sandburg is just glad for a little competition through the first month of the season.

“Our main focus early is just racing,” Sandburg’s Stan Grotkiewicz said. “We want to be in the mind-set of just racing a guy and don’t worry about your time. Just get the competition going.”

Sandburg cruised to a 122-63 win over host Lincoln-Way North Thursday.

The Eagles wasted little time establishing a lead, coming from behind in the first event, the 200-yard medley relay.

“It’s always great to see a guy go so fast,” Grotkiewicz said. “It brings the whole team up.”

Senior Matt Veldman swam a ridiculous 21.2 seconds in the final leg to lift the relay (1:44.49) to the win.

“We trained hard for today, and the kids were tired,” Sandburg coach Jim Caliendo said. “To see Matt do something like that, all the excuses went out the window. If he can do it, we can do it. No excuses about not swimming fast.”

Other winners for the Eagles included Connor Gallimore in the 200 freestyle (1:53.89), Lucas Krull in the 200 individual medley (2:04.22) and 100 breaststroke (1:08.50), Veldman in the 50 free (21.96), Grotkiewicz in the 100 free (50.50), Mike O’Malley in the 500 free (5:09.81), the 200 free relay (1:28.28), Kevin Tunney in the 100 backstroke (1:00.45) and the 400 free relay (3:21.48).

“Throw our times together and I’m real happy with where we are at,” Caliendo said.

For Lincoln-Way North, Jake Pearson won the 100 butterfly (56.94) and Ryan Deporto won diving with 214.10 points.

Coach Pat Shaughnessy was pleased to see his relays stick with Sandburg. North’s 400 free relay finished less than a second behind Sandburg.

“We’ve been hanging in there and having great times,” Shaughnessy said. “The tough schedule up front really shows how hard (the team) has to work for the championship season. The relays did great today.”

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