OP_051817

opprairie.com sports
the orland park prairie | May 18, 2017 | 53
Boys Track and Field
Sandburg looks past SWSC meet to the sectional
Frank Gogola
Freelance Reporter
As much as Sandburg
track and field would have
liked to win the SouthWest
Suburban Conference Blue
championship, the Eagles
instead opted to prepare
themselves for the sectional.
They had their athletes
focus on bettering their
times in one or two events,
instead of spreading that
energy across their normal
three or four events.
“If we ran faster or
jumped farther tonight, that
would give us better seed
times, better positioning,
better lanes and potentially
a better shot at qualifying
for state next week at sectional,”
Sandburg coach Joe
Nemeth said. “That’s our
ultimate goal. We sacrificed
some points for the good
of the team going into sectional
and state the next two
weekends.”
The Eagles still won three
titles at the outdoor conference
championship they
hosted Thursday, May 11, in
Orland Park. They finished
fifth out of six teams with
71 points, as seven individuals
and four relay teams
scored points. Homewood-
Flossmoor won the title
with 135 points.
Sandburg is to compete
Thursday, May 18, in the
Lockport Sectional. The
Top 2 finishers in each event
— and any additional athletes
who match or exceed
the state-qualifying standard
— move on to the state
finals.
“It’s pretty lethal up
there,” Nemeth said.
“You’re going to need to
make time or hit your mark
to get out. There’s no weak
event. The Top 2 finishers
should hit that time in every
event, so you’re not going
to sneak in. It’s loaded.”
Ayo Abiona won the conference
championship in the
long jump with a distance
of 22 feet, 7 inches. Four
competitors jumped 22-4 or
better. The state qualifying
mark is 22-1.
“It was a very competitive
field tonight,” Nemeth
said. “He won it as a sophomore,
got second last year
and then won it again this
year. It’s good to see him
come back, especially with
his hamstring injury earlier
this year — just a good feeling
with him going into sectional.”
Dylan Jacobs ran away
with the 1600-meter title (4
minutes and 13.57 seconds),
winning by 5.79 seconds.
“Dylan was solid again
in the mile,” Nemeth said.
“The locks right now, I
think, are Dylan in the mile
and Ayo in the long jump to
make state. We’re trying to
put together a good [1,600
relay]. We think we can
get a [3,200 relay] down to
state. We think we can get
one of our two short relays
down there. We’re still trying
to build that lineup.”
The 3,200 relay team
of Nico Calderon, Connor
Devlin, David Alvarez and
Alex Szymanski won with a
time of 8:12.64. The 1,600
relay team of Marvin Agwomoh,
Leo Espino, Martin
Skucas and Peter Demogerontas
placed second with a
time of 3:27.93.
The 800 relay team of Jaimie
Marines, Espino, Nick
Shelton and Agwomoh finished
third, crossing the line
in 1:32.31.
Skucas took third place in
the 800 run with a time of
1:58.51.
Szymanski was third in
the 1,600 run with a time of
4:36.44.
Dan Pawlikowski took
third place in the high jump,
clearing 5-7.
The 400 relay team ran of
Loluwa Osilaja, Agwomoh,
Espino and Abiona placed
fourth but ran a season-best
time of 43.12 seconds. It is
the 10th fastest time in program
history.
Xander Furmanek finished
fourth in the 3,200 run
with a time of 10:05.88.
Demogerontas was sixth
in the 400 dash with a time
of 51.37 seconds.
Girls Water Polo
Sandburg dominates play against Lincoln-Way West in sectional victory
Brittany Kapa, Assistant Editor
Try as they might, Lincoln-Way
West could not get
a handle on Sandburg’s ability
to read plays and set up
powerful and accurate corner
shots.
Sandburg’s ability to create
the play was just as important
as the execution.
“If you have a good defense,
your offense will flow
eventually,” Sandburg coach
Greg Svevo said. “If you can
shut somebody’s defense
down, that’s when you can
start scoring.”
Score they did, as the
Eagles swam away May 10
with a 14-5 victory in the
quarterfinals of the Lincoln-
Way Central Sectional.
“They played better than
the first two times we saw
them,” West coach Keith
Huizinga said. “That team
came to play today.”
Part of West’s struggle
was attributed to being an
amalgamation of players
from the different Lincoln-
Way schools. Because of the
students shifting schools,
creating team chemistry
with the new players was
an adjustment, some of the
players said.
Sandburg came out with
an aggressive style of play
and dominated the entire
first quarter. Minimal errors
on either side kept the play
quick and intense. Sandburg’s
Tara Maher (2 goals)
opened up the scoring just
10 seconds into the game.
A little more than a minute
later Vaia Makris netted her
first goal from the midzone
— her first of seven throughout
the night.
“We got really hyped up
before the game,” Makris
said about her seven-goal
performance. “That just really
helped with our emotions
and getting everybody ready
for this game. We just all
wanted to play well together,
because we have pretty good
team chemistry.”
West’s Emily Bierma had
the difficult task to cover
Makris on defense.
“It’s definitely harder to
do, just because she was a
lot faster than I was, and
she was better at moving her
body when she was trying to
get around me,” Bierma said
defending the Eagles’ top
scorer.
Sandburg finished the first
quarter 4-0 and did not stop
there. By the end of the second,
they had run the score
up to a comfortable 8-1 lead
with West’s Alexandria Carter
scoring the lone goal.
West tried to get around
Sandburg’s defense but even
when it succeeded, Emma
Crnich, Sandburg’s goalkeeper,
denied the Warriors
best attempts on net. Crnich
recorded 17 saves throughout
the night.
West’s goalkeeper, Harmony
Moran, struggled in
the first half with Makris’
shots. Her quick and decisive
shots never left Moran
with enough time to react.
“I think I was just nervous
about all of it,” Moran
said about her first-quarter
performance. “They had a
good hole-set, and we tried
to work on that in practice to
shut that down. Other than
that, they had good outside
shooting.”
Thanks in part to Moran
and the skillful work of
West’s defense, the Warriors’
were able to stifle the Eagles
attack in the third, only allowing
one goal, while Carter
added her second goal for
West. Moran came up with
huge saves in the third quarter
to keep her team in the action.
West closed the gap just
slightly but still trailed 9-2.
“[Sandburg] was hyped
up, and they were counterattacking,”
Huizinga said.
“They were fast; they were
good; and even when we executed
our defense the way
we wanted, they still shot it
right in the corner. The best
goalie in the world couldn’t
block half those shots.”
Sandburg continue to add
goals in the fourth quarter
and extended its lead to
12-2 before pulling Crnich
from net a little more than
halfway through the quarter.
The Eagles replaced her with
backup goalkeeper Lauren
Corcoran, who was brought
up from the junior varsity
squad. West capitalized on
the change, as Kira Weems
scored two goals on Corcoran,
one with 1 minute and 37
seconds remaining and the
other just 20 seconds later.
“I think that we can
hold our own on defense,”
Weems said after the game.
“Our trouble comes with offense,
really.”
Huizinga agreed with
Weems that the Warriors’ offense
has struggle to score
all year. He attributes their
lack of offense to not being
able to make concise plans
with the ball upon entering
the offensive zone. Despite
the frustration of not getting
on the board more, he is
lighthearted about the team’s
struggles.
“I wish we had played a
little better in that game, but
as I told them, all seasons
end in a loss unless you win
the Super Bowl,” he said.
“Ain’t nobody here in the
Super Bowl.”
The Eagles lost in the following
round to Lincoln-
Way East by a score of 15-5.