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38 | November 15, 2018 | The Lockport Legend sports<br />
lockportlegend.com<br />
Porters four-peat as sectional champions<br />
Randy Whalen, Freelance Reporter<br />
It was the time of year the Lockport<br />
Township girls swimming had<br />
been preparing for since August:<br />
sectional time.<br />
“On the first day of practice, before<br />
we even get in the water, I talk<br />
to the team about goals,” Lockport<br />
coach Grant Ferkaluk said. “I told<br />
them the goal is the sectional. Everything<br />
we do is about what we<br />
need to do to win that.”<br />
That’s exactly what the Porters<br />
did as they captured their fourth<br />
consecutive sectional championship<br />
and fifth in six seasons by scoring<br />
306 points to easily outdistance<br />
second-place Sandburg (269 points)<br />
on Saturday, Nov. 10, at the Sandburg<br />
Sectional. Stagg (178) was<br />
third, followed by Andrew (168),<br />
Oak Forest (119), Joliet West (110),<br />
Marist (73), Shepard (61), Chicago<br />
High School for Agricultural Sciences<br />
(31), Eisenhower (20) and<br />
Julian (13).<br />
Lockport is to have representatives<br />
in 11 events, including Ellie<br />
Fontanetta in a trio of Athletes with<br />
Disabilities events, at the state finals<br />
this Friday, Nov. 16, and Saturday,<br />
Nov. 17, at Evanston Township<br />
High School.<br />
For the second straight season,<br />
senior Emily Johnson and junior<br />
Lindsey Merk will both represent<br />
the Porters in four events. In fact,<br />
it’s the third straight season that<br />
Merk will be going in four events.<br />
“I’m the first girl in Lockport<br />
history to be part of four straight<br />
sectional titles and that’s pretty exciting,”<br />
said Johnson, who went to<br />
state in the 200-yard freestyle relay<br />
as a freshman and then went in three<br />
events as a sophomore. “I went last<br />
year in the same four events and I’ll<br />
be tapering now for state.”<br />
Johnson captured first in the<br />
200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 57.85<br />
seconds) and the 100-yard freestyle<br />
(54.54 seconds). For the third<br />
straight season Merk won the 100-<br />
yard butterfly (57.14) and the 100-<br />
yard backstroke (57.63).<br />
They were also both part of the<br />
winning 200-yard medley relay<br />
Please see swimming, 35<br />
Lockport freshman Ellie Fontanetta looks at her time after competing in the Athletes With Disabilities 50-yard race on Saturday, Nov. 10, at the<br />
Sandburg Sectional. Photos by Jeff Vorva/22nd Century Media<br />
Lindsey Merk, a junior at Lockport, shows her winning form in the 100 butterfly during sectional action.
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