Palatine off to winning start under Sorenson
Palatine's boys swimming team is taking after its new coach, Kyle Sorenson, a much-decorated former Pirate competitor himself, by excelling in the sprint freestyles.
Behind victories from Dylan Weissmann in the 50- and 100-meter freestyles and triumphs in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, Palatine delivered a 117.5-68.5 victory over visiting Prospect on Friday in the head coaching debut of Sorenson.
“We've got pretty good depth in the sprints, so that should help us this year,” said Sorenson, a 2005 Palatine graduate who won both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles at the state meet his senior year and went on to a successful collegiate endeavor at Wisconsin.
The Pirates lost several quality competitors from last year's team to graduation including Brad Ferris, but they also have several key individuals returning, such as Weissmann, John Giuliano, Dan Sommerfeld, Kamil Mulawa and Zach Gray.
Carter Sanecki delivered a lifetime-best score of 187.20 to win diving, and Sorenson expects freshman Mitchell Brustad to have an immediate impact on the varsity lineup.
“I like the group we've got,” Sorenson said. “The seniors we have are going about things the right way. They're putting in their work and they know what they're doing.”
Prospect coach Alfonso Lopez has a more difficult task since the Knights graduated a senior-heavy group last season featuring individual state qualifiers Tyler Bengtsen and Joe Lakner.
But Lopez liked what he saw Friday, and the addition of freshman Nathanael Ginnodo will certainly help immediately. He won the 200 IM (2:36.11) and 100 breaststroke (1:17.09). Other varsity-ready younger talents include Andrew Younger, Matthew Rendino and Ryan Konieczka.
“It will definitely take a while to really see what we've got, but I'm excited about seeing what these guys can do,” Lopez said.
Palatine's winners included Mulawa won the 200 and 400 freestyles, Giuliano in the 100 fly, Robert Hank in the 100 back and Hank, Sommerfeld, Guiliano and Weissmann on the medley relay.