High school sports rewind: West Ottawa swims past Rockford

Will Kennedy, The Holland Sentinel
·2 min read
Kevin Maas won the state championship in the 50-yard freestyle.
Kevin Maas won the state championship in the 50-yard freestyle.

ROCKFORD — The dominance of the West Ottawa boys swim team was on full display on Thursday as they traveled up to Rockford for a duel meet with the Rams.

The Panthers cruised to a 175-125 victory over the host school. West Ottawa earned the top spot In all but three of the meets 12 events. Coach Steve Bowyer said he wished his team swam a bit better, but he knew his guys were tired. The stretch of practice they put in over the last week has been brutal and he was proud they were able to overcome that, dig deep and still gut out a big win over an OK-Red foe.

"To come to Rockford and get the win is always a good thing," said West Ottawa coach Steve Bowyer. "We have a talented group and they've been swimming really well [in practice]. We're training well and we're still swimming fast, that's hopefully a good sign for things to come."

West Ottawa started the meet off hot, winning the 200-yard medlay relay in a time of 1:44.39. Joseph Engle kept the hot streak going with a win in the 200 free, finishing in 1:47.81 Senior Kevin Maas earned the top spot in the 200 free, touching the wall in 2:00.62, a full 13 seconds in front of the nearest competition.

Julian Carrier squeaked out a win in the 50 free, .31 seconds faster than a Rockford swimmer. He clocked in at 22.26. Senior Grant Sandstedt finished in first place in the 100 fly in a time of 56.40. Maas came back with another win in the 100 free, this time clocking in at 48.11. Engle won the marathon of the night, the 500 free, finishing over 20 seconds faster than his nearest competition, hitting the wall in 4:54.03.

Owen Carlson won the 100 back with a time of 58.54 and Dylan Solis rounded out the wins for the Panthers in the 100 breast finishing in 1:03.30.

—Contact Assistant Sports Editor Will Kennedy at Will.Kennedy@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByWillKennedy and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: High school sports rewind: West Ottawa swims past Rockford