Brrrrrilliant approach as Prospect ices Elk Grove

Elk Grove boys swimming coach Scott Gustafson had a cool idea - literally.

Upon the conclusion of Friday's Mid-Suburban League meet between his Grenadiers and visiting Prospect, swimmers and divers from both teams - still clad only in their swimming suits - went polar bear.

That is, they exited the pool deck and rolled around briefly in the snow before returning for a dip in the relatively warm waters of the pool.

Such playfulness is par for the course for boys high school swimmers at this time of year, as practice time mounts and the meet schedule dwindles with the onset of serious training over the holidays.

Prospect coach Dick Mortenson approved of the post-meet conduct and felt the silliness was a nice counterpoint to the physical challenges his swimmers are facing every day.

"We went doubles (on Thursday)," said Mortenson. "Today they could barely walk."

Fortunately for the Knights, they could still swim just fine. Prospect's depth was too much for Elk Grove, and the Knights earned a 114-69 triumph. One high point for the Knights came from Joe Lakner, who won both the 200-yard IM (2:14.35) and the 100 fly (1:00.37).

Prospect also won the medley relay with Charlie Mau, Andrew Bowman, Tyler Bengtsen and Chris Hoffman (in 1:48.12) and the 400 free relay with Lakner, Bowman, Edward Martin and Eric Opland (in 3:42.17). Bengtsen and Elk Grove's Scott Kemp tied for first in the 50 free at 23.90.

The top effort of the meet might have been Elk Grove's 200 freestyle relay as Marek Burtan, Derek Oswald, Kemp and Carl Sugihara won in 1:33.81, bettering a team record set in 1991, back when Mortenson was swimming for Elk Grove.

"I'm real pleased with the way everyone is swimming," said Gustafson, whose team had been looking forward to its first home meet of the season. "We've been able to stay pretty healthy, and things are progressing nicely for us."

Sugihara, a freshman, won the 200 free (1:56.11) and the 100 backstroke (59.47). Gustafson pointed to surprisingly fast swims from Burtan in the 200 IM (second, 2:23.67) and 100 breaststroke, where he was third in 1:10.30 behind Bowman (1:06.36) and the Grens' Bart Pienkowski (1:10.26), as evidence of the hard work his swimmers have been putting in.

"We still don't quite have the depth to go with Prospect," said Gustafson, "but we have a nice lineup, and we've been able to really compete in every meet we've had."

Fremd d. Schaumburg: The visiting Vikings put forth a strong showing in claiming a 117-68 victory.

Double winners for the Vikings were Dustin Anderson (200 free, 100 free) and Varun Shivakumar (100 back, 200 IM); single winners included Sam Childs (200 IM), Brent Caras (50 free), Sean Carroo (100 fly) and Mike Freeman (1:07.44).