Orland Park's Sandburg High School Tops SWSC

Sandburg High School managed to win all four of its team matches to claim the Southwest Suburban Conference end-of-season tournament championship in competition conducted January 31.  

Tying for second with 3.0/4 scores was Homewood-Flossmoor, Lincoln-Way North (Frankfort) and Joliet West, with H-F taking second on the higher tiebreaks.

Heading into the final round, Sandburg and North were the undefeated teams, with the Orland Park squad upending the Frankfort school 43.5-24.5 with wins from Joshua Kolodziejczyk (Board 1), Jacob Colby (Board 5), Sebastian Kwiatek (Board 6), Erik Herold (Board 7) and Chase Fortin (Board 8). Sandburg's Boards 5 through 8 all won top honors in the conference event.

The SWSC includes 14 schools.

Compiling the lone perfect score on First Board was Lincoln-Way East's Levi Ruby. Four top boarders had 3.0/4 scores including Sandburg's Kolodziejzyk who took third on tiebreaks. Stagg's Sharaf Atwa, who gave Kolodziejczyk his lone loss in the first round, took second place. Cesar Escutia (Joliet Central) and Uriel Castro (Joliet West) finished fourth and fifth respectively, drawing head to head in the third round.

Alex Greer of Lincoln-Way North and Ryan Englemann of Bolingbrook were both perfect on Second Board with Greer earning first place on the higher tiebreak.

A trio of Board Three's posted 3.0/4's including Tyler Krzebiot of Lincoln-Way Central, Demetre Panici of Lincoln-Way North and Austin O'Malley of Joliet West. Tyler beat Demetre in the second round and compiled the highest tiebreak (third level!) to claim top honors on Board 3. Demetre took second.

Lincoln-Way West's Wyatt Hurley had the lone perfect score on Board 4 with Sandburg's John Karuntzos a half-point back in second.

Sandburg's Jacob Colby was perfect on Board Five, with Kyle Wadinski (Lincoln-Way West) and Diamon Trueba (Joliet Central) both posting 3.0's, with Kyle taking second on the higher tiebreak.

The Board Six trio of Sebastian Kwiatek (Sandburg), Kati Turke (Joliet West), and Josh Geoppo (Lincoln-Way West) all posted 3.0's, with Sebastian earning the top tiebreak and Kati taking second.

Board Seven competition saw Sandburg's Erik Herold and Andrew High School's Nick Allison (Tinley Park) both posting perfect 4.0's, with Erik enjoying the higher tiebreak to take first. Kamarie Gerring of Lincoln-Way Central was a half-point back at 3.5.

Board Eight also had a pair of perfect scores from the same schools: Chase Fortin (Sandburg) and Jason Bath (Andrew) scored 4.0's with Chase compiling the higher tiebreak in claiming first.

Sandburg's squad is coached by Patrick Latortue. According to Wikipedia, famous Sandburg alums include Northwestern University head football coach Pat Fitzgerald and Adam Hochberg, a news correspondent for National Public Radio, and Robin Tunney, a film and television actress currently starring in The Mentalist. It's enrollment exceeds 3500 at last count.

In an open competition of 37 extra players, Jacob Poplawski (Lincoln-Way Central) and Kyle Kras (Andrew) compiled the two perfect 4.0 scores with Jacob earning the higher tiebreak. Slawomir Jozwik (Lincoln-Way East) was a half-point back at 3.5, overcoming a first round draw, taking third.