LOCKPORT – A year ago the Lincoln-Way East girls swimming team won a sectional championship in an upset.

This season the Griffins dominated.

With Grace Hagemaster leading the way by qualifying in four events, Lincoln-Way East scored more than 300 points and finished first in nine events to win the Lockport Sectional title on Saturday.

It was the third straight sectional title, eighth in nine years and 14th overall sectional title in the 21 seasons the Griffins have been in existence.

“All of them are special in their own right,” said Lincoln-Way East coach Kate Gabey, who has been the head coach at the school the entire time. “The girls did a great job getting as many people through as we could. We qualified in all but three events.”

The state finals will be held Friday and Saturday at a new location, the FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

Outside of the athletes with disabilities events, only the winners at the sectional are going to state as there were no at-large qualifiers.

Lincoln-Way East (317 points) was first, followed by the Plainfield Co-op team (202), and the host Porters (195) placed third. Lincoln-Way Central (178), Lincoln-Way West (155), Joliet Co-op (105), Lemont (69), Morris (55), Bradley-Bourbonnais (43), Kankakee (29), Joliet Catholic Academy (22), and Bolingbrook (10) rounded out the 12-team field.

Hagemaster, a senior, won the 200-yard freestyle (1:58.59) and the 100-yard backstroke (58.11) as well as being in the winning 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“Grace played volleyball her freshman year,” Gabey said. “But she’s now a 3-year state qualifier [although there were no state finals last season because of COVID] and her goals are big. This is just a stepping stone to them at state.”

Hagemaster agreed and is looking to make a splash at state.

“I’m obviously really happy, but next weekend is really big for me,” Hagemaster said. “But it’s also just great to get the whole team to state. We love a good relay, and we didn’t have them last year (because of COVID). We were pretty confident going into the meet.”

She won the same two events at the same location last year, which helped the Griffins (194) upset Lincoln-Way West (171) for the sectional title.

“I won the 200-free last year, too, and I never thought of myself as a 200-free swimmer, but I guess I am,” Hagemaster said. “I wasn’t even rested coming into this (sectional), but I will be for next week.”

The diving competition was held in the morning and the Griffins won that as well, as senior Kate Mitchell finished with a 471.75 score. Seniors Abby Hawksworth from Lincoln-Way Central (408.80) Logan Selsky from Plainfield (357.60) and Ellie Slager (351.40) from Lincoln-Way East rounded out the top four divers.

“It’s always nice to start out winning the diving,” Gabey said. “Then we won the medley relay and it set the tone for the meet.”

The winning medley relay time of 1:50.36 was turned in by Hagemaster, freshman Sarah Meldeau, senior Julia Ward and junior Paityn Richardson.

Lincoln-Way East also won the 200-yard freestyle relay as Richardson, senior Izzy Dirienzo, Ward, and sophomore Jaya Veerapaneni turned in a time of 1:39.67. The Griffins capped the meet with a winning time of 3:37.99 in the 400-yard freestyle relay as Ward, Dirienzo, Hagemaster and Veerapaneni brought it home.

Also winning individual events for the Griffins was senior Kate Hackett with a time of 2:11.00 in the 200-yard individual medley, Richardson with a mark of 24.55 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, and Veerapaneni with a time of :52.70 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle.

Lincoln-Way Central freshman Kylie Trautvetter came in as the fourth seed in the 100-yard butterfly but won it with a time of 1:00.31 to edge Lockport senior Hayley Bogdan by .65 hundredth of a second.

“I was really nervous about it since I’ve never been to a meet like this,” Trautvetter said. “I’ve just been working on getting out there and racing and working on my turns. I really didn’t think I’d make it but I’m excited.”

Trautvetter will have a good person to tell her about what to expect at state. That’s her mom, Jenni Bean, was a 7-time state medalist, winning at least one every year between 1996-99 when it was still just one Lincoln-Way.

Another Lincoln-Way district swimmer is going to state also this season. That is Madalyn Witt, who was also the fourth seed in the 100-yard breaststroke but won it with a mark of 1:06.77, beating out her junior teammate Bella Cichon by .55 hundredths of a second.

“I wasn’t at sectionals last year,” Witt said. “Before the race, I was shaking and nervous. But my teammates were really supportive. I’m proud of myself, and going to state is exciting. I love swimming, but I’m also not excited about practicing an extra week.”

Plainfield junior Riley Pietras won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:11.05.

“I just came in with the mindset to be in the moment, give all I’ve got and leave it in the pool,” Pietras said. “We did well as a team this season. Following COVID it was a change of pace. We had a lot of seniors graduate and we knew we had to step up, and we’ve done a darn good job at it.”

Plainfield coach George Sam also was happy with how his team responded this season.

“This group of girls fought tooth and nail,” he said. “We graduated a lot of seniors from last year’s team and nearly every girl dropped time (at the sectional). That’s all we can do. Riley’s time was a lifetime best and it was a war of attrition with her. We’ve now qualified someone for state every year since 2009.”

There were four categories in the athletes with disabilities category. Bradley-Bourbonnais freshman Savannah Zirbel won them all, including the 200-yard freestyle.

Lockport senior Ellie Fontanetta placed second in three events, including the 100-yard breaststroke, and junior teammate Hannah Ostrander was third in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. All of them will participate at the state finals.