New sheriff in town

It's always healthy to see programs develop and grow -- swimming tends to center around a few areas and several well-established programs, so up-and-coming programs are worth noting.

One such program is the Burlington co-op, comprised of five schools: Burlington, Burlington Catholic Central, Wilmot United, East Troy and Waterford in southeastern Wisconsin. The Burlington co-op hasn't even scored a point in the last five Div. 1 state meets, but that should change this year.

Burlington showed why last weekend at the Shorewood Invitational, where they topped two strong D2 squads -- Shorewood and Whitefish Bay -- along with D1 Bay Port. And they did so pretty handily, netting 455.5 points to comfortably top runner-up Bay Port (388 points, with Shorewood in 3rd with 368.5 and WBay in 4th with 365.5). Burlington won the opening medley relay to set the tone for the meet, captured three individual titles, and closed out its win with a 1st-place in the closing 400 free relay.

"Across the board, we just had a lot of strong swims," Burlington coach Ken France told the Racine Journal-Times. "We showed that our top swimmers are extremely good and that we have great depth."

Of course, it helps to have one of the best sister acts in the state -- Anna and Sara Brooks. Both are good enough to have qualifed for this summer's junior national meet in Florida for their Waukesha Express club team. Anna, a freshman, won both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke at the Shorewood Invite, delivering a particularly impressive time of 2:07..06 in the IM. Sara, meanwhile, finished 2nd in the 100 back and swam along with her sister on the winning medley and 400 free relay teams. Freshman Serena Wanasek also contributed a win in the 500 free in a time -- 5:22.27 -- that stamps her as a contender in the race at the Kenosha Bradford sectional.