Although it didn't draw the powerful field of the Wisconsin Girls Invite at the UW Natatorium, the Fondy Cardinals Girls Invite produced some interesting results.
Bay Port, proving once again it's one of the better and deeper squads in the Fox Valley, won the invite handily with 357 points to 276 for the Oshkosh North/Oshkosh Lourdes co-op. And Bay Port won it without winning a single event. It's the Pirates second big invite win this year, having won the Ashwaubenon Invite earlier this fall.
Other notable results from the Fondy Invite:
-- Oshkosh North/Lourdes junior Rachel Revolinski won two individual events with solid times: the 200 free in 1:56.94 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.36. Revolinski is one of those versatile swimmers who may have a tough time choosing her two events for sectionals; last year, she finished 9th in the 200 IM and 11th in the 100 free at the Div. 1 state meet.
-- Green Bay East/Preble's Jasmine Lee -- who nearly bypassed her senior year of swimming -- was also a double winner, with a 2:12.67 win in the 200 IM and a 59.71 win in the 100 butterfly. Lee finished 4th last year at the D1 state meet in the IM and 5th in the 100 back. As an aside, the D1 200 IM this year looks particularly loaded, with the top seven finishers from last year returning and the potential of top freshmen like Eau Claire Memorial's Leah Pronschinske and Burlington's Anna Brooks swimming it as well.
-- Elkhorn sophomore Rachel Johnson led a strong showing by Elkhorn (3rd place, only six points behind the Oshkosh co-op) with wins in the 50 (25.51) and 100 (55.44) frees. Elkhorn could make some noise at this year's D2 state meet; the team has two very good swimmers in Johnson and senior Terrin Seaver and returns nearly everyone who scored points at last year's state meet, when the squad finished 10th. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's latest poll of teams in the southeast region has Elkhorn ranked 10th overall and 3rd among D2 teams, behind only Shorewood and Whitefish Bay.
-- Ashwaubenon senior Andrea Teske won the 500 free in a solid time of 5:14.36. Teske and Ashwaubenon this year get to move back down to Division 2 for sectional qualifying, which they will surely welcome. Teske as a sophomore placed 6th in the 200 free and 7th in the 500 free at the D2 state meet; last year, swimming against much faster competition when Ashwaubenon got moved up to Div. 1, she failed to make it to the state meet. Her time at the Fondy Invite is one of the fastest 500 free times posted this year by a D2 swimmer.
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Interesting note about Ashwabenon (I'm not even going back to look up the correct spelling) moving up to D1 for one year and then back down. Are you aware of any other teams moving divisions for this year, especially teams that might have an impact?
The ones I've noticed (for girls swimming) are:
-- Ashwaubenon, which was D2 two years ago, went up to D1 last year, and is now back down to D2. Teske is a very good distance swimmer; I wouldn't be surprised to see her win the Stevens Point sectional in the 500 free. She swam the 100 fly last year at the D1 sectionals; curious about whether she'll move over to the 200 free again, where she qualified for D2 state two years ago.
-- Shawano was D2 last year, they co-oped with Bonduel this year, and so they are up to D1 this year. That means Mackenzie Soper, their very good 500 free swimmer, moves up to D1 (she was 6th last year in the 500 free and 10th in the 100 back at D2 state last year). It also means Shawano-Bonduel's terrific freshman, Kenzie Buss, swims D1 -- she's already swum a 2:11.04 200 IM and a 57.71 100 back, which are seriously good D2 times and still quite competitive D1 times. Shawano/Bonduel is at the Neenah sectional, which is turning into a pretty solid sectional now.
-- Menomonie, which won the Point sectional last year pretty handily (325 points, to 243 for Ladysmith/Bruce/Flambeau), is now D1. Menomonie only scored 13 points at D2 state last year, but their move to D1 does open up that sectional to another team to win. The Point sectional has traditionally been the weakest of the four D2 sectionals.
-- Waunakee, which moved up to D1 last year, stayed there this year, and likely will for several more years, given the enrollment growth in that district lately.
On the boys side, two big moves:
-- Oregon has now moved up to D1 (similar to where the girls team has been), while Glendale Nicolet has moved down to D2. Nicolet traditionally has been a very solid D1 program, similar to a lot of North Shore suburban teams (Whitefish Bay, Shorewood, Mequon Homestead). Although I think Nicolet will be down a bit this year (they graduated a bunch of seniors), that's probably an aberration for what is otherwise a very strong swimming school. The other big news with themove is that it has left the WIAA wanting for a site for the main Milwaukee-based D1 sectional; Nicolet has hosted it for several years, and the latest WIAA sectional assignments roster has a big "SITE NEEDED" posting for the Milwaukee D1 sectional.
-- West Bend's two high schools, East and West (which are built next to each other, and share a pool), are now joined together for swimming, which means the West Bend co-op moves to D1. Last year, the two schools were both D2 in the Plymouth sectional. That means Matt Parks, West Bend West's very good distance swimmer (6th, D2 500 free last year), now goes up to the D1 sectional in Neenah, which has got some very good distance swimmers returning.
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