Up North -- the fight for who's best

Let's be honest -- swim fans in the greater Madison and Milwaukee areas tend to be a bit disdainful of swimming north of their two respective orbits. Perhaps with some reason -- only one team in the history of the girls state meet (Sauk Prairie, 2002) has arguably come from outside those two metropolitan areas.

Conventional wisdom suggested the Sturgeon Bay/Sevastopol girls squad could make some noise at this year's Div. 2 state meet. But it looks like they might not be the only northern team to push their way into contention. At last weekend's Plymouth Invitational, the host squad edged out SB/S 618-583 in an eight-team invitational dominated by the two squds.

Plymouth is led by super sophomore Katie Criter, the defending state champ in the 100 breaststroke and runner-up in the 100 butterfly. Criter is a versatile swimmer -- she's posted top-five times in five individual events so far in the state coach's top-30 rankings -- and she won the fly and breaststroke at her team's invite. But Plymouth showed at their invitational they are far from a one-swimmer squad; fellow sophomore Sarah Coley picked up a win in the 100 free, and Plymouth was able to "out-depth" SB/S for the win.

Of course, SB/S shouldn't be dimissed based on one meet. Indeed -- with wins at the Plymouth Invite in all three relays, plus four individual wins -- they are the kind of squad likely to do well at sectionals and state.

One thing's for certain -- this year's D2 Plymouth sectional is absolutely loaded. Defending state runner-up Whitefish Bay, with a senior-laded squad, will be joined by Plymouth, SB/S, a solid Shorewood squad, an improving Port Washington team, and teams like Grafton and Brookfield Academy that include past individual state champions. It should be a good one to watch.