THE STREAK IS OVER

I've always believed that the truest measure of greatness in sports is high-level performance over an extended period of time. That has certainly been true of Yorktown High School swimming since 2000. The girls won six-straight Hoosier Heritage Conference championships from 2003-08 before Mt. Vernon dethroned YHS in 2009. The boys put together an even better run, winning eight-straight titles from 2002-2009. But the Yorktown boys simply ran out of bodies in the 2010 HHC meet, and failed in their quest to keep the streak alive.

Here are the final team scores from Saturday:

Girls-1. Mt. Vernon 407, 2. Yorktown 357, 3. New Palestine 344, 4. Pendleton Heights 275, 5. Greenfield Central 253, 6. Delta 236, 7. Shelbyville 162, 8. Rushville 66.

Boys-1. New Palestine 345, 2. Mt. Vernon 337, 3. Greenfield Central 332, 4. Yorktown 300, 4. Pendleton Heights 300, 6. Delta 254, 7. Shelbyville 167, 8. Rushville 67.

It's the first swimming and diving championship for the Dragons, who had just enough to hold off the competition in a very tight boys meet. The five best teams finished within 45 points of each other, and that's a narrow margin under the new scoring system used for the '10 meet:

Relays--1st-40, 2nd-34, 3rd-32, 4th-30, 5th-28, 6th-26, 7th-24, 8th-22.
Individual events--1st-20, 2nd-17, 3rd-16, 4th-15, 5th-14, 6th-13, 7th-12, 8th-11, 9th-9, 10th-7, 11th-6, 12th-5, 13th-4, 14th-3, 15th-2, 16th-1.

One false move in a relay could have led to a major shift in the standings. But New Pal had the combination of quality and depth to get the job done. Congrats to the Dragon boys.

Same for the Mt. Vernon girls. The Lady Marauders rode a tidal wave of depth to to repeat as HHC champions. But MV will graduate a lot of seniors who placed on Saturday, so next season's girls meet should be a wide open affair.

I'll have more on the 2010 HHC meet (hopefully with photos and video clips) in the coming days.