Northern Secondary climbed the last rung of the ladder to win this year's Toronto District School Board (TDSB) swim title after finishing second overall last year.
Northern achieved the breakthrough, knocking off powerhouse defending champion Malvern Collegiate from Toronto Beaches, through an outstanding all-round effort which saw both its male and female teams finish in second place.
The day-long meet was held at the Etobicoke Olympium on Monday, Feb. 13.
Here's the top 10 team results:
OVERALL: 1 Northern, 2 York Mills, 3 Humberside, 4 Malvern, 5 Riverdale, 6 North Toronto, 7 Northview, 8 Lawrence Park, 9 Earl Haig and 10 Richview.
MALE: 1 York Mills, 2 Northern, 3 Riverdale, 4 Forest Hill CI, 5 Humberside, 6 Northview Heights, 7 North Toronto, 8 Agincourt, 9 Lawrence Park, 10 U of T Schools.
FEMALE: 1 Malvern, 2 Northern, 3 Humberside, 4 Riverdale, 5 North Toronto, 6 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 7 York Mills, 8 Monarch Park, 9 Earl Haig, 10 Martingrove.
Competitors race at two skill levels - 'open' for club-level swimmers or high school level for non-club swimmers.
Complete standings and stats, including individual results, are available at the TDSB website at www.tdsb.on.ca (click on sports, then click on swimming).
Top teams and swimmers advance to the provincial championships March 6 and 7, which originally was going to be held at the Etobicoke Olympium, but was changed by officials, in view of the City of Toronto's ongoing contract negotiations with several of its unions, to the Milton Sports Centre.
- Norm Nelson