Posted: 4/2/03

Ponies lead horse in SEC all-sport race

Berk Brown
Sports Editor

It was a good winter for athletic teams at Forest Lake Senior High.

Unfortunately for the Rangers and the rest of the Suburban East Conference, itís been impossible to beat what Stillwater has done this fall and winter.

Stillwater is running away with the overall title in the SEC all-sport standings as the Ponies have all but clinched the 2002-2003 championship.

The following system is used to determine the overall standings. A team earns points in each sport depending on its finish in the conference standings.

For example, a conference championship is worth eight points, a second-place finish gets seven and so forth. In the event of a tie in the standings, the points are divided by the teams involved in the tie.

For example, with Forest Lake, Mounds View and Woodbury all tying for first place in the SEC in boys basketball, the 21 available points for the top three places are split among the schools, giving each team seven points.

Stillwater is running away with the championship, frankly, because the Ponies are very good at almost everything.

However, the Ponies might be the surprise leader because their worst teams came in the most high-profile sports.

Stillwater finished in last place in football and boys hockey and was seventh in volleyball.
But, the Ponies were able to counter those performances by having several successful teams.
Stillwater placed first in both boys soccer and boys cross country and were second in girls soccer, girls swimming and girls tennis this fall. This winter, the Ponies took first in girls alpine skiing and girls Nordic skiing, boys Nordic skiing, boys swimming and tied for first in boys alpine skiing.

Given the traditional success the Ponies have in spring sports such as track, Stillwater is a virtual lock to win the all-sport title in the SEC.

Mounds View rode a successful fall to maintain its second-place standing.

So far this season, the Mustangs have placed first in girls tennis and has shared titles in football and boys basketball.

White Bear Lake, sitting just behind Mounds View in third place, personifies balance as the Bears have yet to win a conference championship this year but still rank ahead of five other schools.

The Bears have reached their level of overall success by having a second-place finish and four third-place finishes in the fall sports and the Bears followed that up this winter by having one second place finish, a tie for second and two third-place finishes.

The only sports White Bear Lake finished last in were boys and girls swimming, and the Bears donít have a boys swimming team.

Woodbury is the highest ranking team of the three new schools which combined with Stillwater, Mounds View, White Bear Lake, Roseville and Forest Lake to form the SEC at the start of last year.

Woodbury shared a pair of titles this winter ñÝboys basketball and boys alpine skiing ñÝand won two titles in the fall ñÝgirls soccer and girls swimming.

Roseville used its dominance in two sports ñÝhockey and cross country ñ to score 31 of its 83 points. The Raiders were conference champions in both boys and girls hockey and placed first in girls cross country and second in boys cross country.

Hastings had a very good winter but suffers in the overall standings because of a poor fall. Even though the Raiders shared the SEC title in football this fall, they only finished in the top half of the standings in one other fall sport ñÝgirls swimming.

Park is at the bottom of the standings due to its lack of titles and plethora of last-place finishes.
The Wolfpack have just one title this year, that came in gymnastics. Otherwise, Park has finished last in boys and girls basketball, wrestling and girls tennis.

That brings us to Forest Lake, who sits in sixth place thanks in large part to the 51 points it scored this winter, making the Rangers the second-most successful team this winter.
Only Hastings had a worse fall than the Rangers, and thatís despite the volleyball team winning the conference championship.

Besides the volleyball team, only the girls cross country team finished in the top half of the conference standings with a fifth-place performance. The only thing which kept the Rangers from having the worst fall was the fact they only finished last in one sport ñÝboys soccer.

Forest Lakeís strong winter can be tied directly to the continued dominance of the wrestling team and the share of a conference title by the boys basketball team.

While Forest Lake has no realistic shot at a top-three finish, a strong showing by the Ranger squads this spring could push them into the top half of the year-end standings.

Standings
Stillwater ñÝ107.5
Mounds View ñÝ93
White Bear Lake ñÝ90.5
Woodbury ñÝ86.5
Roseville ñÝ83
Forest Lake ñ 80
Hastings ñÝ74.5
Park ñÝ67

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