Semrau: Middleton, Edgewood top All-Sports standings
With only the spring sports season remaining, Madison Edgewood and Middleton remain tied for the sixth annual Cap Times All-Sports Award.
Middleton, the two-time defending All-Sports Award champion, finished fifth at the WIAA Division 1 state girls gymnastics meet and advanced to the Division 1 state quarterfinals in girls basketball to hit the home stretch of the 2007-08 school year with 12 points.
The winner of TCT's first All-Sports award in 2002-03, Middleton tied Madison Memorial for second in the 2003-04 rankings and was second in 2004-05 before winning the 2005-06 and 2006-07 titles.
Edgewood, which won the 2003-04 All-Sports Award, was runner-up at state in boys hockey to finish the winter sports season with 12 points overall.
Competition remains in the following spring sports: boys and girls track and field, baseball, softball, boys tennis, boys golf and girls soccer.
A point system was created six years ago to determine which of the 43 schools in the TCT coverage area had the most successful year in prep sports. The more success a school earned in state tournament competition, the more points it compiled.
There were 12 schools that scored at least one point during the 2007-08 winter sports season and 23 schools that have earned at least one point in postseason play during the school year to date.
McFarland is third in the overall standings with 10 points, while Madison Memorial is fourth with nine points and DeForest fifth with eight points. Monroe (7 points), Madison East (6) and Lodi (5), Madison La Follette (5) and Lakeside Lutheran (5) complete the top 10.
McFarland repeated as WIAA Division 2 state boys swimming and diving state champion. Memorial finished runner-up in both boys basketball and boys swimming and diving. Also winning state titles during the winter sports season were Lodi (Division 2 team wrestling) and Monroe (Division 2 girls basketball).
Under the scoring criteria, a team state title earned a school five points, while a runner-up finish was worth three points.
In the boys and girls basketball, boys and girls hockey and team wrestling state tournaments, programs that advanced to the semifinals but lost earned two points. Teams that lost in the quarterfinals received one point.
To balance out a Division 1 bias that advances eight teams to state in some sports, programs that advanced to the sectional finals but lost earned one point in a sport that had two, three or four divisions.
In the boys swimming and diving and girls gymnastics state meets, third- through fifth-place finishes earned two points. Teams that finished in sixth- through eighth-place each received one point.
McFarland leads in the boys sports competition with eight points, while Middleton and Edgewood are tied for the lead in the girls competition with eight points.
