MARQUETTE — The Upper Peninsula Swimming and Diving Finals come back to Marquette Senior High School for the fifth consecutive year today and Saturday.

The diving finals will be held this afternoon, with the girls beginning about 2:30 p.m. and the boys to follow. Each diver performs four dives, with the top 12 scorers in that preliminary round advancing to perform two final dives.

That leads into the swimming events which kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday at the MSHS pool and generally run until late in the afternoon.

The Marquette Senior High School boys are the defending champions, while the Redettes were shut out from the top two places for the first time since 1994.

Both have had good years, though, and have to be considered at least a co-favorite this year.

Houghton was boys runner-up last year, while Gladstone took the 2016 girls title with the Gremlins also runner-up on that side.

Marquette’s boys have won 15 times in the past 20 years while the MSHS girls have 14 titles in that time span.

Other area schools competing today and Saturday are Ishpeming-Negaunee, Westwood and Manistique, while the rest of the 10-school field consists of Gladstone, Houghton, Sault Ste. Marie, Kingsford, Rudyard and Jeffers.

Qualifying times in individual events had to be met to be eligible for the meet.

Admission is $10 each day with a limited amount of bleacher seating above and to the side of the pool, with plenty of seating in the school’s Little Theater showing a live video feed.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.