Neither Farmington cross country team fared exceptionally well at the Applejack Invitational held last Friday afternoon, Sept. 17, at Lakeville's Aronson Park.The Tiger boys ranked 17th in a field of 22 teams; the girls placed an identical 17th among 21 entrants.
"This wasn't our best meet," girls' coach Heidi Revels said. "We had a situation where one runner (Bailey Opsal, pictured) lost a shoe during the race and had to run without a spike the last mile and a couple of others girls were not feeling so well. The good things is that our first four runners all came in within a minute of each other."
Maricia Pacheco led the Tiger pack in 58th place overall with a 16:29 clocking over the 4000-meter course. Maria Kiminski finished 77th, 16:45.1; Opsal, 92nd, 17:05.3; Sofia Chadwick 100th, 17:21.1; Victoria Jacoby 109th, 17:32.3; Nicole Clifton 120th, 18:05.2 and Marissa Stewart 122nd, 18:09.5.
On the boys side, senior Elliot Fenske continued to run with the leaders, placing 16th in a field of 152 runners in the 5000-meter race.
The next Tiger finisher, Lincoln Kirchoff, didn't hit the chute until almost two minutes after Fenske, placing 105th in 18:36.1. Carl Elmer ranked 113th, 18.47.7; Dan Block 127th, 19:08.3; Alec Wilson 136th, 19:27.5 and Adam Wallenta 140th, 19:31.8.
"After Elliot we have a nice grouping from No. 2 to No. 5," coach Keith Revels said. "We have to continue to bring that group's time down and see what happens."
Both Tiger coaches are looking forward to this week's Pine Island Invitational, a smaller meet against some non-metro area competition.
"It will be a welcome change of pace after running against 22 and 32 teams the last two meets," Keith Revels said.
