03 October 2013

Girls X-Country: Tigers move up 5 places

Maricella Pacheco ran personal best time at the Chaska Invitational
Last year the Tigers placed 13th in a quality field at the Chaska Invitational. Tuesday they moved up five spots in the rankings, finishing eighth among 21 teams at the race held at the Chaska Par 30 Golf Course.

"We had three runners PR and the spread among our top five runners of 1:16 is also looking good," Tiger coach Heidi Revels said. "We will continue to work on lowering that number to under 1:00.  I'm very proud of our small Tiger team."

Lakeville South ran away with the team title at Chaska with a meet low point total of 63. Chanhassen was a distant second at 103, followed by Prior Lake 122, Minnetonka 126, Eden Prairie 145, Chaska 155, Lakeville North 172, Farmington 246, Edina 265, Robbinsdale Armstong 273, Stillwater 284, Osseo 309, Waconia 339, Mankato West 343, New Prague 396, Bloomington Jefferson 424, Dassel-Cokato 444, St. Louis Park 455, Bloomington Kennedy 584, Shakopee 593 and Richfield 670.

Seventh-grader Lauren Peterson and senior Maricia Pacheco continued to lead the Tiger pack. Peterson was the first Farmington runner to reach the finish line, covering the 4000-meter course in 15:21 in 15th place. Pacheco was right on her heels in 19th place with a personal-best time of 15:24.

"That is exactly what we are looking for from them," Revels said. "Over the last couple of weeks they have started to click and figure out how to use each other on the course to push themselves and each other. This will definitely be to their (and the team's) advantage as we go into the conference and section meets."

Seventh-grader Anna Palodichuk also set a personal record with a 16:21 clocking, good enough for 64th place overall in the 146-runner field. Junior Sofia Chadwick was 68th in 16:27 and sophomore Maricella Pacheco took 80th in a personal best 16:37.

Freshman Sami Hyytinen ranked 88th in 16:51 and Emma Schaffer 101st in 17:12 to round out the Farmington scorecard.

This weekend the Tigers head north for their annual appearance at the Swain Invitational in Duluth.