Boys Track: Gearing up for the Missota

Justin Hyytinen 3 1st place finishes

The Tigers tuned up for next week's Missota Conference Championships with a solid performance at the three-team Pat Foley Classic held Thursday afternoon at Carleton College in Northfield.

No team points are kept in this one-of-a-kind meet where the traveling trophy goes to the team that wins a random event drawn by lot. This year, that event was the 110-meter hurdles so Rochester John Marshall walked off with the hardware.

"We saw some improvements in our horizontal jumps which has been a weak spot this year," Farmington coach Brian Helmstetter said. "Some of our athletes were competing for a relay or a top three spot (for the conference) and that added to the competition."

All in all, Farmington scored five firsts in the meet, three in individual events and two in relays.

Freshman phenom Justin Hyytinen showed his versatility by winning the 400-meter run and 3200-meter distance event. Daniel Berg provided the other blue ribbon performance in the high jump.

Dan Berg 1st pace high jump (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Hyytinen made it three first place finishes when he, Eric Stoeckman, Chad Retterath and Tyler Lerbakken hooked up to claim the 4x800 relay. The other relay win came in the 4x100 where Sam Wyatt, Athen Ashton, Justin Hett and Sam Hoffman led the field.

Seven more Tigers turned in second place performances, including Hoffman (100-meter dash); Lerbakken (800-meter run); Hett (long jump); Nehemiah Rockett (300-meter hurdles); Reid Taubenheim (pole vault); Cullen Smith (high jump) and Bret Hoffman (shot put).

Farmington also racked up five third place finishes: Retterath in the 800-meter run; Stoeckman in the long jump; Smith in the triple jump; Bret Hoffman in the discus and Jake Lee in the shot put. 

Thursday (May 24) the Tigers will look to take advantage of a familiar venue and a supportive crowd at the conference meet slated for Tiger Stadium.

Girls Track: Tigers score 6 firsts at Foley Classic

Nadia Lorencz won 3 events (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Each spring Farmington, Rochester John Marshall and Northfield gather at Carleton College in Northfield to participate in a very unique track meet.

Unique in that team points aren't counted. Unique in that the "winner" is determined by whatever team finishes first in a random event pulled out a hat.

For the record John Marshall won the featured event, the 110-meter hurdles, to take home the traveling trophy.

All in all, Farmington had a good day, winning six events and finishing second in three others.

"The kids all ran very hard and competed," Farmington coach Tom Hart said. "It was a lot of fun in a great environment. Carleton's stadium is awesome.

"We approached the meet as a training day and a day to get all of our athletes participating. It was also a good day to let the seniors enter what events they wanted to and experiment with different combinations."

The Tigers won four individual events and Nadia Lorencz owned three of them, claiming the high jump, triple jump and 100-meter hurdles. Izzie Ferm provided the other individual win in the 400-meter dash.

Farmington also captured two relay events. Ferm hooked up with Alyssa Parco, Alicia Hett and Megan Graham to win the 4x100 and Alex Frost, Nicole Knoepke, Victoria Jacoby and Sydney Bockelman led the field in the 4x800.

Hett finished runner-up in the 800-meter run and Sarah Cummings took second in the 3200-meter distance event. Jessica Arey ranked second in the 300-meter hurdles.

Three other Tigers had third place finishes: Maricia Pacheco in the 1600-meter run; Abby Haugen in the pole vault and Bekah Lippert in the high jump.

Hart said the meet also served as a tune-up for next Thursday's Missota Conference Championships to be held at Tiger Stadium.

"Our goal is finish in the top three there," he said, "although injuries may make that tough to do."

Girls Lacrosse: A fiittng ending

Jess Erchul 4 goals, assist (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington closed its regular season in a fitting fashion, outscoring Holy Angels 9-3 in the second half in a 17-11 win over Holy Angels Thursday night at Tiger Stadium.

The victory capped an outstanding third season for the fledgling program, one in which the Tigers won eight of 12 games and played competitively in all.

"This was a great cap on a great season," Tiger coach Dan Perkins said.  "It was senior night and they controlled the game. Fourteen of our 17 goals came from the seniors."

Win No. 8 wasn't an easy one, however. The teams were tied 8-8 after a back-amd-forth first half. Pickens said some changes of strategy over the break helped produce the win.

"We had to go over some defensive reminders," Pickens said, "and after that we only gave up three more goals.

"With this win we became the 15th ranked team in the state, a long way from where we were a few years ago....This is a team full of athletes; it's fun to watch them play."

Betsy Anderson 3 goals, assist (photo by Jim Lindquist)

 Four different players scored multiple goals for the winners. Jess Erchul led the way with a four-goal night. Betsy Anderson and Adrienne Jolicoeur each netted three and Tia Jacoby and Shelby Klotz had two apiece. Ally Midboe, Rachael Welzin and Kaeli Halverson also scored for Farmington.

Haley Bradshaw, the team's leading scorer, didn't record a goal but led in assists with two. Jolicoeur, Midboe, Anderson and Erchul each added one.

Maddie Kohlbeck picked up her eighth win of the season. facing 25 shots and recording 14 saves.

The fine regular season earned the Tigers the No. 6 seed in next week's Section 3 tournament. They will entertain No. 11 Bloomington Kennedy (7-6) Monday night at Tiger Stadium in the opening round. Start time is 7:30 p.m.

"They (Kennedy) beat us in the first round a couple of years ago, something like 20-3," Pickens said. "I am confident this time it will be a different story."

Softball: Tigers earn piece of Missota crown

Ashley Betzold wears the look of a conference champion (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Thanks to an 11-5 win at Red Wing Tuesday afternoon the Tigers own a piece of the Missota Conference championship for the first time since 2007.

Farmington  and Shakopee finished with identical 11-3 conference records to share the 2012 title.

The championship win didn't come easily, however. The winless Wingers led 3-0 after two innings and  3-2 heading into the fifth.

"We got behind early," Tiger coach Paul Harrington said, "and maybe put a little too much pressure on ourselves.

"But like so many other games this year, we came back to take the lead and win the game. Once we got the lead, we were determined not to give it back."

From there on the runs came in bunches for the visitors. Farmington plated four runs in the fifth to take the lead and then three in the sixth and two more in the seventh to seal the deal.

The Tigers rapped 12 hits in the contest and also took advantage of some shoddy fielding (8 errors) by the Wingers to post their 13th win of the season against just four losses.

Brooke Searles 2-4, R (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Molly Berdan had her best game of the season at the plate to lead the  Farmington offense. Berdan went 3-4, including a clutch bases loaded in the fifth that gave her team the lead at 5-3.

Ashley Betzold, Allie Rice and Brooke Searles each had  two hits. Rice knocked in a pair of runs.

Betzold went the distance in the circle to pick up the win, striking out seven Wingers in the process.

 Harrington was gratified by the conference championship but cautioned bigger goals lie ahead.

"It was great to win a share of the championship," he said, "The girls worked hard and deserve the credit. But we have to put that behind us a bit and focus on the section playoffs. A trip to the state tournament is still our No. 1 goal."

Farmington is expected to garner one of the top four seeds in the section and host a home game next Wednesday night at Tiger Field.. A win there would mean a trip to the section double-elimination "Final Four" in Austin next weekend.

Girls Golf: Reaching their personal goals

Kaitlin Jokenin shaved 5 strokes off her previous round

After four consecutive eighth place finishes in Missota Conference tournaments the Tigers are pretty sure where they will rank in the final league standings.

But that doesn't mean some individual season goals can't be met and first-year coach Jon Stock says his players are doing exactly that.

"The golfers all scored well for them on a difficult course," he said.  "We were only able to send four golfers to this meet...Again, the girls achieved personal goals and overall, had good individual days."

Brianna Swenson continued to lead the Tiger scorers at Thursday's meet played at Mississippi National in Red Wing with a round of 107. 

Megan Elliott finished at 117, Kaitlyn Jokenin 120 and Jessica Olson 138 to round out the abbreviated Farmington scorecard.

The Tigers will try to improve on those numbers some more on Monday when they travel to Deer Run Golf Course in Victoria for the final Missota Conference meet of the season.