Girls B-Ball: Tiired Tigers fall to Royals

Sofia Chadwick scored 17 points in her return to the lineup (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Playing three games in six days, all losses, does not appear to be a recipe for success for the Tigers.

Woodbury added the third strike to a losing week with a 61-35 defeat Thursday night at Tiger Gym.

"Three games in less than a week left us looking very fatigued and we had a hard time finding a spark to get us going," Farmington coach Sondra Chadwick said. "We put together a late comeback int he first half but came out flat again in the second half."

Woodbury (4-1) jumped to an early 16-6 lead before Farmington (3-4) rallied to make it a two-possession game at 26-20 at the halftime break.

The final 18 minutes belonged to the Royals who outscored the home team 35-15 after intermission.

One positive in the defeat was the return of leading scorer Sofia Cahadwick who had missed virtually all of the  previous two games with concussion symptoms. Abby Gallus, the team's second leading scorer, missed the contest due to illness, however.

"We need the kids healthy in order to field a full squad," coach Chadwick said. "We are a team that needs to play full-court and that has been difficult to do being short-handed the past three games."

Chadwick accounted for almost half the Tiger offense with 17 points. Morgan Mach added six points and Jordyn Homeier had five.

Another big stat in the loss came in the rebounding department where the Tigers had just 12 boards.

"The girls worked hard tonight," coach Chadwick said, "but we have a lot of work to do over the break in order to prepare us for the Monticello Holiday Tournament."

Farmignton plays in the four team Monticello tourney December 27-28, openign with state-rated Minneapolis Washburn.

Alumni Tracker: Sejba promoted to Colonel

Pat Hudak and  Col.Tim Sejba

Former Tiger Pat Hudak was Tim Sejba's offensive line coach in high school. Last month, Hudak and his wife Maureen, were on hand to watch Sejba officially receive his promotion to the rank of Colonel in the United States Air Force. The ceremony took place at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, just a few miles from Tyndall Air Force Base, where Hudak served in the same branch of the service in the 1970's.

Three former Tiger football players saw their teams make the post-season this past fall. Bubba Friedlund, an All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference offensive lineman, helped his Bethel University team to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals...Josh Zitzmann, the leading pass receiver for Rochester Community and Technical College during the regular season, had two catches for 51 yards and a touchdown in the Yellowjackets' 23-20 overtime loss to Iowa Central in the Graphic Edge Bowl played in Cedar Falls, Iowa...CJ Record saw some playing time for Southwest Minnesota State in the Mineral Water Bowl in Excelsior Springs, Missouri where the Mustangs lost a lopsided 90-28 verdict to Pittsburg State of Kansas.

Former FHS female Athlete of the Year Kallie Flor who went on to a four-year collegiate hockey career at Quinnipiac University (Connecticut) is the co-head girls' hockey coach Eagan High School this winter...Betsy Anderson has started all 13 games for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point women's hockey team that owns an 11-1-1 record and is ranked fifth in the NCAA Division III national poll.....Krystal Baumann who ranks second only to Flor in Tiger career scoring, has one goal in a couple of appearances for eighth-ranked Gustavus Adolphus College.

Trevor Davis

Trevor Davis is in his second year as a graduate assistant with the Northwestern State (Louisiana) men's basketball program. Northwestern State has struggled to a 4-5 start after making it to the NCAA tournament last year...Former FHS male Athlete of the Year and two-sport athlete at the University of Minnesota Trey Davis recently returned from a national athletic directors' conference in California. Davis is the assistant athletic director at Shakopee High School.

Jordan Bridges is averaging 10.8 points and 5.9 rebounds for the Jamestown College (North Dakota) women's basketball team that owns a 12-1 record and is ranked No. 5 in the NAIA national poll...Former Tiger female Athlete of the Year Taylor Meyer hasn't been a regular starter for the University of Minnesota-Duluth but is averaging 11 points and 4.6 rebounds a game off the bench, including a 21-point outburst in a win over Bemidji State....Elena Koch is scoring five points and pulling down 3.6 rebounds a game for the College of St. Benedict.

Ex-FHS male Athlete of the Year Carl Elmer, a junior on the St. Olaf College wrestling team, claimed his first collegiate tournament title last month when he won the 149 lbs. division at the Milwaukee School of Engineering Invitational.

Betsy Anderson

Former Tiger boys and girls basketball coach Jason Berg and his football officiating crew worked the Class 3A quarterfinal game between Rochester Lourdes and eventual state runner-up New London-Spicer.  Ex-Tiger Pat Carey is a member of Berg's officiating team.

Nate Rowan just returned from the Major League Baseball winter meetings in Orlando where he interviewed for media relations positions with the Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals. The former Tiger has served a year-long broadcasting internship with the Twins and last year worked with the Orioles' AAA affiliate in Norfolk, Virginia...Jared Rowan, the Tiger junior varsity boys hockey coach, is an elementary school teacher in the Randolph School District.

Four of the eight winter sports programs at FHS have Tiger alumni as head coaches: Chad Olson (wrestling), Keith Revels (boys hockey), Jon Holmes (girls hockey), Lynn Bauman (gymnastics) and Lindsay Jensen (Dance Team). Several other former Tigers are serving as assistants, including Jared Rowan, boys hockey; Kevin Lugowksi (girls hockey); Brad Albano (gymnastics); Brent Mahlstedt (boys basketball) and Joe McCarthy (girls basketball)

Girls Hockey: Top-rated Red Wing blanks Tigers

Breanna Raske attacks the Red Wing goal (photo by Jim Lindquist)

No. 1-rated Red Wing (Class A) paid a visit to Schmitz-Maki Arena Tuesday night and left with a 5-0 Missota Conference victory over the Tigers for its effort.

The contest was actually more evenly played than the final score indicated, as untimely penalties continued to plague the Farmington effort.

The high-flying Wingers scored four of their five goals on the power play, converting on four of six player-advantage situations. The Tigers were whistled for seven penalties for the night, a number Tiger coach Jon Holmes said is unacceptable.

"We have to keep that number to four or under," he said. "We kept pace with them (Red Wing) tonight when we were able to play five-on-five."

Red Wing scored a pair of goals in each of the first two periods and added an insurance score in the final frame

Battle at the Boards (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Molly Singewald guarded the Tiger nets and had a solid night considering all of the power plays she faced. Singewald finished with 27 saves.

Red Wing outshot its host by a respectable 32-23 margin, pointing to another area where Farmington needs to improve.

"In addition to keeping our penalties down, we need to as individuals shoot the puck both at practice and at home," Holmes said. "As a team, we really have not had hard, accurate shots and that is very apparent with getting 20-30 shots with less than two goals per game.

"We also need to protect the puck better individually. We need to be stick-handling at home and after practice so we do not allow other teams to skate by and swipe the puck so easily."

The Tigers have one more game before Christmas, a Thursday night Missota Conferene match-up with New Prague at Schmitz-Maki.

Boys Swimming: Tigers too much for Hudson

100 breaststroke champ Spencer Kabran

Tuesday night's dual meet with Hudson, Wisconsin, at the Dodge Middle School pool was tied 39-39 through five events before the Tigers pulled away for a 104-82 win.

"Our new guys are still dropping a lot of time as they are learning the strokes and getting more comfortable in competition," Farmington coach Ryan Hamen said.

"The veterans showed big improvement in their mechanics but still have a ways to go. Some gained a little time but the practices are getting tougher physically and testing their mental toughness hoping they can maintain good form through the hard work."

Farmington won four of meet's 12 events. In individual events Ben Gunderson claimed the 100 backstroke while Spencer Kabran captured the 100 breaststroke.

The 200 freestyle relay quartet of Eric Schimmel, Adam Dougherty, Jonathan Kingsbury and Daniel Berg was victorious as was Jonathan Bovee on the one-meter board.

Six Tiger individuals registered second place points, including Austin Kueck in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke; Dion in the 100 butterfly; Berg in in the 100 freestyle; Ian Alexander in the 500 freestyle and Dougherty in diving.

The 200 medley team of Garrett Haugen, Kabran, Dougherty and Greg Schmaus and the 400 freestyle foursome of Berg, Dion, Haugen and Schimmel also took second.

Six more Farmington entrants finished in third place, including Nick Stephan, 500 freestyle and 100 breaststroke; Kingsbury, 200 freestyle; Dion, 200 individual medley; Berg, 50 freestyle and Schimmel, 100 freestyle.

Thursday the Tigers venture to Hopkins for a dual meet at Hopkins North Junior High.

Gymnastics: Tigers maintain with new lineup

Tahra Eckert 4th on beam and vault (photo by J. Lindquist)

Farmington kept its team score about where it has been for the last three meets in Tuesday night's 148.55-132 loss to defending state runner-up Northfield at the District Service Center despite having to field a new starting lineup.

"Kylie Wharton is now out for the season with a torn ACL," Tiger coach Lynn Bauman said. "Abby Schwartz was at a band concert and Gina Mercurio was out sick.

"We still rose to the challenge and kept the team score up. We just keep improving every day, so now the challenge is to to have everyone there."

The talented Raiders dominated the competition with a fourth place finish the best the Tigers could muster in any individual event. Tahra Eckert took fourth in both the vault and balance beam while Amanda Davenport ranked fourth in floor exercise.

Davenport placed fifth on the uneven bars and in all-around score. Kathryn Beckett took fifth in floor and Rachel Kiminski fifth on beam. Eckert finished sixth in all-around.

Farmington won the junior varsity match handily, outscoring the Raiders 118.25-86.05.

Kiminski had the top score in vault while Sidney Comes won the bars, beam and all-around competition.

Elizabeth Welter took second on the bars and she and Ashley Ellefson tied for the runner-up spot in floor exercise.

The Tigers close out the pre-holiday portion of their schedule Friday with a home dual meet against Chaska/Chanhassen.