Maricia Pacheco
15th Place at Shakopee Invitational
Bailey Opsal placed eighth overall to pace the Tigers to a fourth place finish at the 2010 Shakopee Invitational held Tuesday, Oct. 12, at Memorial Park in Shakopee.
Shakopee edged Missota Conference rival New Prague 56-59 to win the team title. Another Missota school, Chanhassen ranked third with 90, followed by Farmington 112, Northfield 130, St. Francis 163, Richfield 169, Robbinsdale Cooper 181 and St. Paul Central 212.
Opsal ran what coach Heidi Revels termed "her best race of the season" to lead the Farmington effort. The junior veteran completed the 4000-meter course in 16:00.4.
"Bailey's been working very hard," Revels said. "That's a good place for her to be with our two biggest races of the season coming up."
Two other Tigers finished among the top 20. Maricia Pacheco ranked 15th in 16:19.2 and Maria Kiminski 17th in 16:22.8. Sofia Chadwick cracked the 17:00 barrier, placing 31st in 16:53.5.
Victoria Jacoby finished 41st in 17:29 and Natalie Sitzman 56th in 18:22.3 to round out the Farmington scorecard.
Marissa Stewart and Maricella Pacheco ran well enough in the junior varsity race to earn spots in the varsity lineup for next week's Missota Conference Championships in New Prague.
"It's going to be tough competition in the conference with Shakopee and New Prague," Revels said, "but we hope to move up in the standings. With the improvement the girls have shown I think we can do it."
