For the first time in school history Farmington owns a Missota Conference boys swimming and diving championship. Earlier this season it captured its first-ever Section 1AA True Team title.
The Tigers earned their inaugural Missota championship hardware Saturday, Feb. 12, when they out-pointed the four other league schools in the annual conference get-together at the Dodge Middle School pool.
Farmington tallied 490 points to claim the crown. Northfield finished runner-up at 453, followed by Red Wing 381, Chaska/Chanhassen 333 and Shakopee 202.
"I told the boys that the day was going to be very close between them , Northfield and Red Wing with the team that swam a lot of best times winning," coach Ryan Hamen said.
"None of our varsity athletes were disqualified and we had a lot of very good swims. Our divers finished 1-2-4...We had a great day of competition."
The Tigers won the title thanks to balance and depth. They had a at least one entrant place among the top five in each of the 12 events.
Four Farmington entrants brought home individual titles. The 200 medley relay foursome of Brian Huls, Zach Holton, Loren Hatten and Tyler Magalis kicked off the meet with a a winning performance.
Later, Magalis would add two more first place finishes to his ever-growing personal ledger with victories in the 50 freestyle and one-meter diving competition. The versatile senior also anchored the third place 200 freestyle relay team.
The final Tiger championship effort came from Hatten who edged teammate Matthew Stephan in the 100 backstroke.
Huls scored second place finishes in the 200 individual medley and 100 freestyle and swam a leg on the third place 200 freestyle relay team.
Allen Berg, Evan Carufel and Holton also claimed second place points, Berg in the 200 freestyle; Carufel in diving and and Holton in the 100 butterfly.
Third place Farmington finishers included Berg in the 500 freestyle; Aaron Lane in the 100 butterfly; the 200 freestyle relay team of Huls, Berg, Magalis and Christopher Kirchmann and the 400 freestyle relay team of Kirchmann, Berg, Lane and Holton.
Jonathan Bovee ranked fourth on the one-meter board while Kirchmann, Holton and Nick Stephan each garnered fifth place points: Kirchmann in the 200 freestyle; Holton in the 200 individual medley and Stephan in the 100 breaststroke.
Other Farmignton top 10 finishes:
200 individual medley: 7. Lane; 8. M. Stephan
50 freestyle: 9 (tie). Aaron Cayard; 9 (tie). Conner Kealy
100 butterfly: 8. Aaron Cochnauer
100 freestyle: 6. Kirchmann
100 backstroke: 9. Cameron Molnar
100 breaststroke: 9. Benjamin Cohoon
The Tigers now have two weeks to prepare for their next championship challenge when they travel to Rochester Thursday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 26, for the Section 1AA meet.
