strike gold at Pine Island Invitational
After three straight weeks of running against the best competition in the metro area, the Tigers headed south on Thursday, Sept, 22, for their annual appearance in the Pine Island Invitational and first-year coach Lisa Lippold said the long bus ride was definitely worth the effort.
Farmington won the eight-team get-together, out-pointing runner-up Rochester Lourdes 40-63 for the title. Zumbrota-Mazeppa-Kenyon-Wanamingo took third with 66 points, followed by United South Central 94, Lewiston-Altura 136, Pine Island 165, Cannon Falls 171 and Kingsland 212.
"The boys are right on track," Lippold said. "They're staying together and dropping significant time. It was exciting to see how happy everyone was.
"Jordan Lugowski was our first runner. He dropped 44 seconds and Alex Hart won the junior high race by 20 seconds..and we won the meet which was a great way to end the day."
Lugowksi led a contingent of four Tigers finishing in the top ten with a fourth place effort in 17:15.3 over the 5000-meter route at the Pine Island Golf Course. Dan Block finished fifth (17:22); Adam Wallenta sixth (17:27.3) and Jake Rudeen 10th (17:29.4).
Tyler Lerbakken ranked 15th (17:56.8), Cole Geiger 16th (18:01.5) and Caleb Eiffert 17th (18:04.4) to round out the Farmington varsity finishers.
Next Tuesday the Tigers will be looking for another strong performance when they travel to New Prague for the New Prague Invitational.
