For the second time in as many years the Tigers are champions of the Bloomington Kennedy Invitational.
The Tigers rolled up 800 points to run away with the five-team meet held Saturday, Sept. 17, at Oak Grove Middle School. Missota Conference rival Red Wing finished a distant second with 502, followed by Eau Claire North (WI) 394, Minneapolis Southwest/Henry 370 and Kennedy 231.
Farmington so dominated the day that it scored first place finishes in eight of the meet's 12 events, including five individual competitions and all three relays.
Kaitlyn O'Reilly and Zoe Avestruz each finished the day with four first place efforts. O'Reilly led the field in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly and swam on two winning relays. Aveztruz also won in two relays and claimed individual titles in the 100 individual medley and 100 backstroke.
Cora Ruzicka provided the other gold medal performance with a victory in the 100 freestyle.
Farmington's 200 medley (Kirsten Kracke, Abby Haugen. Hannah Seitzinger, Avestruz); 200 freestyle (O. Reilly, Kracke, Haugen, Avestruz) and 400 freestyle (O'Reilly, Setzinger, Ruzicka and Ellie Sundet) relays each finished first.
Four Tigers earned second place points: Nikki Cayard (diving); Ruzicka (200 freestyle); Kracke (500 freestyle) and Haugen (100 breaststroke).
Chelsea Gehrke (100 breaststroke); Sundet (500 freestyle); Delaney Wright (100 backstroke) and the 200 freestyle relay team of Robin Ellis, Chloe Holton, Sarah O'Reilly and Sundet placed third for the champions.
Tiger coach Jennifer Marshall lauded the stellar efforts of O'Reilly, Avestruz and Ruzicka and also had words of praise for senior Victoria Resch.
"She had a great meet, anchoring two relays that moved up in places," she said.
Marshall added that her team is swimming well for this point in the season.
"Some swims are a little sluggish which is to be expected," she said, "but we are battling through it."
Tuesday the girls head to Rochester for a dual meet with Section 1AA rival Century. Saturday they head to Grand Forks, North Dakota for the multi-state University of North Dakota Invitational.
Other Farmington top five finishes:
200 individual medley: 5. (Ellis, S. O'Reilly, Ruzicka, Elizabeth Cummings)
200 freestyle: 4. Sundet
200 individual medley: 5. Kracke
50 freestyle: 5. Ellis
One-meter diving: 5. Jade Alm
100 butterfly: 4. Seitzinger
100 freestyle: 5. S. O'Reilly
500 freestyle: 5. Chloe Holton
400 freestyle relay: 5. Sara Kintner, Hanna Sundt, Holton, Gehrke
