1st in 50 and 100 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay
(photo by Jim Lindquist)
Last season the Tigers won their first-ever Section 1AA True Team championship by winning a five-team competition. Saturday at the Dodge Middle School pool they made it two in a row with a victory in a three-way meet.
Farmington earned its return trip to the True Team state meet with a point total of 436, 30 more than runner-up Owatonna. Northfield placed a distant third with 316.
"Farmington had a great day," Tiger coach Ryan Hamen said. "We missed Conner Kealy, one of our top swimmers, but the boys stepped up and knew they had to swim their best and get the points we needed."
"Christopher Kirchmann, Zach Holton, Nick Stephan and Aaron Lane Lane did great to get close to their personal bests. Austin Kueck and Brock Lange dropped a lot of time in their 500 freestyle so we could earn more points.... We unfortunately lost some points in the 200 free relay with a false start but we fortunately had the depth we rely on for these bigger meets."
Aaron Lane
1st 100 backstroke, 400 freestyle relay
Farmington placed first in four of the 12 events with Kirchmann leading the way with victories in the 50 and 100 freestyle races. Lane provided the other Tiger individual win in the 100 backstroke.
Kirchmann and Lane teamed up with Cameron Molnar and Zach Holton to lead the pack in the 400 freestyle relay.
Holton recorded a pair of second place efforts in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly. Evan Carufel scored second place points in the one-meter diving competition.
Zach Holton
1st 4000 freestyle relay
2nd 200 medley and 100 butterfly
Two relay teams placed second: the 200 medley grouping of Lane, Lane, Carufel and Stephan and the 200 freestyle squad of Carufel, Eric Schimmel, Christian Bell and Tyler Lerbakken.
Three Tigers racked up third place points: Lane in the 200 individual medley; Carufel in the 50 freestyle and Aaron Cochnauer in the 100 butterfly.
Other top five performances:
200 medley relay: 4. Molnar, Spencer Kabran, Aaron Cochnauer, Bell
200 freestyle: 4. Schimmel; 5. Derek Anderson
One-meter diving: 5. Jonathan Bovee
500 freestyle: 4. Austin Kueck; 5. Molnar
200 freestyle relay: 4. Anderson, Mitch Haugen, Brandon Dion, Lerbakken
100 backstroke: 4. Molnar
100 breaststroke: 4. Stephan
400 freestyle relay: 4. Cochnauer, M. Haugen, Schimmel, Garrett Haugen
"Next week at the U of M we will be swimming against the top AA swim teams in the state," Hamen said. "I hope to have a full roster and continue to swim well and enjoy our time."
