Boys Track: Gearing up for the Missota

Justin Hyytinen 3 1st place finishes

The Tigers tuned up for next week's Missota Conference Championships with a solid performance at the three-team Pat Foley Classic held Thursday afternoon at Carleton College in Northfield.

No team points are kept in this one-of-a-kind meet where the traveling trophy goes to the team that wins a random event drawn by lot. This year, that event was the 110-meter hurdles so Rochester John Marshall walked off with the hardware.

"We saw some improvements in our horizontal jumps which has been a weak spot this year," Farmington coach Brian Helmstetter said. "Some of our athletes were competing for a relay or a top three spot (for the conference) and that added to the competition."

All in all, Farmington scored five firsts in the meet, three in individual events and two in relays.

Freshman phenom Justin Hyytinen showed his versatility by winning the 400-meter run and 3200-meter distance event. Daniel Berg provided the other blue ribbon performance in the high jump.

Dan Berg 1st pace high jump (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Hyytinen made it three first place finishes when he, Eric Stoeckman, Chad Retterath and Tyler Lerbakken hooked up to claim the 4x800 relay. The other relay win came in the 4x100 where Sam Wyatt, Athen Ashton, Justin Hett and Sam Hoffman led the field.

Seven more Tigers turned in second place performances, including Hoffman (100-meter dash); Lerbakken (800-meter run); Hett (long jump); Nehemiah Rockett (300-meter hurdles); Reid Taubenheim (pole vault); Cullen Smith (high jump) and Bret Hoffman (shot put).

Farmington also racked up five third place finishes: Retterath in the 800-meter run; Stoeckman in the long jump; Smith in the triple jump; Bret Hoffman in the discus and Jake Lee in the shot put. 

Thursday (May 24) the Tigers will look to take advantage of a familiar venue and a supportive crowd at the conference meet slated for Tiger Stadium.