Lorencz, Ferm and Parco dominate section track

Nadia Lorencz: 1st in 100-meter hurdles, triple jump, long jump (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The talented trio of Nadia Lorencz, Izzie Ferm and Alyssa Parco combined for six first place finishes to help the Tigers to a third place finish in a quality 14-team field at the Section 1AA Championships held Saturday at Lakeville South.

The Tigers amassed 87 team points in the two-day meet and Lorenz, Ferm and Parco had their fingerprints on 80 of them.

All in all, Farmington's Big Three qualified for next weekend's Class AA State Championships in six different events: Lorencz in the triple jump; long jump and 100-meter hurdles; Ferm in the 400-meter dash and triple jump; Parco in the 300-meter hurdles and Parco, Ferm, Megan Graham and Alicia Hett in the 4x400 relay.

"As a coach you feel blessed when a great athlete comes along," coach Tom Hart said, "and we have three of them. I can't say enough about what they mean to our team.

"They are such hard workers, both during the season and off-season. And the great thing is they are so coachable... They are getting what they deserve with all of these honors"

Lorencz, who finished runner-up at state in the hurdles and long jump last spring, won all three of her events at the section and set two meet records in the process. Her 14.56 clocking in the hurdles set a new standard as did her 37-6.75 effort in the triple jump. She leaped 17-11.25 in the long jump to lead the field.

Izzie Ferm: 1st 400-meter run and 4x400 relay; 2nd triple jump; 3rd 200-meter dash (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Ferm had an even busier day. For openers, she won the 400-meter dash in 58.51 seconds and anchored the victorious 4x400 relay team that checked in at 4:03.6. The versatile sophomore also ranked second behind Lorenz in the triple jump at 36-5.5 and third in the 200-meter dash (26.21), missing state meet qualification by .09 of a second.

Alyssa Parco: 1st 300 hurdles and 4x400 relay, 3rd 100 dash (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Parco, a three-time state-meet qualifier in the 300-meter hurdles, battled a tough wind to win her signature event in a season-best 44.10 and ran the opening leg for the victorious 4x400 relay team. The tough-minded senior also placed third in the 100-meter dash in 12.54, just .01 of a second away from second place and a trip to state in a third event.

"When I was thinking of a perfect meet for us, I thought we could qualify for nine events at state," Hart said. "We made it in six and came within a fraction of a second of doing in it in two more. That's pretty impressive."

The other Tiger individual points came from senior hurdler Jessica Arey who turned in a career-best 47.64 to take fifth place and freshman Graham who ran 1:02.77 to finish eighth in the 400-meter dash.

The 4x200 relay foursome of Jennifer Miller, Courtney Johnston, Graham and Laura Steege finished seventh in 1:49. 39.

State meet preliminaries take place Friday with the finals set for Saturday at Hamline University in St. Paul.

"I can't say we are going to win everything," Hart said, "but we should be right up there with the best in most of the events we're in."