Girls X-Country: Another step forward

Sofia Chadwick finished the 4000-meter race in 16:07

Farmington's first five runners all hit the finish line at 17 minutes or under to lead the Tigers to 11th in the 21-team, talent-rich Applejack Invitational held Friday at Aronson Park in Lakeville.

State power Eagan won the team title with a meet-low 38 points, followed by Lakeville South 83, Edina 92, Forest Lake 117 and Lakeville North 165. Farmington finished with 345 points, 14 fewer than 12th place Andover.

"I'm so proud of the girls' finish," Farmington coach Heidi Revels said. "We beat 10 teams this year compared to last year when we were 14th out of 17 teams."

Marcia Pacheco and Sofia Chadwick continued to be the top two Tiger finishers and both cracked the top 50 in the 147-runner field. Pacheco ranked 42nd in 15:59.2 and Chadwick 50th in 16:07 over the winding 4000-meter course.

Maria Kiminski (16:21.3) placed 64th; Alexis Johnson (16:53.1) 92nd; and Maricella Pacheco (17:00.3) 97th to round out the Farmington point scorers. Sarah Cummings finished 115th in 17:32.4 and Lexie Laube 128th in 18:13.1.

Revels was especially pleased with the improvement her runners showed over last year's performance at the Applejack.

Maricella Pacheco dropped 1:16, Smith 36 seconds and Maricia Pacheco 28 seconds from last year's time.

(l to r) Emily Schaffer, Lauren Peterson and Anna Palodichuk

The strong showing by the varsity wasn't the only positive to take away from the mega-meet. Three Farmington sixth graders placed among the top ten in the "C" race.

Lauren Peterson won the 1600-meter race in 13:06. Emily Schaffer took fifth in 13:54 and Anna Palodichuk ranked 10th in 14:16.


"I'm very excited about the upcoming talent," Revels said.

Thursday the Tigers head south for the Pine Island Invitational held at the Pine Island Golf Course.