 |
| Nick Stephan 1st place 100 breaststroke (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
"We knew that Mayo had a smaller team," Tiger coach Ryan Hamen said. "They have some good swimmers but not the
depth needed to go against us.
"I gave the seniors a chance to choose events
they either have not swum in a long time or wanted to see how they could do in an
event they normally do not swim. This allowed us some very close races which
made it a more exciting meet."
Farmington won just six of 12 events but piled up other place points to win going away.
The Tigers won two relays and swam the third in exhibition status (no points awarded).
The 200 medley relay team of Oliver Chow, Spencer Kabran, Christian Bell and Christopher Kirchmann took first place honors as did the 200 freestyle foursome of Tyler Lerbakken, Christian Bell, Dahlton Bell and Eric Schimmel.
Individual event winners included Schimmel, 200 freestyle; Evan Carufel, diving; Cameron Molnar, 200 individual medley and Nick Stephan, 100 breaststroke.
Four Farmington entries finished runner-up, including Kirchmann in the 50 and 100 freestyle; Lerbakken in the 100 butterfly and Molnar in the 500 freestyle.
Five Tigers scored third place points in the meet, including Schimmel, 500 freestyle; Chow, 100 backstroke; Molnar, 100 freestyle; Jonathan Kingsbury, 200 freestyle and Nicholas Stivers, diving.
Hamen said the 50 and 100 freestyle races were especially exciting at they pitted Kirchmann against top section rival Elliot Lynch.
"Topher has been trying to break our pool records in those races all year," he said, "and he does very well when he is swimming side by side with an opponent.
Lynch ending up nipping Kirchmann in both races and setting new pool marks in both in the process. Kirchmann also broke the old mark with his time in the 100 free.
"It was very exciting and although we were all disappointed, sportsmanship was
had by both athletes at the end of the meet," Hamen said.
Thursday the Tiger head to Shakopee for a Missota Conference dual meet with the Sabers.
