Girls Swimming: Tigers roar past Trojans

Grace Roach (photo by J. Lindquist)

The Tigers won seven of the first eight events, sweeping the top three places in five of them, to overwhelm New Prague 96-76 Thursday night in a Missota Conference dual meet at the Dodge Middle School pool.

Farmington now owns a perfect 4-0 record in dual meet competition, 3-0 in the Missota Conference.

The Tigers swam the last four events in exhibition status against the Trojans, surrendering 46 points to the visitors in the process.

Catherine Gehrke produced two of the Tigers wins, leading the field in the 200 individual medley and 100 freestyle. Other first place finishes went to Sara Kintner, 200 freestyle; Chelsea Gehrke, 50 freestyle; Kirsten Kracke, 100 butterfly and Hannah Seitzinger, 500 freestyle.

The 200 medley relay team of Grace Roach, Chelsea Gehrke, Paige LeTourneau and Seitzinger also took first.

Seven other Farmington entrants contributed second place points to the victory: Roach (200 medley and 500 freestyle); Chloe Holton (50 and 100 freestyle); Kendall Novak (diving); Emily Ley (200 freestyle) and the 200 medley relay quartet of Ellie Sundet, Catherine Gehrke, Holton and Kracke.

Lexie Bray (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Another half dozen Tigers finished third: Ley, 500 freestyle; Sydney Geiger, 200 freestyle; Lexie Bray, 50 freestyle; Nikki Cayard, diving; Sara Kintner, 100 freestyle and Katie Aaron, 100 butterfly.

A couple of familiar Tiger names didn't officially score a point in the one-sided meet but displayed their ability and conditioning in a different manner.

Seniors Kaitlyn O'Reilly and Cora Ruzicka each swam in the final four events of the meet, all in exhibition mode, and turned in impressive performances in all of them.

"They took on the Ironman Challenge," Tiger coach Jen Marshall said. "Pretty impressive."

The Tigers jump back in the pool Saturday when they travel to Bloomington to defend their title at the Kennedy Invitational.