Girls Swimming: A solid second

2013 Missota Conference Runner-ups

The Tigers didn't win a single event at the Missota Conference Championships held Saturday at Shakopee but they had more than their share of top five finishes to place second in the final team standings.

State-rated Chanhassen claimed the league title with 476 points with Farmington in the runner-up spot with 423. Chaska was well back in third at 352, followed by Northfield 338, Red Wing 190, New Prague 152, Shakopee 110 and Holy Angels 66.

"We had a fabulous conference meet and it makes me very excited for sections and state," Tiger coach Jen Marshall said  "Going into the meet Chanhassen was 120 points ahead of us and we were able to make 70 of those up. We were gunning to take the title but we had a good run at them and I'm proud of how we performed."

The foursome of Kirsten Kracke, Kaitlyn O'Reilly, Chelsea Gehrke and Cora Ruzicka accounted for two of the Farmington second place finishes in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.

Each of the four relay swimmers also scored second place points in an individual event: O'Reilly in the 200 individual medley; Ruzicka in the 200 freestyle; Gehrke in the 100 butterfly and Kracke in the 100 freestyle.

O'Reilly took third in the 100 breaststroke as did Kracke in the 50 freestyle. Nikki Cayard ranked fourth in diving and Ruzicka was fourth in the 500 freestyle.

Nikki Cayard 4th in diving (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The 400 freestyle relay team of Catherine Gehrke, Hannah Seitzinger, Ellie Sundet and Emily Ley also rang up fourth place points.

Three more Tigers took fifth place: Sundet in the 200 freestyle; Chelsea Gehrke in the 200 individual medley and Lexie Bray in the 100 backstroke.

Other Farmington top 10 finishers included Sara Kintner, sixth in 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 500 freestyle seventh; Kendall Novak, sixth in one-meter diving; Sundet, seventh in the 100 freestyle; Tori Sontag, eighth in diving; Catherine Gehrke, eighth in the 200 freestyle and ninth in the 500 freestyle; Chloe Holton, ninth in the 100 butterfly; Seitzinger, ninth in the 50 freestyle and Grace Roach, 10th in the 100 butterfly.

Coach Marshall said Sundet had "the best conference meet she's ever had" and was also excited about Cayard's performance on the one-meter board.

"She is putting things together and had the meet of her life as did Tori Sontag," she said. "This was also Elizabeth Welter's first 11-dive meet and she was incredible with a top 16 finish."

The Tigers now have a week and a half to prepare for the Section 1AA Championships scheduled for Nov 7 and Nov 9 in Rochester.