Boys Track: A solid second

Devon Webb 1st in 4x800 relay; 2nd in 800-meter run (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington finished second in a quality five-team field at the annual Tiger Invitational held Tuesday afternoon at Tiger Stadium.

Perennial state power Rosemount successfully defended its team title with 169 points. Farmington finished with 133, New Prague 106, Eagan 79 and Red Wing 67.

"The biggest lesson we can take from this is looking at Rosemount's scoring," Tiger coach Brian Helmstetter said. "We won a number of events but because the Irish had two or three scoring points in events, they passed us up...Rosemount has depth and I want the boys to see this to show the importance of our two through-10 runners and why they need to keep competing."

To illustrate Helmstetter's point, the Tigers won seven of the meet's 18 events but still finished 36 points out of first place.

Justin Hyttinen was a double winner, leading the pack in both the 1600 meter (4:19) and 3200-meter (9:54) runs.

Three of the other Tiger firsts came in relays: the 4x200 team of  Mason Auge, Mason Gaylord, Jack Erickson and Tanner Grubb clocked 1:34.25; the 4x400 foursome of  Robin DeCastro, Devon Webb, Wolt and Grubb ran 3:32.35 and the 4x800 foursome of Alex Hart, Devon Webb, Adam Dougherty and Jared Wolt won in 8:38.

Tanner Thode took 5th place in the shot put (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Two Farmington individuals also won events, Grubb in the 200-meter dash (22.94) and Wyatt Ferm in the high jump (6-0).

Ferm led a trio of Tigers who finished second with an 11-0 effort in the pole vault. Webb was runner-up in the 800-meter run and Ryan Parco was second in the long jump.

Three more Farmington entrants scored third place points: Parco in the 400-meter run; Brendan King in the discus and the 4x100 relay quartet of  Derek Klotter, Sean McHenry, Erickson and Auge.

Farmington's fourth place finishers included Erickson in the 200-meter dash; Alex Swearingen in the shot put and Jake Earp in the high jump. 

Jeff Guiterrez ranked fifth in the 3200-meter run as did Tanner Thode in the shot put. DeCastro (100-meter dash); Wolt (800-meter run); McHenry (long jump); Josh Patterson (shot put) and Dan Som (high jump) each finished in sixth place. 

The Tigers return to action next Tuesday (April 22) when they travel to Eagan for the Wildcat Invitational.