Panthers end Tiger season in semifinals

Nick Varner 22 pts, 10 rebs. (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Top-seeded Lakeville North ran up 52 first half points and cruised to a 94-64 win over the Tigers in the semifinals of the Section 1AA tournament played Saturday night in Lakeville.

The victory advanced North (22-6) to this Friday's title game against Rochester John Marshall. The loss brought down the curtain on the Farmington (13-14) season.

North connected on 35 of its 65 field goal attempts (54 percent) in the contest but was especially proficient from long range, hitting 13 of 28 for 46 percent.

"They are very good and could have beaten just about anyone with how well they shot the basketball," Tiger coach Shane Wyandt said.  

"We came out a little jittery on offense and for some reason we had some guys missing assignments on defense. That mixed with how tough they played just killed us."

Just as telling was the Panthers' dominance on the glass where they held a one-sided 39-21 rebounding advantage, including 19 at the offensive end. Farmington also turned the ball over15 turnovers.

North led 51-33 at intermission and never led by fewer than 14 points in the second half.

"We made a run to cut the lead from 22 to 14," Wyandt said.  "After that we had three straight stops on defense but unfortunately we turned the ball over twice and missed a shot. 

"I give our guys credit for continuing to come back with runs of their own but it was just too far to come back with how well North was playing." 

Junior JP Macura, who burned Farmington for 36 points when the teams met in December, had 35 in the re-match and got plenty of help from Zach Creighton (15), Grant Erickson (13) and Kyrell Newell (11).

The outcome overshadowed a strong performance by Tiger junior Nick Varner who scored a season-high 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Darren Beenken closed out his Tiger career with 16 points. Eli Rockett netted 10 and also grabbed six rebounds.

Girls BB: A learning experience

Sofia Chadwick All-Missota (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Based on the final record (2-25) the Tiger season would seem to have been a long one for coach Sondra Chadwick and her young team.
Although Chadwick wasn't about to claim satisfaction with the final numbers she said there were several positives to take away from 2012-13 campaign.

"This was a very young squad that other than one or two players had no varsity experience," Chadwick said. "The girls really spent this season learning how to play at the varsity level. 

"They really needed time to adjust to the speed of the game. The physicality and intensity of playing at this level is not something you can just step into and be comfortable with. It requires time."

When Chadwick said her squad was young she may have been understating her case. The Tigers routinely started five sophomores and of the 11 players earning varsity letters, only two were upperclassmen, senior Callie Halterman and junior Aly Grebner.

Other players receiving varsity letters at Monday night's post-season banquet included sophomores Sofia Chadwick, Alicia Hett, Kailtyn Gorden, Abby Gallus, Leah Hammond, Jordyn Homeier, Sydney Speer and Chelsey Bruns and freshman Morgan Mach.

Sofia Chadwick, who led the team in scoring (15 points per game), assists (4.0) and steals (2.6) and ranked second in rebounding (5.4) was the team's Most Outstanding Player and landed a spot on the all-Missota Conference team.

Hett, who averaged 5.6 points, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals a contest, garnered all-league honorable mention and also received the Tiger Leadership Award. Mach took home Rookie of the Year honors.

Ranking atop the highlights from the 2012-13 season was claiming the consolation championship at the Monticello Holiday Tournament. Chadwick also pointed to narrow losses to a pair of quality teams in Lakeville South and Apple Valley as well as a gut-wrenching last second defeat at the hands of section rival Hastings.

"It may not seem like a highlight to the girls because we lost," Chadwick said, "but it says a lot about a team that came from18 points behind to lead with seven seconds left in the game."

Among the disappointments were the Tigers' inability to dent the win column in the Missota Conference, a couple of lopsided losses to Shakopee and Chanhassen and a rash of injuries and illness that seemed to follow the team all season.

With all but one varsity player slated to return next season, Chadwick is excited about her team's future.

"We spent a full season learning how to play at this level," she said. "Next season we expect to teach the girls how to win at this level.  

"We have the luxury of having our leading scorers, our leading rebounders, our best defenders, all coming back next season.  However, we have made very clear to the girls that our success next season depends almost entirely on their commitment levels during the off-season... 

"We will face a similar outcome as we did this season if everyone comes back the same player. If they make those commitments to improving themselves as individuals, the team will in turn improve dramatically."   

While Chadwick will welcome back almost all of this year's roster next season, she said she will miss the absence of Halterman, this year's lone senior.

"Callie suffered a torn ACL last December (2011) and the surgery and rehab were frustrating to her," she said. "But she came back with the goal to play her senior season. She came with the best attitude and she was a joy to coach."



 

Football moves to Class 6A

The Minnesota State High School League has announced its section realignments for the next two schools years and the changes affect three Tigers sports.

At the top of the list is Farmington's move from Class 5A to Class 6A (the state's largest 32 schools) in football. The Tigers will join Eastview, Eagan, Rosemount, Burnsville, Park of Cottage Grove, Lakeville North and Lakeville South in Section 3.

In wrestling, the Tigers will switch from Section 2AAA to 1AAA where they will face off against Owatonna, Hastings, Rochester John Marshall, Rochester Century, Rochester Mayo, Austin, Northfield and Winona.

The Tiger gymnastics team will be moving from Section 3AA to Section 1AA where they will compete with Owatonna, Faribault, Winona, Northfield, Rochester Century, Rochester John Marshall and Rochester Mayo.

Section assignments for all other Farmington sports remain unchanged.

Tiger Scoreboard: March 10, 2013

Boys Basketball
Section 1AA Semifinals
Lakeville North 94 Farmington 64

Alumni Tracker: Magalis 6th in NCAA Diving

During his high school career ex-Tiger Tyler Magalis was an all-Missota Conference diver, a Section 1AA Diver f the Year, and a Class AA state champion on the one-meter board. Now the St. Cloud State University sophomore can add another line to his impressive résumé--All-American.

Magalis, who won all-American honorable mention last season, finished sixth in the one-meter board competition at the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships held in Birmingham, Alabama last week. Magalis also finished 13th on the three-meter board at the national meet.

1977 Farmington grad Doug Dingman who coaches the clay shooting team at Prior Lake has just taken on new state-wide responsibilities with the fast-expanding high school sport. Dingman  has been named the new advisor to the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) and will help new schools with gaining membership and existing schools with a wide rage of administrative issues.

Trevor Davis who is in the first year of a two-year graduate assistant program with the Northwestern Louisiana State men's basketball program has a chance to see March Madness up close and personal. His team will enter next week's Southland Conference post-season tournament as either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed with the tournament winner gaining an automatic spot in the NCAA field.

Former Tiger Matt Shutey is a hurdler for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls men's track team...2012 Tiger grad Alyssa Parco has the fourth fastest time in the 60-meter dash and the seventh best mark in the 200-meter dash for the Brigham Young women's track team this spring...

Ashley Corcoran who transferred from FHS to Red Wing after last season became the Wingers starting goalie and later earned a spot on the Class A all-state tournament team...2006 FHS female Athlete of the Year Kallie Flor who went on to play NCAA Division I hockey at Quinipiac University was an assistant coach for the Eagan girls' hockey team that won the 2013 Class AA state consolation championship.

John Bergman

Former Tiger athlete Ryan Pietsch is the girls' softball coach at Northfield...FHS grad John Bergman has been a member of the Apple Valley City Council since 2003...Tom Shirley of the Tiger class of 1977 is the manager of the popular Centennial Lakes Park in Edina.

Ex-Tiger Jordan Bridges had three points and four rebounds for Jamestown College in its 70-54
win over Menlo (California) in the opening round of the NAIA national tournament in Sioux City, Iowa. The Jimmies lost to Eastern Oregon 72-56 in their next game to finish their season with a 27-6 record.

Three other former Tiger basketball players finished their respective seasons in previous weeks. 2012 FHS female Athlete of the Year Taylor Meyer played in all 27 games for the University  of Minnesota-Duluth, averaging 4.1 points and 4.0 rebounds a game,...Elena Koch averaged 3.1 points and 2.9 rebounds a contest for the College of St Benedict and Jamie Kenealy put up 2.3 points and 2.0 rebounds an outing for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

2012 FHS male Athlete of the Year Drew Hegseth and his St. John's University football teammates will be getting a. rare spring grid experience at the end of the school year. The Johnnies will conduct two weeks of practice and then north for a couple of games against Canadian teams. Hegseth will be a sophomore linebacker for the St. John's next fall.