Farmington had its best day ever at the Section 1AA championships May 28 and 30 at Lakeville South, finishing fourth in the 15-team field and advancing six athletes in four events to this weekend’s state meet.
“We went after it today,” coach Tom Hart said. “We competed hard in every event and scored a lot of points. I’m very proud of our effort.”
The meet started on a positive note with the defending champion 4x800
relay team of Jackie Beckett, Maria Kiminski, Nicole Clifton and
Kaitlin Mincke earning a return trip to state with a winning time of
9:32.10. The victory didn’t come easily as anchor Kaitlin Mincke had to
overcome a 50-meter deficit and run a blistering 2:17 final split to
win in a tight race over Lakeville North.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the meet for the Tigers was the winning
performance by freshman hurdler Alyssa Parco who broke her own school
record in the 300-meter lows with a time of 46.63.
“I thought maybe she could finish third if she had a good race,” Hart
said, “but she is mentally tough. I think she found a gear today that
she didn’t know she had.”
Mincke became a two-event state qualifier when she followed up her
outstanding anchor leg in the relay with a 2:20.77 effort in the open
800 to place second.
The final state berth belonged to senior pole vaulter Katrina
Fitzgerald who tied her own school record for the second time in two
weeks and finished second with a 10-6 effort.
Hart made it clear that though the state qualifying efforts were gratifying so too was the effort of the rest of the team.
The 4x100 meter relay quartet of Lauren McHenry, Rachel Sand, Rilee
Carufel and AJ Olatunji and the 4x200 team of McHenry, Chardea Cornell,
Sand and Amy Kiminski each placed third. The 4x400 foursome of Beckett,
Maria Kiminski, Cornell and Mincke took fourth.
Beckett narrowly missed another state bid with a third-place finish in
the 800-meter run and Erin Hickey picked up fourth-place points in the
long jump.
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