The Tiger girls qualified in four events for last weekend’s Class AA state track meet held at Hamline University and they made the most of the opportunity.
Three of the four Farmington entrants finished among the top six in their events and the fourth, freshman 300-meter hurdler Alyssa Parco, likely would have had she not taken a tumble down the home stretch in Friday’s preliminaries.
PHOTO: The highest finish for the Farmington girls track team came from the 4x800 meter relay foursome of Jackie
Beckett, Maria Kiminski, Nicole Clifton and Kaitlin Mincke (right) that
finished third. Photo by Rick Orndorf
“I’m very proud of our girls,” coach Tom Hart said. “They came to
compete and it showed. They set new school records in three events. You
couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The highest finish came from the 4x800 meter relay foursome of Jackie
Beckett, Maria Kiminski, Nicole Clifton and Kaitlin Mincke that
finished third in a talented field with a school record time of
9:27.49. Mincke put on one of her patented come-from-behind closing
bursts to close from sixth place to third in the final lap.
“Kaitlin really came on at the end of the season,” Hart said. “She
truly showed a competitive edge and gamesmanship in the big races. You
knew not to count her out.”
The third place finish was the best ever by a Farmington girls entrant
in the state meet. Sprinter O’Rion Walker held the previous mark,
finishing fourth in the 200-meter dash in 2005.
The pole vault competition had to be moved indoors due to the rainy
conditions, but the change of venue didn’t seem to bother Tiger senior
Katrina Fitzgerald, who cleared a school record 10-9 to finish fifth.
That height bettered her old school mark of 10-6 set earlier this
season.
The final Farmington points of the meet came from Mincke, who placed
sixth in the open 800 meters at 2:18. In Friday’s preliminaries, the
talented senior broke her recently set school record in the event with
a time of 2:16.87.
Despite qualifying in only four events, the Tigers piled up 17 team
points and ranked 20th among 61 teams that scored, their best finish
ever in state competition.
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