Tigers take seventh at True Team state

The Tigers finished seventh at the Class A girls True Team state meet with 285.5 points, coming in just one point behind United South Central at Stillwater High School on Saturday. Esko finished first in the nine-team meet, posting 452 points.

Lake City coach Meribeth Kozlowski said she was pleased overall, and thought the exposure of such a big stage for her young team will benefit in the future.

She mentioned how she used a seventh-grader and four eighth-graders in the meet.

“This is a really big meet for girls that age and it was a great experience for them,” Kozlowski said.

Lake City didn’t perform as well as expected in the 400-meter dash, an event it usually excels in. An injury to sophomore Taylor Koller increased her time by over four seconds from Lake City's meet the previous Monday, according to Kozlowski. A disqualification and the absence of Haley Vaith further hurt Lake City’s running events.

“We lost some points in areas we weren’t expecting,” Kozlowski said.

Coach Kozlowski estimated a fifth-place finish would’ve been a realistic placing under normal circumstances.

Anna Gay led the Tigers, finishing first in the triple jump and second in the long jump. Kristine Novak provided another bright spot for the Tigers, finishing third in the pole vault.

Lake City next competes in the subsectional tournament at Plainview-Elgin-Millville High School at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Tags: track and field, lake city, sports, prep, tigers