Prior Lake girls turn Mega Meet into romp

One game at a time. Defense wins championships. Never look ahead.

Actually, Prior Lake girls' track and field coach Scot Jaenicke strikes down that last coaching cliché. And he likes what could be on the horizon for the Lakers.

At the 16-team Lakeville Mega Meet last weekend, the Lakers took top honors in eight events en route to a whopping 190.33 points. That was more than 100 points ahead of runner-up Lakeville North.

"We're competing really well right now and all of the coaches are surprised every day," Jaenicke said.

"We cover every event pretty well."

Indeed that was the case in Lakeville, where the Lakers won three of four relays and had a double winner in the hurdles from Lauren Bruha. Megan Andre (long jump), Madison Lesmeister (400-meter dash) and Taylor Scholl (800-meter run) were also winners.

Prior Lake had finishers among the top five in nearly every event, including the top three spots in the 400 and three of the top five in the 800.

"It's fun to make out the lineups," Jaenicke said. "I like to look ahead. It's pretty early; we know there's a long way to go. It's more just me looking ahead to what we will be seeing. It's fun to size up the other schools. Right now, we look as deep as any other team out there."

Eagan was not part of the Lakeville meet, but the Wildcats had a standout performance of their own last week.

Eighth-grader Maddie Gourley posted a blistering time of 58.6 seconds in the 400 at the Rosemount Invitational last Tuesday.

Doing his partEastview's Evan DeCovich is a big reason the Lightning got back on the winning track last week. He was the winning pitcher against Eagan in a 3-2 decision, recording 10 strikeouts in a complete game. He also had the two-run single to push Eastview ahead. The next day against Prior Lake, DeCovich was 1-for-3 with a three-run double to put the Lighting in the lead in an eventual 7-6 game.

Goal-orientedKacie Waagbo turned in a stellar performance for Lakeville North's girls' lacrosse team against Bloomington Kennedy. The sophomore attacker scored five goals and had six assists in the Panthers' 20-7 South Suburban Conference victory over the Eagles.