Luverne's Scott Goebel (center) leads the pack during the first lap of the 800-meter run during Saturday's Tri-State Relays in Luverne. Goebel won the race, and the Cardinals won the meet's team title for the first time in the eventÕs nine-year history.
By John Rittenhouse
The 2002 boys' track team accomplished something on Saturday that no other past Luverne team could at Cardinal Field.
The Cardinals have hosted the Tri-State Relays since 1994, but this proved to be the first year the boys won a team championship in the nine-year history of the event.
Luverne tallied 220.5 points to run away from runner-up Canby-Minneota, which scored 116.5 counters.
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth (100.5), Canton (68.5), Adrian (61), Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster (50) and Edgerton (15) also attended the meet.
Winning the T-SR was something that was on the minds of all Cardinals during the week leading up to the event. They got the job done with a solid team effort.
"Winning this meet definitely was one of our goals," said LHS coach Craig Nelson. "We talked about how we never have won it before last week and how nice it would be to win it. The boys followed through with their hard work on a cold and windy day. I'm really proud of that."
Capturing nine event titles paved the way to victory for LHS.
Craig Bosch and Andrew Norton won two individual events each. Bosch took top honors in the shot put and discus with respective 49-5 1/5 and 158-0 tosses. Norton won the high (5-10) and triple jumps (40-6 1/2).
Travis Johnson, Tom Sandager and Scott Goebel won individual running events. Johnson ran 200 meters in 24.22, Sandager 400 meters in 54.19 and Goebel 800 meters in 2:14.21.
Tim Rust, who placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.14, cleared 8-6 to take top honors in the pole vault.
Luverne also fielded the winning 800-meter relay team. Johnson, Tyler Elbers, Chris Morgan and Sandager turned in a 1:38.06 time in the 800.
Goebel (5:06.72 in the 1,600) Marcus Walgrave (55.91 in the 400), Morgan (46.12 in the 300 hurdles), Ruston Aaker (8-0 in the pole vault) and Norton (19-4 1/4 in the long jump) all placed second in individual events.
Luverne's 1,600-meter relay team of Johnson, Elbers, Norton and Sandager placed second in 3:43.57.
The LHS boys will compete at the Worthington Invitational and the Arrow Relays in Pipestone today and Tuesday respectively.
Here is a look at the rest of Luverne's top-eight finishers during the T-SR.
Third place: 3,200 relay (Nick Otten, Kyle Bitterman, Jamison Tooley and Aaker), 9:31.27; Otten, 800, 2:19.02; Elbers, high jump, 5-2; Ryan Wynia, pole vault, 8-0.
Fourth place: Bitterman, pole vault, 8-0; Cody Gehrke, 100, 12.29; Tooley, 1,600, 5:32.34; 400 relay (Gehrke, Elbers, Bitterman and Morgan), 51.35.
Fifth place: Ben Peters, 100, 12.7; Aaker, 400, 58.81; Peters, 200, 26.21; 1,600 relay (Goebel, Aaker, Jerome Willers and Otten), 4:06.8; Michael Nelson, pole vault, 7-0.
Sixth place: 400 relay (Wynia, Jordan Siebenahler, Brandon Johnson and Peters), 53.78; Bitterman, 800, 2:27.43; Tim Schneekloth, 3,200, 12:46.6; Gehrke, shot, 36-2.
Seventh place: Jon May, 3,200, 13:02.69.
Eighth place: Willers, 100, 12.91; Willers, 400, 1:03.46; Siebenahler, 200, 27.6; B.Johnson, discus, 96-8.