Luverne senior Melissa Kopp watches a shot during an early-season match at the Luverne Country Club. Kopp led the Cardinal girls to a section team championship in Marshall Friday by shooting an 82.
By John Rittenhouse
Friday turned out to be a special day for some Luverne high School golfers competing in the Section 3A Championships at the Marshall Country Club.
The Luverne girls' team easily out played the rest of its opponents in a four-team field to capture its second consecutive section team championship and ninth berth in the state tournament as a team.
Joining the entire girls' team at the state tournament will be Luverne senior Pete Connell, who secured one of five individual qualifying positions up for grabs in the boys' competition in Marshall Friday.
The Cardinal girls and Connell will compete at the Minnesota State Class A Golf championships that will be staged at the Izaty's Yacht and Country Club near Onamia June 5-6.
Luverne's girls, the co-state champions from 2001, will compete on The Sanctuary course. They will tee off a 8:30 a.m. for 18 holes of play each day.
Connell, who will be the first boy to compete at a state tournament since Phil Oksness qualified in 1997, will play on the Black Brooke course. He is scheduled to tee off at 8:35 a.m. for 18 holes of play each day.
Winning a section championship came much easier than winning the sub-section crown for the Luverne girls.
Luverne won its ninth straight sub-section title last week on the basis of a tie-breaker that was used to decide a deadlock that the Cardinals and Fulda Raiders found themselves involved in after 18 holes of play.
That wasn't the case at the section meet in Marshall, where the Cardinals tallied a 348-stroke team tally to post a 29-stroke win over second place Redwood Valley, which recorded a 377.
Ortonville and Canby capped the field with respective 392- and 412-stroke totals.
"The girls played great," said Cardinal coach Chris Nowatzki. "They held their composure and pulled it off again. We're happy to be going back to state. The girls are looking forward to playing the course again, and I'm hoping they can play some more good golf."
Luverne, which raised its season record to 36-1 by winning the section title, was paced by senior Melissa Kopp during the 18-hole event.
Kopp shot a 10-over-par 82 to tie for fourth place in the individual standings.
Gabe Van Dyk, Kim Bennett and Amber Top made contributions to Luverne's team effort by recording respective 85-, 90- and 91-stroke scores.
Cara Wynia and Mindy Lysne shot 96- and 99-stroke rounds without influencing the scoring.
Fulda's Erin Oakland shot a 75 to win the section individual title. Redwood Valley's Alecia Prins (81), Ortonville's Lindsey Nelson (81), Fulda's Abby Oakland (82) and Canby's Kelly Endahl (83) round out the individual qualifiers.
Connell shot a five-over-par 77 to lock up the fourth qualifying position during the boys' competition.
RWV's Tim Suedbeck won the section individual title with a 72. Since RWV won the section team title, Suedbeck's effort was not counted as one of the five individual qualifying positions that were on the line Friday.
BOLD's Matt Phingsten (74), Yellow Medicine East's Mark Arneson (75), Ortonville's Pete Ross (75) and BOLD's Mark Kodet (78) joined Connell as state individual qualifiers.
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth sophomore Tom Janssen also competed at the section meet for the second straight time.
Janssen shot an 83 to end his campaign.