Luverne's Tom Sandager brings the baton across the finish line for the winning 800-meter relay team during the Cardinal Quadrangular Thursday. The LHS boys won eight events during the first outdoor meet of the season.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne boys' track team kicked off the 2002 outdoor season by hosting the annual Cardinal Quadrangular Thursday.
The field actually consisted of five teams with Southwest Christian, Edgerton, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster joining the Cards for a meet that was postponed on April 2.
With Luverne winning eight events and racking up six second-place performances, Cardinal coach Craig Nelson deemed the day a success.
"We had some excellent times and performances for it being the first outdoor meet of the season. Some of the kids began where they left off last year, and that's impressive. We had a lot of tremendous efforts, and it gives us some confidence heading into the rest of the season," he said.
Senior Craig Bosch, an all-state performer last season, got off to a solid start in 2002 by winning the shot put and discus competitions with respective 48-11 and 143-1 tosses.
Andrew Norton and Tom Sandager helped the Cardinals win five more events.
Norton cleared 6-2 to win the high jump and covered 19-1 to take top honors in the long jump. Sandager, who won the 400-meter dash in 54.48, ran legs with LuverneÕs winning 400- and 800-meter relays that turned in respective 46.49 and 1:35.97 times. Travis Johnson, Tyler Elbers and Chris Morgan ran with Sandager in both champion relays.
Morgan also claimed a meet title for the Cards by winning the 300-meter hurdles in 45.4.
Luverne had two teams entered in the 400-meter relay, and the second one placed second in 48.79. Kyle Bitterman, Tim Rust, Jerome Willers and Cody Gehrke are the team members.
Other seconds came from Elbers (5-10 in the high jump), Justin Van Wyhe (18-8 1/4 in the long jump), Nick Otten in the 800 (2:18.16), Johnson (24.1 in the 200) and Mark Brockberg (9-6 in the pole vault).
Here is a look at the rest of Luverne's top-eight finishers during the meet.
Third place: Bitterman, pole vault, 8-0; 1,600 relay (Van Wyhe, Otten, Willers and Tim Rust), 3:59.13; Ruston Aaker, 400, 56.79; 3,200 relay (Otten, Aaker, Tim Schneekloth and Jamison Tooley), 9:46.53.
Fourth place: Gehrke, 100, 12.45; Brandon Johnson, discus, 101-10.
Fifth place: Van Wyhe, 100, 12.52; Gehrke, shot, 39-10 1/2; Tooley, 1,600, 5:41.01; Casey Swenson, discus, 96-8.
Sixth place: Tony Willers, shot, 37-4; Norton, 200, 24.66.
Seventh place: Cody Jagow, shot, 36-6; Travis Halfmann, 1,600, 6:21; Thomas Gluf, discus, 92-4; Mike Nelson and Ryan Wynia tied for seventh place by clearing 7-0 in the pole vault.
Eighth place: Gehrke, 200, 25.61; Jon May, 1,600, 6:27.