By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls track team placed third in a 26-team field at the Section 3A Track and Field Championships in Pipestone Thursday.
The Cardinals compiled 58 points during the event, finishing behind champion Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (85.5 points) and runner-up Pipestone-Jasper (71.5). Jackson County Central (52) and BOLD (46.5) round out the top-five teams at the meet.
Berths in the state meet were on the line for the top relay teams, the top-two finishers in individual events and any relay or individual who met a state-qualifying standard that was implemented for the section meet.
Four Luverne girls extended their seasons by placing second in individual events.
Competing at the Minnesota State Class A Track and Field Championships at the National Sports Center in Blaine tomorrow and Saturday will be senior Amanda Aning, sophomores Danielle Cook and Jenni Christensen and eighth-grader Victoria Arends.
Aning placed second and surpassed her old school record of 10-6 in the pole vault by clearing a height of 10-9 in Pipestone.
Cook, who set a school record in the 300-meter hurdles during the sub-section meet in Luverne seven days earlier, tied the mark by placing second in the event with a 47.8 time.
Christensen placed second in the 200-meter dash with a 26.85 effort, and Arends was second in the 800-meter run in 2:27.81.
Cook and Christensen will be running in the preliminaries that start at 4 p.m. tomorrow in Blaine.
The girls' 300-meter preliminaries will be the 13th event on the track, and the finals are set for 1:55 p.m.
The 200-meter dash preliminaries will be the 17th event on the track tomorrow. The finals are set for 2:50 p.m. Saturday.
The girls' pole vault competition begins at noon Saturday.
The girls' 1,600-meter run is set for 12:18 p.m.
Cook made a bid to advance to state in two events Thursday, but she ended up finishing third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.6.
Luverne's 800-meter relay team of Aning, Cook Christensen and Callen Bosshart finished third with a time of 1:49.79.
Adria Sherwood placed fourth as an individual with a toss of 100-4 in the discus.
Sadie Dietrich earned a medal in the 400-meter dash by placing fifth in 1:02.95, and the 1,600-meter relay team received medals for placing sixth in 4:20.35. Christensen, Amanda Dooyema, Dietrich and Patricia Willers formed the team.
Making a contribution to the team tally are Willers, Maggie Kuhlman, Dietrich and Arends, who placed seventh in the 3,200-meter relay with time of 10:51.41.
Luverne's 400-meter relay team of Bosshart, Nicole Willers, Christina Smidstra and Cassie Pap placed ninth in the section field.
Amanda Dooyema and Amanda Saum placed 10th in the 400-meter dash and 3,200-meter runs with respective 1:04.9 and 13:04.22 times, while Kuhlman was 10th in the pole vault after clearing 4-8.
Kelsey Dooyema came in 11th in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 6:03.8.
Bosshart (100), Lexi Peterson (pole vault), Pap (long jump) and Marissa Stewart (discus) didn’t place in their respective events.