By John Rittenhouse
Three Luverne High School boys made a big impact at the Minnesota State Class A Track and Field Championships in Blaine over the weekend.
Although LHS was limited to a trio of entries at the meet, the three Cardinals scored in four events and compiled enough points (20) to place 13th as a team in state competition.
"We sent three boys to state, and all of them won medals," said Cardinal coach Craig Nelson. "You have to finish in the top nine at state to receive all-state awards, and all three of the boys did it. We're very pleased with our boys. To score 20 points at state is a big accomplishment."
Senior Darren Cook, junior Craig Bosch and sophomore Marcus Walgrave all were competing at the National Sports Center in Blaine for the first time. All three seemed comfortable in their surroundings after placing in the top six in their individual events to capture medals.
Cook and Walgrave turned in strong performances as hurdlers.
Cook took the track in the 110-meter preliminaries Friday and ran a 15.12, which was the fourth best qualifying time for Saturday's finals.
The Cardinal senior ran a 15.37 in the 110 finals the next day, securing fourth place individually. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City's Kent Anderson is the state champion with a time of 15.01.
"Darren ran an outstanding race in the preliminaries on Friday," Nelson said. "He didn't get the start he wanted in the finals, but he came on real strong at the end of the race. To place fourth at state is a huge accomplishment. Since he is a senior, Darren is one of those kids who will be difficult to replace."
Walgrave stepped up and turned in a stunning performance while placing fourth in the 300-meter hurdles in Blaine.
Walgrave produced the fifth best qualifying time for SaturdayÕs finals by running a 40.66 during Friday's preliminaries.
He turned in an even stronger performance on Saturday, running a 40.56 while placing fourth overall. A-C-GC's Anderson won the event with a time of 39.91.
"Considering he's a sophomore, weÕre thrilled with what Marcus accomplished. You just don't see many sophomores place at the state track meet," Nelson said.
Bosch may not have placed as high as Cook or Walgrave, but he did place in more events at the meet. The LHS junior locked up fifth- and seventh-place performances in throwing events.
Bosch's top effort came in SaturdayÕs discus competition, where he placed fifth. Becker's Jerod Posthmus won the event with a toss of 163-10.
Bosch came up with the seventh-best throw during Saturday's preliminaries to reach the finals, where one of his three throws ended up with a personal best distance of 150 feet. That toss gave Bosch a fifth-place medal.
The Cardinal thrower missed picking up another medal during FridayÕs shot put competition by one place.
Bosch's first throw in the preliminaries covered 49-9 1/4, which was a personal best effort.
He had two more opportunities in the preliminaries and three more chances in the finals to extend the distance, but his first throw of the day gave Bosch a seventh-place finish overall. Zumbrota-Mazeppa's Nathan Wells won the state title with a distance of 153-3.
"Craig had an outstanding weekend," Nelson said. "He came up with personal best throws in both events, which is really difficult to do at state. He's only a junior, so the experience of competing at state should be a fantastic thing for Craig next year."
The five Luverne girls who competed in Blaine produced a combined one point. The Cards finished 76th as a team.
The 3,200-meter relay team consisting of senior Hannah Dietrich, junior Patricia Willers, eighth-grader Sadie Dietrich and seventh-grader Victoria Arends came up with the team point by placing ninth during Saturday's finals.
The Cardinals ran a 10:00.04 during SaturdayÕs race, placing ninth in the field.
The Luverne team entered the meet with the eighth-best qualifying time of 9:49.97, but it was unable to match that effort in Blaine. Roseau emerged as the state champion in the event with a 9:29.41 effort.
"The girls didn't quite have it on Saturday. It was a little on the warm side, and I think it influenced them as distance runners," Nelson said.
Amanda Aning completed her third consecutive trip to the state meet by placing 11th overall in the pole vault Saturday.
Aning came into the event with the state's second best vault (10-6) of the season, but the best she could do Saturday was 9-6. BOLDÕs Lindsay Kazina won the state title with a vault of 11-6.
"Amanda was having problems with her grip on Saturday. Her hands were slipping on the pole, which makes a big difference. If she could have gone 10-6 like she did in the section meet, Amanda would have placed second. It just wasn't her day."
Sadie Dietrich also made an appearance in the 400-meter dash preliminaries on Friday, running the 15th place time of 1:02.49 without making the finals.
Dietrich needed to run a 59.92 to gain the ninth qualifying spot for SaturdayÕs finals. Blake's Anne Hillier won the state title with a time of 56.54.