By John Rittenhouse
Two teams and one individual from the Star Herald coverage area will compete at the Minnesota State Class A Cross Country Championships in Northfield Saturday.
That fact became a reality in Slayton Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Section 3A Championships.
Both the Luverne girls' and Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton boys' varsity squads will make their first appearance as teams at a state meet after turning in strong performances in Slayton.
The Luverne girls placed second out of 15 complete teams, making the cut by one as the top two teams in section competition advance to the state meet.
H-BC-E-E's boys became the winning the section team champions.
Jake Studer, a Luverne High School senior, also earned a trip to state individually. The top 10 individual finishers in section competition advance to the state meet. Studer finished 10th Thursday.
All of the area athletes will be running at the state meet at St. Olaf College Saturday. The Class A girls race is slated for 10 a.m., with the Class A boys' run to follow at 11 a.m.
Cardinal coach Bruce Gluf will probably be a better-rested person when the state meet rolls around.
Gluf admitted he didn't sleep well during the nights leading up to the section meet because he knew getting past the section meet wouldn't be easy.
His restlessness was justified when Cardinals found themselves in a title battle for second place in the team competition, but LHS did nip Martin County West 91-93 to claim runner-up status.
Canby-Minneota-Lincoln HI won the girls' team championship with 58 points.
"I finally can relax a little bit," Gluf said Thursday night. "We knew from Day 1 that we had a state-caliber team, and we were setting our sights on this section meet for a long time. I just can't say enough about these girls. They wanted it, they worked for it and now they've qualified for the state meet. It's just incredible."
Luverne needed five solid races to edge MCW in the team standings, and it received them from seventh-grader Lexi Heitkamp, freshmen Victoria Arends and Kelsey Dooyema and sophomores Amanda Saum and Sadie Dietrich.
Heitkamp, the youngest member of the squad, turned in the team’s best performance. She stunned her older competitors by placing fifth individually with a time of 15:45.
Saum and Arends cracked the Top 20 by finishing 11th and 19th with respective 16:10 and 16:34 times.
Dooyema and Dietrich placed 26th and 30th in 16:53 and 17:05.
Jessica Willers and Brianna Studer ran in the varsity race without influencing the scoring. Willers placed 92nd in 19:38. Studer was 94th in 19:45.
No matter what happens in Northfield Saturday, all seven of the LHS runners will have their names etched in school history for becoming the first team to make it to the state meet.
"Our program has come a long way," Gluf said. "Last year, our girls placed eighth in the section. They moved up to second place this year. I'm really proud of this group, and that goes for the boys as well as the girls."
The Cardinal boys also were in contention for berth in the state meet as a team, but they came up two places short after finishing fourth with 88 points.
H-BC-E-E (63 points), C-M-LH (64) and Jackson County Central (73) led the.
"I can't say enough about our boys," Gluf said. "They came up short in qualifying for the state meet, but they had a great season."
Studer's season will be extended for the second consecutive year as he placed 10th individually with a time of 17:26.
Studer placed seventh at last year's section meet and finished 54th at the state classic.
Others contributing to Luverne's effort as a team in Slayton include Jesse Kuhlman (12th in 17:39), Ruston Aaker (21s in 17:58), Dusty Antoine (23rd in 18:02) and Jesson Vogt (25th in 18:03).
Nick Otten and Travis Halfmann placed 29th and 49th in 18:10 and 19:03 without influencing the team scoring.
Studer will run against seven H-BC-E-E boys and others during the state meet.
The Patriots met their pre-season goal of getting to the state meet, but winning a section title was more than what they wished for.
"We just wanted to be in the Top 2," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "To win the section championship was a bonus. Right now we're excited to be going to state. The kids know that they have been blessed, and they are thankful for it."
Top 10 performances by Tyler Bush and Zach Hadler led the Patriots to victory.
Bush placed third with a time of 16:46. Hadler finished eighth in 17:12.
Greg Van Batavia, Kale Wiertzema and Lee Jackson turned in equally important performances that contributed to H-BC-E-E's winning team tally.
Van Batavia placed 16th in 17:44, Wiertzema 17th in 17:49 and Jackson 22nd in 18:00.
Patriots Todd Alberty and Derek Haak finished 26th and 38th with respective 18:10 and 18:43 times without influencing the team scoring.
"Our boys ran awesome," Goehle added. "There's no other better way to say it. All seven of them ran their fastest times of the year, and most were by a pretty considerable margin."
Four Patriot girls ran at the section meet without earning trips to state.
Amanda Tilstra led the way by placing 58th in 17:55.
Mya Mann, Erika Fransen and Corinna Braun finished 65th, 72nd and 96th with respective 18:12, 18:20 and 20:07 times.
"We didn’t have a complete girls' team, but I was happy with the way our girls competed. They all ran their best times of the season. I was happy they went out running their best races," Goehle said.
Adrian's boys' and girls' teams ended their 2002 seasons at the section meet.
The Dragon girls placed eighth out of 15 teams. The AHS boys placed ninth out of 13 teams.
"Our goal was to get into the Top 10 as teams in both the boys' and girls' standings," said Dragon coach Doug Petersen. "I was really happy that we were able to accomplish those goals."
Krissi Thier and Kelly Banck led the Adrian girls by placing 41st and 45th with respective 17:20 and 17:23 efforts.
McCall Heitkamp (51st in 17:39), Megan Henning (61st in 18:02) and Kaitlin Leinen (83rd in 19:09) rounded out Adrian's performance as a team.
"This was the first time we had a full varsity team on the girls' side this year. To finish eighth was awfully darn good," Petersen said.
Brandon Bullerman and Paul Honermann paced the boys by finishing 30th and 34th in 18:20 and 18:31.
Ethan Wieneke (50th in 19:03), Chad Janssen (54th in 19:17) and Aaron Mormann (76th in 20:30) round out the team scoring for AHS.
Kelly Seeman and Dustin Lonneman placed 84th and 91st in 21:32 and 22:31 without influencing the scoring.
"There was some good running on the boys' side. Six of our seven boys had their personal best times," Petersen said.
Here is a look at the boys' and girls' team standings from the Section 3A meet.
Standings: H-BC-E-E 63, C-M-LH 64, Jackson County Central 73, Luverne 88, Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 108, Southwest Christian 182, Redwood Valley 197, Windom 210, Adrian 227, Yellow Medicine East 292, Bold 305, Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster 374, Martin County West 378.
Girls’ standings: C-M-LH 58, Luverne 91, MCW 93, Windom 101, JCC 105, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 123, Murray County Central 169, Adrian 227, RWV 243, Bold 276, Springfield-Cedar Mountain-Comfrey 285, YME 289, SSC-SV-RL-B 303, ML-B-O 374, Renville County West 378.