By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls’ cross country team made history by winning its first Southwest Conference team championship during the annual league meet staged in Marshall Tuesday.
According to Cardinal coach Bruce Gluf, no LHS girls’ squad had won a SWC title in the history of the program prior to Tuesday.
That changed when three Cardinals placed in the top-10 individually to lead Luverne to a 45-71 win over Marshall and the rest of the field.
"I can’t say enough about these kids," Gluf said. "The girls were really fired up, and they wanted to win this meet. Then, they went out and ran a lot of personal and career bests. The kids competed really well today.
Lexi Heitkamp and Sadie Dietrich turned in all-conference performances by placing third and seventh with respective 15:55 and 16:04 times.
The top-seven finishers in league competition make the All-SWC squad.
Amanda Saum, Victoria Arends and Kesley Dooyema made contributions to the winning team tally by finishing eighth, 11th and 16th with respective 16:08, 16:23 and 16:54 times.
Jessica Willers and Breanna Studer placed 51st and 61st in 19:38 and 20:51 without influencing the scoring.
The Luverne boys also competed well Tuesday, placing third out of six complete teams. All of the Cardinal runners produced personal best times.
Jake Studer and Jesse Kuhlman led the chase for LHS by placing 12th and 14th with respective 17:35 and 17:36 efforts.
Ruston Aaker, Dusty Antoine and Jesson Vogt padded the team score by placing 17th, 18th and 20th in 17:54, 17:55 and 18:06 respectively.
Travis Halfmann (28th in 18:39), Trevor Maine (33rd in 18:50), Devin Goembel (35th in 18:38), Brent DeGroot (72nd in 21:33), Michael Nelson (75th in 21:54) and David Nelson (79th in 22:14) ran without influencing the team tally.
The Cardinals will run at the Section 3A meet in Slayton Oct. 24.
Here is a look at the team standings and Luverne’s other individual results from the SWC meet.
Girls’ standings: Luverne 45, Marshall 61, Jackson County Central 71, Windom 77, Redwood Valley 124, Worthington 165.
Boys’ standings: Marshall 15, JCC 58, Luverne 81, RWV 127, Windom 132, Worthington 156.
Girls’ junior high: Justin Heintzman, third, 8:27; Amanda Kannas, fifth, 8:37.
Boys’ junior high: Eric Kraetsch, fifth, 7:20.