Luverne's Jake Studer placed fourth to lead the boys' varsity team to victory at the Cardinal Autumn Invitational in Adrian Thursday.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne cross country teams played the role of greedy hosts when they entertained a number of area teams for the Cardinal Autumn Invitational at the Adrian Area Country Club Thursday.
The Luverne squads posted a sweep in varsity competition by winning both team titles.
LHS nipped Sioux Falls Lincoln 46-49 to take top honors in the boys' competition. Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton (77), Brandon Valley (120), Worthington (145) and Adrian (166) round out the six-team field.
The Cardinal girls bested Lincoln 27-34 to win their championship. BV and Worthington placed third and fourth with 77 and 111 points respectively.
Jake Studer and Nick Otten set the pace for the Cardinal boys by finishing fourth and sixth individually with respective 17:41 and 17:54 times.
Jesse Kuhlman (10th in 18:16), Ruston Aaker (12th in 18:29) and Dusty Antoine (14th in 18:35) made contributions to the winning team tally.
Travis Halfmann (20th in 18:58), Jesson Vogt (25th in 19:14), Trevor Maine (28th in 19:22), Devin Goembel (33rd in 17:41), Eric Kraetsch (50th in 20:47), John May (56th in 21:07), David Nelson (62nd in 21:56), Brent DeGroot (65th in 22:22) and Mike Nelson (69th in 22:49) also ran in the varsity race for LHS.
Third-place finishing H-BC-E-E received outstanding races from Tyler Bush and Zach Hadler, who placed first and third in 17:21 and 17:38.
Todd Alberty, Greg Van Batavia and Derek Haak placed 11th, 17th and 45th with respective 18:24, 18:53 and 20:25 times to pad H-BC-E-E's team score.
Kerry Fink (46th in 20:31), John Sandbulte (53rd in 20:59), Michael Bos (61st in 21:55), Devin DeBoer (60th in 21:52), Jared Drenth (67th in 22:19) and Justin Hinks (79th in 25:29) also ran in the varsity race for the Patriots.
Brandon Bullerman and Paul Honermann led the Adrian boys by finishing 14th and 15th in 18:37 and 18:42.
Ethan Wieneke, Kelly Seeman and Aaron Mormann round out Adrian's point producers by finishing 34th in 19:51, 49th in 20:47 and 52nd in 20:55.
Dustin Lonneman and Eldon Vaselaar placed 75th and 80th in 24:04 and 25:44 without impacting the scoring.
Placing five runners in the top-10 set the stage for victory for the Cardinal girls.
Lexi Heitkamp (second in 16:05), Sadie Dietrich (third in 16:05), Victoria Arends (sixth in 16:27), Amanda Saum (seventh in 16:36) and Kelsey Dooyema (ninth in 16:56) helped the Cardinals come out on top.
Jessica Willers and Breanna Studer placed 36th and 40th in 19:20 and 20:11 without influencing the scoring.
H-BC-E-E and Adrian fielded incomplete teams for the girls' varsity race.
Krissi Thier (13th in 17:20), Kelly Banck (17th in 17:44) and McCall Heitkamp (18th in 17:47) represented Adrian.
Erica Fransen and Mya Mann placed 20th and 26th in 17:58 and 18:27 for H-BC-E-E.
Here is a look at the junior high results from Thursday's meet.
Junior high boys
H-BC-E-E: Grant Hoogendoorn, first, 6:18; Adam Finke, second, 6:15; Cody Rozenboom, third, 6:35.
Adrian: Tony Thier, fifth 6:38; Collin Lynn, sixth, 6:43; Kyle Henning, eighth, 6:4 Brett Springman, ninth, 6:52; Tim Zaske, 11th, 6:57.
Junior high girls
Luverne: Justine Heintzman, third, 6:41; Amanda Kannas, sixth, 7:03.
H-BC-E-E: Amanda Tilstra, second, 6:30.
Adrian: Morgan Lynn, first, 6:13; Megan Henning, fourth, 6:42; Kaitlin Leinen, fifth, 7:01.