By John Rittenhouse
Fourteen athletes representing the Luverne area competed at the Area 8 Special Olympic Summer Games in Tracy Saturday.

Three elementary school students, five middle school students, two high school students and four adults formed the Luverne area delegation.

They won a combined 14 first-place ribbons, 15 second-place ribbons and eight third-place ribbons during a successful outing.

Mitchel Anderson, Derek Deutsch and Casey Van Engelenhoven are the elementary school students who participated at the event, while Aaron Hoffman, Diana Kooiker, Nathan Meyer, Bethany Kuhlman and David Weis represented the middle school.

High school contestants are Jason Bechler and Adam Cox, while Teresa Berghorst, Brenda Goembel, Janet Sandbulte and Angie Vortherms are the adults who competed in Tracy.

Bechler, Berghorst, Cox, Kuhlman, Meyer and Vortherms will represent the Luverne area at the Minnesota State Special Olympic Games at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis June 20-22.

A Southwest Minnesota Mud Racing event that will be staged in Jasper July 6 will serve as a fund-raiser for the Luverne Special Olympics program. The event will begin at 2 p.m.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth track squads spent last Thursday competing at the Section 3A True Team Track and Field Championships in Slayton.

The Patriots were unable to win their respective 15-team boys' and 12-team girls' fields to earn a berth in the state meet, but they did have a good day.

H-BC-E's boys compiled 567 points and placed fifth in team competition. The girls placed ninth with 366 points.

Seniors Chris Reid and Brad Haak won individual championships during the meet.

Haak, who cleared 5-6 to place eighth in the high jump and was second in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:49.62, posted a win in the 800-meter run with a 2:01.79 effort.

Reid, who ran 200 meters in 23.47 to place fourth, won the long jump with a distance of 20-1 1/2.

Bev Wurpts turned in the best effort for the Patriot girls by placing second in the 1,600-meter run in 5:50.27.

Wurpts also ran with H-BC-E's fourth-place 1,600- and 3,200-meter relay teams, which recorded respective 4:24.67 and 10:45.8 times.

Mya Mann, Erin Boeve and Cassi Tilsra joined Wurpts in the 1,600. Tilstra, Brittney Rozeboom and Mann round out the 3,200 team.

Here is a look at the rest of H-BC-E's top-10 finishers and the team standings from the True Team meet.

Boys' standings: Montevideo 884.5; Southwest Christian 749.5, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 674.5, Fulda 601, H-BC-E 567, BOLD 521, Yellow Medicine East 515, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 495, Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster 448.5, MACCRAY 447, Renville County West 425, Murray County Central 400.5, Westbrook-Walnut Grove-Red Rock Central 369.5, Adrian 293.5, Lakeview 259 .5.

Girls' standings: T-M-B 663, A-C-GC 606, W-WG-RRC 576, SSC-SV-RL-B 505.1, Fulda 441, BOLD 397, RCW 397, RCW 397, MCC 377.5, H-BC-E 366, YME 332, Adrian 259, Lakeview 104.

H-BC-E boys
Third place: 3,200 relay (Lee Jackson, Greg Van Batavia, Kale Wiertzema and Tyler Bush), 9:06.62; Bush, 1,600, 4:55.47; 400 relay (Reid, Tyson Metzger, Cody Scholten and Jesse Leuthold), 47.25.
Fifth place: 1,600 relay (Bush, Adam Sieff, Greg Van Batavia and Haak), 3:45.22.
Seventh place: Scholten, high jump, 5-6.
Ninth place: Jackson, 800, 2:11.75; Leuthold, 200, 24.34.
10th place: Scholten, pole vault, 9-0; Bush, triple jump, 37-3 1/2.

H-BC-E girls
Third place: Boeve, long jump 15-3 1/2.
Fourth place: Tilstra, 400, 1:04.37.
Fifth place: Boeve, 100, 13.15; Boeve, 200, 28.22; 400 relay (LaDonna Sandstede, Danielle Fransman, Melinda Feucht and Amanda Connors), 56.66.
10th place: Sandstede, 200, 20.3; Rosie Lewis, shot, 29-3.

Luverne's Dusty Antoine (left) comes up empty after taking a swipe at this ball during Monday's home tennis match against Pipestone-Jasper. Pat Bennett (right) covers his double partner by returning the shot during a 5-2 LHS victory.

By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne tennis team appears to be picking up steam as the regular season winds down.

The Cardinals are owners of a three-match winning streak after beating Pipestone-Jasper by three points and Martin County West by one point in home matches played Monday and Tuesday respectively.

Luverne, 7-7 overall, plays at the Southwest Conference Tournament in Redwood Falls today. The Cards open Section 3A team competition at a site to be determined Monday.

Luverne 4, MCW 3
A strong effort by Luverne's doubles teams set the stage to a one-point home win over the Mavericks Tuesday.

The Cardinals went 1-3 in singles competition, but the LHS doubles teams swept MCW to set the stage for victory.

The No. 1 team of Dan Voigt and Tom Bouwman secured a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 win over Phil Johnson and Andy Schieber.

Dusty Antoine and Pat Bennett posted 6-2 and 6-0 wins over Chris Kuehl and David Anderson at No. 2, and Trevor Maine and Chris Vickery topped Josh Richter and Nate Janssen by 6-4 and 6-2 scores at No. 3.

Barry Hoogland won at No. 1 singles for LHS. He bested Alister Olson by a pair of 6-0 scores.

MCWÕs Brad Oelkers bested Kyle Fletcher by 7-6 and 6-4 tallies at No. 2 singles, Matt Harbitz was a 6-2, 6-0 victor against John Kreuch at No. 3, and Riley Carlson handed Dan Boen 6-4 and 6-3 setbacks at No. 4.

Luverne 5, P-J 2
The Cardinals bested the 2002 Southwest Conference champions when they topped the Arrows by three points in Luverne Monday.

P-J beat LHS by the same score in Pipestone May 2 in what was deemed the conference clash between the teams.

Luverne received some payback for the loss by sweeping the Arrows in doubles competition and splitting the singles tests Monday.

Doubles play turned out to be the key to victory for LHS.

Dusty Antoine and Pat Bennett pulled out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over Scott Vander Poel and Pat Williamson at No. 1, and the Cards swept the matches at No. 2 and 3.

Steven Althoff and Kyle Fletcher nailed down 7-6 and 6-4 wins against Casey Carmody and Lance Kollman at No. 2, and Chris Vickery and Trevor Maine posted 6-1 and 7-5 victories over David Janssen and Aaron Prunty at No. 3.

Barry Hoogland and Dan Boen posted singles wins for the Cards. Hoogland downed Pat Wieme 6-4 and 6-3 at No. 1, and Boen saddled Greg Mitchell with a pair of 6-0 setbacks at No. 4.

P-J's Mike Janssen secured a 7-6, 6-1 win over Dan Voigt at No. 2 singles, while Arrow Damian Weets notched a 6-7, 6-2, 7-2 win over Tom Bouwman at No. 3.

Luverne senior first baseman Ryan Goebel darts past a Marshall defender as the Tiger throws to first base during Thursday's Southwest Conference baseball double-header at Redbird Field. The Cardinals split the twin bill with Marshall.

By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne and Marshall baseball squads played to a draw when they met for a Southwest Conference double-header at Redbird Field Thursday.

The Tigers rolled to a 13-2 victory to open the set, but the Cards gained some revenge by taking Game 2 by a 13-7 margin.

Luverne sported a 4-4 SWC record after the set.

Marshall 13,
Luverne 2
The Tigers controlled play while rolling to an 11-run victory in Game 1.

Marshall scored runs in five of the game's seven innings and never trailed in the contest.

Marshall scored two runs in the first, second and seventh innings, three in the fourth and four in the fifth.

Luverne was limited to single runs in the first and fifth frames.

The Cardinals cut Marshall's 2-0 lead in half when Ryan Goebel walked and scored on Eric Edstrom's double in the bottom of the first.

Luke Iveland walked and scored LuverneÕs fifth-inning run after Jake Studer grounded out.

Edstrom yielded 11 runs and 14 hits during a six-inning stint as Luverne's starting and losing pitcher. Edstrom was hurt by the long ball as Marshall sent three 0-2 pitches over the fence for homers.

Goebel was touched for two runs while pitching the seventh inning.

Box score AB R H BI
Goebel 2 1 1 0
Studer 1 0 0 1
Uilk 1 0 0 0
Sandbulte 3 0 0 0
Edstrom 3 0 1 1
Schmidt 3 0 1 0
Crable 2 0 0 0
Kreun 2 0 0 0
Kuhlman 2 0 0 0
Pick 1 0 0 0
Iveland 1 0 0 0

Luverne 13,
Marshall 7
Luverne outscored the Tigers 11-2 in the final six innings of Game 2 to gain a split Thursday.

After Marshall took a 5-2 lead in the game's first inning, the Cardinals took control by scoring two runs in the top of the second, three in the third, five in the fifth and one in the seventh to open a 13-5 lead.

The Tigers did score twice in the bottom of the seventh, but it did little to influence the outcome of the game.

Luverne's comeback started in the second inning when Joey Pick reached base on an error and Goebel singled before both runners scored on a throwing error to make it a 5-4 game.

Pick tripled home a run to tie the game at five in the third before Studer chased home two runs with single to give the Cards a 7-2 lead.

Luverne's five-run fifth inning all but ended the game.

Studer singled home a run during the rally, but the key blows were a two-run double by Tony Sandbulte and a two-run homer by Edstrom.

Sandbulte doubled and scored on an error in the top of the seventh to cap the scoring for LHS.

Luverne took a 2-0 lead when Edstrom and Kyle Crable singled home runs in the top of the first before Marshall scored five times in the bottom half of the frame.

Edstrom ended up driving home three runs and had four hits in the game. Studer picked up two hits and three RBIs.

Jesse Kuhlman pitched the first six innings to collect the win. He allowed seven runs (four were earned), three hits and five walks while striking out eight batters. Kyle Kreun pitched a scoreless seventh inning.

Box score AB R H BI
Goebel 5 1 1 0
Studer 4 2 2 3
Sandbulte 5 3 3 2
Edstrom 4 1 4 3
Schmidt 4 0 0 0
Crable 4 1 2 1
Kreun 4 0 0 0
Pick 4 3 2 1
Iveland 2 2 0 0

By Lori Ehde
Luverne 10th-graders excelled on the writing version of the Basic Skills Tests they took in January.

Curriculum Coordinator Jan Olson told School Board members at their May 9 meeting that Luverne students scored significantly higher than the state average, according to results released last week.

Of the 100 students who took the test, 95.24 passed, compared with 90.74 percent of students statewide who took the test.

"Our students did very well," Olson said. "We can all be very proud."

Results on the writing portion of the BST are based on the overall quality of students' compositions.

Scoring focuses on the clarity of the central idea, organization and support for ideas, as well as spelling, grammar, punctuation and other language skills.

This is the fourth year that 10th graders have taken the written composition BST. Minnesota public school students need to pass this test along with BST's in reading and math to graduate.

More information is available at the Minnesota Department of Children Families and Learning Web site: www.cfl.state.mn.us.

In other business Thursday, the boardÉ
Adopted a name for the athletic fields west of the school campus. They are now called "Cardinal Baseball/Softball Complex," as recommended by the Athletic Advisory Board.

Approved a new policy for administering medication to students. The old policy hadn't been revised since 1988.

School nurse Deb Vander Kooi told board members she won't give any prescriptions without a doctor's signature. Before, the medication could be sent from the pharmacy and as long as it was in the pharmacy bottle, she would administer it.

Also, parent signatures are needed in order for Vander Kooi to give Tylenol or Advil.

The new policy will outlined in the 2002-03 student handbook.

Accepted the low bid from Design Craft of Luverne for the middle school-high school lighting project. The bid came in at $97,300.

Approved a summer school program for special education.

Approved the Blue Cross/Blue Shield renewal. The rates did not increase.

Accepted the retirement of school bus driver Duane Klosterbuer, effective May 31.

Baccalaureate is 2 p.m. May 19, the last day of school is May 30, employee recognition will be May 31, and graduation is scheduled for 2 p.m. June 2.

By Lori Ehde
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 23, in a lawsuit brought against Pinnacle Programs Inc., Magnolia. The action stems from the 1998 sex scandal that sent Pinnacle employee Sharon Smidstra to prison.

The parents of one of the sexually abused boys allege the organization knew of Smidstra's sexual relations with other boys at the facility prior to their son arriving there.

They also claim, among other things, that Pinnacle knew about Smidstra's psychological, chemical, emotional and behavior difficulties and should have known that history would be damaging to their son.

They say the facility was also negligent in not having sufficient precautions, training and supervisory arrangements in place to prevent staff members from abusing resients.

Pinnacle Programs Inc. , Smidstra and four employees are named as defendants in the suit, originally filed March 16, 2000.

The employees are not specifically named because the plaintiffs at the time of filing did not know their names.

The lawsuit is making its way through Rock County District Court, and a trial is set for June 10, unless the parties arrive at a settlement.

So far, Pinnacle and the employees deny prior knowledge of SmidstraÕs illegal activities with the boys.

Smidstra denies the activities took place at all, maintaining her innocence despite the jury conviction.

Thursday's pretrial hearing will establish trial procedure, such as which witnesses and evidence will be presented.

The plaintiff's attorney, Thomas Lehmann, Eagan, declined to say what damages his clients are seeking.

"Hopefully the good people of Rock County will put a figure on that if it goes to trial," he said Wednesday.

Smidstra was found guilty in a July 14, 1999, jury trial of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and seven counts of furnishing tobacco to a minor.

She was sentenced Aug. 30, 1999, to seven years in the women's correctional facility in Shakopee.

Hills-Beaver Creek senior forward Brad Haak weaves his way around Ellsworth's Brant Deutsch to score two of his team-high 16 points during a 56-53 win over the Panthers.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys' basketball team has built up a head of steam heading into post-season play after defeating Ellsworth 56-53 Monday in Ellsworth.

After losing three of four games during a stretch late in the season, H-BC appears to have turned things around while winning its last two games to end a 14-8 regular season.

Ellsworth, on the other hand, seems to be losing momentum after winning 18 of its first 21 games. The 18-5 Panthers will take a season-long two-game losing streak into the post season.

Both H-BC and Ellsworth will be in action during the South Section 3A quarterfinals that will be played in Worthington Saturday. No. 4 H-BC plays No. 5 MCC at 4:40 p.m. No. 3 Ellsworth faces either No. 6 Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster or No. 11 Westbrook-Walnut Grove.

EHS can be thankful it wonÕt meet H-BC to start post-season play as it appears the Patriots have the Panthers' number.

H-BC beat the Panthers 77-43 in Hills Nov. 29, and they came out on top in a game that featured two different halves in Ellsworth Monday.

Ellsworth dictated play while sporting modest leads at the first two quarter breaks. The second half belonged to the Patriots as they outscored EHS 33-24.

The second half didn't start out well for H-BC as Panther Dylan Kvaale hit a three-point shot to give EHS its biggest lead of the game at 34-25 early in the third quarter.

H-BC countered with a 19-6 run that gave it a 44-40 advantage at the end of the third quarter.

The rally featured a three-point shot by Lyle DeBoer that tied the game at 40 with 2:08 remaining in the stanza. David Top gave the Patriots the lead with two free throws at the 1:15 mark, and Trey Van Wyhe turned an offensive rebound into a field goal with 46 seconds left to end the scoring in the third quarter.

Kvaale gave Ellsworth what proved to be its final lead (49-48) of the game when he drained a three-point shot with 4:32 left to play in the game.

Two free throws by Van Wyhe at 4:14 and another by Brad Haak at 3:20 put the Patriots in front 51-49, but Panther Curt Schilling tied the game at 51 with a pair of charity shots at the 1:19 mark.

DeBoer came up big for H-BC down the stretch as he converted an offensive rebound into a field goal with one minute remaining before making a free throw 30 seconds later to make it a 54-51 game.

Two free throws by Schilling with 21.7 remaining made the difference one point (54-53), but Top ended the scoring by draining a pair of free throws with 7.8 seconds left to give H-BC its three-point win.

Ellsworth raced to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter before H-BC countered with an 8-0 run that was capped by a three-point play by Haak that knotted the score at 12 with 1:33 remaining in the stanza. Schilling hit a three with 41 seconds left to play to give the Panthers a 15-12 lead they would take into the second quarter.

A field goal by Haak at the 5:30 mark of the second period capped a 6-2 H-BC surge that gave the Patriots their first lead of the game at 18-17.

H-BC led 20-19 when EHS went on an 8-0 run capped by Blake Brommer's put-back at 2:03 to give the hosts a 27-20 advantage with 2:03 left to play in the first half.

The Patriots outscored the Panthers 3-2 in the final two minutes and trailed 29-23 at the intermission.

Haak led the Patriots with 16 points and eight rebounds in the game. Top had 15 points and five rebounds, and DeBoer added 15 points and three steals. Jesse Leuthold and Matt Buck snared seven and five rebounds respectively for the winners.

Schilling scored 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for EHS. Kvaale finished the game with nine rebounds and four assists.

Box score
H-BC
Roozenboom 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 0 0 0-0 0, Haak 6 0 4-6 16, Leuthold 0 0 0-0 0, L.DeBoer 4 2 1-2 5, Van Wyhe 2 0 2-2 6, Top 2 2 5-7 15, Buck 1 0 0-2 2.
Ellsworth
Schilling 10 2 6-6 32, Jenniges 2 0 0-0 4, Janssen 1 0 0-0 2, Kvaale 1 2 1-2 9, Sieff 0 0 0-0 0, Deutsch 1 0 0-0 2, Brommer 1 0 0-0 2, Herman 1 0 0-0 2.

Team statistics
H-BC: 20 of 52 field goals (38 percent), 12 of 19 free throws (63 percent), 33 rebounds, 13 turnovers.
Ellsworth: 21 of 54 field goals (39 percent), seven of eight free throws (88 percent), 29 rebounds, 13 turnovers.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth boys' golf team put an end to a five-match losing skid when it competed at a triangular meet in Sanborn Friday.

Playing against host Red Rock Central and Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster, the Patriots finished in the middle of the pack by going 1-1.

The home-standing Falcons won the triangular with a 188-stroke total. H-BC-E bested SV-RL-B 196-207 for second place.

Tom Janssen led the Patriots for the day by shooting an eight-over-par 44.

Kyle Sammons and Dusty Seachris contributed 48-stroke totals to H-BC-E's team tally, while Ben Herman chipped in a 56.

Clint Roozenboom and Nick Deutsch shot respective 56- and 62-stroke rounds without influencing the scoring.

RRC's Alex Pfar earned medalist honors by carding a six-over-par 42.

SV-RL-B's Tim Sather shot a 47 to lead the Raiders.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth Patriots were unable to snap a baseball slide when they traveled to Edgerton for a Red Rock Conference tilt Thursday.

H-BC-E fell behind by four runs early and never recovered from the poor start while falling 4-1 to the Flying Dutchmen.

The Patriots were hampered by five fielding errors in the game, and some of them led to Edgerton scoring four runs in the first three innings.

The Flying Dutchmen plated single runs in the first and third frames while adding two counters in the second.

H-BC-E scored its lone run in the top of the fifth.

Kevin Van Batavia singled and scored when Zach Wysong doubled.

Wysong slapped two of H-BC-E's six hits in the contest.

Justin Van Maanen pitched all six innings for the Patriots.

Van Maanen fanned four batters for an H-BC-E team that dropped its fourth straight game.