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.