By John RittenhouseThe Luverne cross country teams wrapped up the 2003 season at the Minnesota State Class A Championships in Northfield Saturday.The Luverne girls placed 13th in a 16-team field, and the Cardinals had one runner make the All-State Team.Competing in their first state meet as a team, the Cardinal boys finished 15th in a 16-team field.The Cardinal girls, who were making their second straight appearance at the state meet, slipped from a 12th-place finish in 2002 to 13th place Saturday.Luverne coach Bruce Gluf said the girls were a little disheartened losing a place in the standings from the year before, but the Cardinal mentor said it wasn’t because of a lack of effort."The field was much more competitive this year," he said. "There were a lot of fast times Saturday. Meet records were broken in three of the four races. Almost all of our girls ran their career- or personal-best times, and you can’t ask for more than that as a coach."Luverne tallied 265 points as a team, and the Cardinals were led by an outstanding performance turned in by Lexi Heitkamp.Heitkamp, an eighth-grader who won every race she competed in this season prior to the state meet, placed 11th overall with a time of 14:55.By finishing as one of the top 25 runners in the race, Heitkamp becomes the first Luverne athlete to make an all-state team in cross country.Heitkamp was the fourth individual to finish the race among the 16 teams battling for the state championship in Northfield.It’s the adjusted team finish, not the individual placing, that counts toward scoring in team competition at the state meet.Amanda Saum, Kayla Raddle, Kelsey Dooyema and Kristy Heikes made contributions to Luverne’s effort as a team.Saum finished 53rd overall and had an adjusted place of 26th with a time of 15:46, Raddle finished 110th overall and had an adjusted place of 67th with a time of 16:33, Dooyema finished 121st overall and had an adjusted place of 67th with a time of 16:46, and Heikes finished 137th overall and had an adjusted place of 91st with a time of 17:22.Victoria Arends and Amanda Kannas also ran for Luverne without influencing the scoring.Arends finished 142nd overall and had an adjusted place of 96th with a time of 17:26. Kannas finished 146th overall and had an adjusted place of 100th with a time of 17:40."I think our girls were little bit disappointed about where they placed as a team," Gluf said. "I’m not disappointed by finishing 13th. There are 178 Class A teams in the state, and we were one of 16 teams running on Saturday."Gluf said he was equally pleased with the way the Cardinal boys competed during the season and at the state meet."All the boys ran times close to the ones they ran at the section meet. Again, I wasn’t disappointed about where they finished as a team. Getting to the state meet is the hard part. What they do there is just icing on the cake."Sophomore Tom Ward, Luverne’s leading runner throughout the 2003 season, led the Cardinals in Northfield.Ward covered the course in 17:02 to place 51st overall and record a 23rd adjusted finish."Tom has had a great season," Gluf said. "Placing 51st was the best finish we’ve ever had by a boy at the state meet."Thomas Pinkal, Ruston Aaker, Jesson Vogt and Travis Halfmann all made contributions to Luverne’s effort as a team.Pinkal finished 106th overall and had an adjusted place of 57th with a time of 17:43, Aaker finished 125th overall and had an adjusted place of 74th with a time of 18:05; Vogt finished 129th overall and had an adjusted place of 78th with a time of 18:08, and Halfmann finished 152nd overall and had an adjusted place of 101st with a time of 19:00.Dusty Antoine and Michael Nelson ran for the Cards without contributing to the team effort.Antoine placed 156th overall and had an adjusted place of 105th with a time of 19:09. Nelson placed 163rd overall and had an adjusted place of 111th with a time of 20:04.Gluf has seen both Luverne teams make great strides in the sport the last two years, and he feels the squads will improve more in 2004."Our future looks bright," Gluf said. "All of the girls will be coming back next year. We will lose Jesson Vogt, who was a great leader, along with seniors Trevor Maine and Brent DeGroot on the boys’ side. But we have a great group of kids coming back. They all have a great work ethic. Their drive for success is what got them to state meet this year, and that’s something that I can’t teach them. The drive comes from within each one of them, and it shows what kind of kids we have in our program."
