PREP TRACK AND FIELD: LHS girls take 5th, boys take 6th at State True Team meet

STILLWATER — Competing well in both divisions, the Luverne High School track and field teams each finished in the middle of the pack Saturday in the Class A State True Team Meet at Stillwater High School.

Paced by 51 individual points from freshman Kynzie Smedsrud, the Cardinal girls scored 327 points and finished fifth in the nine-team meet, just 15 points shy of Lake City’s third-place total of 342.

Meanwhile, LHS senior Daniel Muller enjoyed a stellar day in the boys’ meet, winning two events — the pole vault and the 110-meter high hurldes —and scoring in two others, as he racked up a total of 55 points himself and helped the Cardinal boys to a sixth-place team finish with 321 points.

Maple Lake won the Class A boys’ team championship with 401 points, while Montevideo was a close second with 391.

Winona Cotter was third in the boys’ standings with 356 points, followed by Esko (343.5), Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (338), Luverne (321), Mankato Loyola/Cleveland (316.5), Pine Island (258) and Crookston (203).

“Our boys had a good day, but not the great day we needed to finish among the top three,” summed up veteran LHS head coach Craig Nelson, who has guided 12 teams — four boys and eight girls — to the State True Team meet since 1989. “We had an injury early in the meet and had to reshuffle the line up a bit, so we were not quite at 100 percent. There were five teams who finished pretty close in places three through seven and we were in that mix, which is pretty good at the state meet.”

The Cardinal girls, who notched their sixth consecutive top five finish at the elite event, trailed the top two teams Saturday by a large margin, but were among four teams challenging for third.

Esko repeated its state championship with a dominant performance throughout the day, scoring a meet-best 465.5 points.

The Eskimos won the 2011 title with 452 points.

Blue Earth Area repeated as runner-ups, scoring 426 points this year, after tallying 435 last year.

Lake City and Maple Lake finished 3-4 with 342 and 338.5 points, respectively, while Luverne (327) and United South Central (316.5) were also in the chase for third.

Holdingford was a ways back in seventh with 285.5 points, while Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (247) and West Marshall County (185) completed the field.

“We showed good overall balance and the girls all did a nice job,” praised Nelson. “We knew that both Esko and Blue Earth returned outstanding talent from last year and would be hard to beat. We were certainly in the ‘hunt’ for repeating our third-place finish from last year, but came up just a little short.”

Luverne scored 372 points and finished third in the girls’ meet in 2011, after winning the state championship in both 2010 and 2008 — with a second-place finish in 2009 sandwiched in between.

Luverne’s recent six-year girls’ streak started with a third-place team performance in 2007.

Prior to that, the LHS girls finished sixth in 1992 after claiming a second-place finish in 1989.

Saturday, was the second year in a row that Luverne had both its teams competing at Stillwater.

Last year — in their first year back to the State True Team meet since 2006 — the Cardinal boys were ninth with 209.5 points.

“We moved up three team places and had a significant improvement in our point-total (111.5 points) from last year,” noted Nelson. “The experience we gained last year (at the state meet) really helped us this year.”

Previously, Luverne’s boys placed third at the 2005 State True Team Meet and followed that up with a fifth-place True Team finish in 2006 before later winning the Class A state title at the Minnesota State High School League Meet that spring.

Muller, Alex Weis win boys’ events Saturday

Muller and junior Alex Weis got the Luverne boys off to a fine start Saturday with a 1-4 finish in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Muller clocked a winning time of 16.65 seconds, while Weis finished fourth (17.17), giving the Cardinals 33 points in that event.

Weis later won the shot put with a personal best distance of 50 feet, eight inches and Muller claimed his second victory of the day when he cleared a personal best height of 13 feet in the pole vault.

“Daniel and Alex certainly both had excellent days for us,” declared Nelson.

Muller added a fine third-place finish in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (43.08) and also scored four points by placing 15th in the high jump (5-2).

Weis, who is also a top-notch discus thrower, helped the Cardinals by placing 16th in the long jump (17-11) and anchoring the LHS 4x100-meter relay to a fourth-place finish (46.10) — which contributed 18 points to the team score.

Ethan Rust, Matt Oehlerts and Darrion Jones ran the three 4x100 legs prior to Weis taking the baton.

The LHS boys were third in the 4x200 (1:36.87) with the foursome of Trenton Rops, Oehlerts, Jones and Rust.

The Cardinals were eighth in both the 4x800 (9:11.28) and 4x400 (3:51.60).

Eli Dooyema, Drew Weis, Cody Hess and Ethan Marshall ran the 4x800 for LHS to open the meet and the quartet of Josh Friedrichson, Dooyema, Payton Stemper and Quintin Siebanahler ran the meet-ending quarter miles for the Cardinals.

Bo Biever scores 46 points in the dashes

Running his first quarter of the season, Luverne junior Bo Biever blistered a time of 53.61 and placed an impressive third in the 400-meter dash, scoring 16 points for the Cardinals.

Biever also placed fourth in both the 100 (12.00) and the 200 (23.89).

“Bo had a great day in all three dashes,” praised Nelson. “He was very close to getting second in the 200 and really did a fine job in the 400, running it for the first time this season.”

Luverne’s other premier sprinter, sophomore Jon Ehde, pulled a muscle and finished 18th in the 100 (13.45) and did not compete the rest of the meet.

Keegan Schoenfelder (139-6) and Cody Rofshus (129-6) placed 2-4 in the discus, giving LHS 32 points in that event and Rofshus contributed 15 more points with a fourth in the shot put (46-5) as the Cardinals scored a total of 65 points in the two weight events.

Dooyema cleared 10-6 and finished in a three-way tie for seventh in the pole vault (11 points), while Jones placed 17th in the high jump (5-0).

Oehlerts sailed 19-6.5 and placed 10th in the long jump and leaped 37-10.25 and scored a 13th in the triple jump, accounting for 15 points in those two events.

Clinton Jaqua scored four points with a 15th place in the triple jump (36-5.75).

On the track, Friedrichson (4:48.89) and Ryan Oye (4:55.95) both well ran under five minutes and placed 8-14 in the 1,600-meter run.

Brandon Vander Ziel (58.26) finished 16th in the 400, Rops was 14th in the intermediate hurdles (46.35) and Friedrichson and Weis combined to score nine points in the 800-meter run with respective times of 2:10.55 and 2:17.73 in places 12 and 17.

Luverne’s final individual places on the track were earned by Rust (200, 11th, 24.71) and the duo of Hess (12th, 10:57.06) and Oye (11:07.29) in the 3,200-meter run.

Allison Dohlmann wins girls’ discus, Kynzie Smedsrud, Paige Nath score high in multiple events to lead LHS girls

While Smedsrud racked up a team-leading 51 individual points Saturday, junior Allison Dohlmann also enjoyed a stellar day as she recorded a pair of PRs (personal records).

Dohlmann won the discus with a toss of 108-2 and scored a fourth in the shot put (34-11) as she tallied 33 points in those two events.

Smedsrud’s best finish was in the 100-meter high hurdles as she placed third (17.41).

Smedsrud added a sixth in the 300-meter low hurdles (51.04) and placed eighth in both the triple jump (31-10) and long jump (15-1) to complete a fine all-around day by placing in the upper half in all four of her events.

“Kynzie’s been a workhorse for us all season,” declared Nelson. “To get high places in both hurdles and each of the horizontal jumps is a good day for her.”

Senior veteran Paige Nath was also a big contributor for the Cardinals as she placed third in the high jump (4-10), fifth in the 400-meter dash (62.78), ninth in the 200 (28.42) and anchored the Cardinals’ 4x400-meter relay to a fifth-place finish (4:20.02).

Running the 400 splits prior to Nath taking the baton were Kaitlin Wohnoutka, Shelbie Nath and Melinda Mumme.

LHS was also fifth in the 4x200 (1:54.32) with the team of Erin Sietsema, Naomi Dooyema, Jaidyn Elbers and Tayla Peterson.

The Cardinals were seventh in the 4x800 (Wohnoutka, Anna Tofteland, Shelbie Nath and Melanie Van Meeteren), clocked at 10:51.62.

The foursome of Sietsema, Dooyema, Elbers and Chelsea Curtis ran a time of 55.65 in the 4x100 and finished eighth.

Distance runners Hohn, Schandelmeier run well

Distance runners Makayla Hohn and Maddie Schandelmeier each ran a pair of good races to help Luverne’s scoring.

Hohn, a sophomore, finished second in the 3,200-meter run (11:58.27) and fifth in the 1,600 (5:36.64), scoring 31 points.

Schandelmeier, a seventh-grader, matched that point production by claiming third in the 800-meter run (2:31.87) and fourth in the 1,600 (5:29.20).

“Great efforts by those two in each of their races,” praised Nelson. “You can’t ask for much more than that. Makyala and Maddie both had super days.”

Elbers, who is just an eighth-grader, finished an impressive fourth in the 300-meter low hurdles (50.52) and classmate Morgan Edwards had a fine performance in the shot put, placing fifth with a distance of 33-10.5.

Sietsema scored a seventh in the triple jump (31-10.75), Curtis placed 15th in the long jump (14-7.25) and 17th in the pole vault (6-6), while Josey Radtke-Kockelman (pole vault, 6-0) and Erin Doherty (high jump, 3-10) each scored a point by placing 18th.

On the track, Peterson raced to a seventh-place finish in the 200-meter dash (28.35), Mariah Boomgaarden was 10th in the high hurdles (18.38), Peterson (14.55) and Curtis (15.04) were 12-16 in the 100, Wohnoutka finished 10th in the 400 (64.55), Tofteland was 17th in the 800 (2:49.34) and seventh-grader Bergin Flom contributed five points by finishing 14th in the 3,200 (13:27.01).

“All-in-all it was a pleasing day for both our boys and girls,” concluded Nelson.

“We always strive to win the section and advance our whole teams to the State True Team Meet.

“But now, the ‘new season’ starts on Thursday with the sub-section meet where individuals and relays begin earning advancement on their own.”

Luverne hosts the Sub-Section 10 Meet Thursday at Cardinal Field.

Tags: track and field, sports, prep, luverne