LUVERNE -- Sparked by a trio of individual first-place performance by senior veteran Travis Pedersen, the Worthington Trojan boys won the five-team Cardinal Relays Tuesday.
Pedersen won both the 200 and 400 meter dashes with respective times of 22.96 and 52.75. He also took top honors in the triple jump, leaping 41-4.
To complete a perfect day, Pedersen also anchored the Trojan 4 x 400 meter relay team to victory (3:40.66). Running before Pedersen were Tom Mammen, John Mead and Jesse Canales.
Worthington racked up a total of 184 points to win the meet by 25 points over second place Southwest Christian (159).
The Chargers of Westbrook-Walnut/Red Rock Central were third with 140 points, followed by Luverne (108) and Adrian (82).
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Kaitlyn Sawtelle had a great day for Luverne, leading the Cardinal girls to the team title.
Sawtelle cleared 10 feet to impressively win the pole vault and also raced to victory in both the 100 meter high hurdles (16.55) and the 300 meter lows (48.47).
Callie Sawtelle also shined for the Cardinals, winning both the discus (115-1) and the shot put (36-7½).
Luverne won the team title with 243½ points, while Worthington was a strong second with 210 points.
Adrian edged W-WG/RRC for third, 71 to 70½, while SWC was a close fifth with 65 points.
Gerber sets meet record in 1600 meter run
Worthington sophomore Kaitlin Gerber nipped Luverne ace Lexi Jo Heitkamp in a stacked 1600 meter race, setting a new Cardinal Relays' record with her time of 5:33.80. Heitkamp was clocked at 5:34.33.
"That was a great race and a real good early season time by both girls," said Trojan co-head coach Mike Traphagen.
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Luverne received a one-two finish by Paige Nath (1:04.06) and Allison Henke (1:04.60) in the 400 meter dash and Cardinal Alyssa Stegenga sprinted to victory in the 100 meter dash, clocked at 13.63.
The Cardinals won three of the relay races and Heitkamp won a close competition with Worthington's Rachel Malmgren in the high jump. Both girls cleared the bar at 4-10, but Heitkamp had fewer misses.
Worthington's Sarah Cham won her fourth triple jump title of the season with a leap of 33-9½ -- three feet better than the second place distance.
Carrie Landgaard and Chelsea Schmitz went one-two for the Trojans in the long jump with distances of 14-7 and 14-4½, respectively.
Worthington's Jenny Mammen nipped W-WG/RRC's Krystle Sell for first place in the 200 meter dash. Mammen was clocked at 28.48, while Sell was timed at 28.53.
Stephanie Jaycox picked up a first place for the Trojans by winning the 3200 meter run with a time of 13:27.57.
Adrian's Morgan Lynn easily won the 800 meter race with her time of 2:28.80.
The foursome of Annelli Dudley, Alyssa Smith, Holli Aggen and Jenny Mammen won the 4 x 100 relay (54.98), while Luverne finished first in the 4 x 200 (1:54.81), the 4 x 400 (4:15.58) and the 4 x 800 (10:05.09).
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Spronk, Mammen are boys' double winners
While Pedersen was the star of the boys' meet, Worthington jumper Tom Mammen and Southwest Christian distance runner Ethan Spronk both claimed a pair of individual victories.
Mammen, who also finished second in the 100 meter dash (11.690 won both the high jump (5-8) and the long jump (19-3½).
Spronk earned his double-double in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs with respective times of 4;57.93 and 11:02.29.
SWC's Jordan Spronk won the 100 with a time of 11.40 and Adrian's Nate Reyne ran the 800 meter run in 2;11.61 to win that event.
Worthington's Brandon Berger won the 110 meter high hurdles (17.51) and SWC's Brookes Knutson, who was second in the highs (17.91) won the 300 meter intermediate hurdles with a time of 45.33.
Theo Johnson (W-WG/RRC) won the pole vault (10-6), while SWC's Tyler Mouw claimed first in the discus (125-9) and Luverne's Sam Dooyema won the shot put event with a distance of 44 feet even.
Adrian clocked a time of 9:04.28 to win the 4 x 800 relay and Luverne was first in both the 4 x 100 (47.80) and 4 x 200 (1:41.19) relays.
