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Luverne girls' 3,200-meter relay repeats as state champs

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Cardinal girls medal in six track events
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Jason Berghorst

“It felt like a huge weight off our shoulders.”
That’s how Luverne senior Jadyn Anderson describes her 3,200-meter relay team’s second straight Class A state championship.
“Last year, winning felt like a dream come true,” she said. “This year we felt a lot of pressure to win again. It felt great when we did.”
Anderson joined sophomore Regan Feit and freshmen Tenley Nelson and Brooklynn Ver Steeg as repeat champions at the Minnesota State Class A Track and Field Championships.
The meet showcased the best high school track and field athletes from throughout Minnesota June 6 and 7 at Hamline University in St. Paul.
A total of twelve Cardinal girls earned the opportunity to compete at the state classic in nine different events.
Six of those nine events ended with a podium finish for the LHS athletes.  
“This was one of the most memorable state meets I’ve had in the 19 years I’ve been a coach,” Luverne head coach Pete Janiszeski said.
“To walk away with that many medals shows tremendous effort, buy-in and selflessness by the kids,” he added.
The 3,200-meter relay team capped a truly record-breaking season with a win at the state meet.
The team won and set the meet record at the prestigious Howard Wood Dakota Relays in early May.
 On May 30 they won the section championship and broke their own school record with a time of 9:27.41.
One week later in St. Paul, the team broke that school record with a time of 9.22.92 to win another state championship.
“It was the perfect season,” Anderson said. “A million things could have gone wrong this season, but somehow we made it.”
In addition to the 3,200-meter relay championship, Luverne medaled in five other events at the state meet.
The 800-meter relay team of Autumn Nath, Ivy Hudson, Gracie Zewiske and Sydney Biever qualified for the finals with a 1:47.04 effort in the prelims.
In the finals the team placed fifth overall with a time of 1:46.84.
Nelson placed sixth overall with a time of 11:30.82 in the 3,200-meter run.
Two Cardinal girls competed in the 300-meter hurdles at Hamline.
Feit placed seventh overall with a jump of 46.75. Gabrielle Ferrell recorded a time of 51.47 in the prelims.
 Luverne’s 1,600-meter relay team also set a new school record with its performance in the prelims.
Feit, Nath, Anderson and Ver Steeg combined forces for a record time of 4:02.07 to qualify for finals.
In the finals eighth-grader Tiana Lais replaced the injured Ver Steeg and ran the third leg of the relay.
The team placed ninth in Class A with a time of 4:07.58.
Prior to her injury, Ver Steeg also set a school record in the prelims of the 400-meter dash.
Her time of 58.91 set the record and qualified her for the finals, where she placed ninth with a time of 1:02.38.
Luverne’s 400-meter relay team of Hudson, Mallory Oye, Zewiske and Biever ran a time of 51.35 in the prelims and did not qualify for finals.
Zewiske also competed in the 200-meter dash in St. Paul. She recorded a time of 27.75 in the prelims.
Luverne’s Mallory Thorson recorded a distance of 33-02 in the triple jump at the state meet.
The Cardinals placed tenth overall as a team with 26 points. The Blake School of Minneapolis won the Class A team championship with 57 points. 
Overall, Janiszeski was thrilled with his team’s performance over the weekend.
“To say that I am proud of this group might be the largest understatement I’ve ever made,” he said.
“They excelled and performed at the highest level on the biggest stage and embraced the team concept with a champion’s mentality.”
Anderson echoed her coach’s sentiments.
“I have been so blessed this year,” she said. “I cherish the memories we shared.”

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