The Panther baseball team lost its opening game of the young season to Luverne 7-5 at Luverne Tuesday afternoon. The Cardinals put 3 runs on the board in the first inning and were never headed after that. The Panthers came back with 2 runs in the second, 1 in the fifth and 2 in the seventh but it was not enough.

Ross Ladehoff led Tracy/Milroy/Balaton with a 3 for 4 day at the plate and 2 runs batted in. Brett Jackson had 2 hits and Matt Persons 2 runs batted in for T/M/B.

The Panther defense committed 4 errors.

Pat Spielmann started on the mound for the Panthers. He was relieved by Brett Jackson in the 3rd inning and Derek Radke came on to pitch in the fifth inning. Eric Fraser did the catching for T/M/B.

T/M/B 020 010 2 5 7 4

Luverne 310 201 x 7 8 1

The baseball team will be at ACGC on Tuesday, April 13, at MACCRAY on April 15 and will be home to CMCS on Monday, April 19.

Peterson, Lau lead golfers in opener

The Panther boys' golf team got off on a winning note at Sanborn last Thursday. The boys shot a 186 over the nine hole course to win over Red Rock Central with a 210. The Panther girls' team shot a 227. RRC had an incomplete team.

Eric Peterson, Panther senior, was the medalist for the boys with a 38 and Kayla Lau was medalist for the girls with a 52.

Scoring for the Panther boys were: Eric Peterson, 38; Sam Lau, 44; Mark Buysse, 49; Kyle McIntire, 55. For RRC Tyler Beerman had a 48, Cole Churchill a 51, Jared Johnson 55 and Dustin Theis 56.

Anthony Vroman shot a 49 for the Panther boys' B-squad, Scott Debbaut 55, Jacob Hoflock 64 and Caleb Schmidt 63.

Scoring for the Panther girls were: Kayla Lau, 52; Cassie Bryant, 54; Kim Lau, 58; Nicole Hansen, 63.

Bobbi Buyck tops new heights in pole vault

Bobbi Jo Buyck set a new school record in the girls' pole vault as the Tracy/Milroy/Balaton track team opened their season at the Luverne quadrangular Tuesday.

Buyck cleared 10-feet, three inches to win the event. Her jump was more than three feet higher than the second-place entry.

Buyck also won the 100 meter hurdles, and anchored the Panthers' winning 4x100 meter relay team.

Other meet highlights for the Panthers included:

• Dana Tutt notched a personal best in the pole vault with a height of 13 feet. His vault was good for second place.

• Tessa Nelson was a double winner in the girls' triple jump and high jump. Her five foot, four inch effort in the high jump tied a school record.

• Jillian Tholen won the girls' 800 meters with a time of 2:29.26.

• Nicole Haecherl was second in the girls' 100 meter hurdles and fourth in the 300 hurdles.

• The girls' 4x100 meter relay of Tina McIntire, Jenna Schaar, Melissa Luckhardt, and Buyck won by a margin of more than two seconds. Their time was 52.42.

• Brad Lanoue was second in the boys' 3200 meter run with a time of 11:01.

• Jon Carter was second in the boys' discus with a throw of 121 feet, one inch.

• Gary Knott was second in the boys' high jump with an effort of five feet, ten inches.

• Tutt got another second place for the boys with a second place in the 200 meter dash.

• Melissa Luckhardt was second in the girls' long jump.

“It was a great day for a meet,” said Coach Al Landa, of the sunny calm weather conditions. He was pleased with many individual performances, but said that as a team, the Panthers still need more conditioning. “We can fix that.” The Panthers host Pipestone and Murray County Central in a triangular on the Tracy track Tuesday, April 13.