By Rich Winter

605 Sports

PIERRE — When Pierre High School senior distance runner Jared Lutmer was in third-grade, he tagged along to a Hershey track meet with his older sister, Jessica.

Coming from a running family, distance running just seemed like the thing to do. 

“My dad John (inducted into the Northern State Hall of Fame in 2008) was an All-American at Northern State where his best race was the 800-meter run,” Jared Lutmer said. “My sister was at the University of Sioux Falls but is now running cross country and distance events for South Dakota State University.”

During his elementary years, Lutmer said one of the middle-school coaches would come get him and a few other runners to the track. 

In his early years success didn’t come easy.

“I wasn’t the most successful,” Lutmer said. “In my first middle school meet I was like the second or third worst runner on the team.” 

Fast forward to Lutmer’s junior year, where he finished third in the Class AA cross-country meet in 16-minutes and :17 seconds, behind Rapid City Stevens’ Simeon Birnbaum (15:16) and Harrisburg’s Cashton Johnson (16:10). 

As the top returning finisher from the 2022 state cross-country meet, Lutmer is aiming for a state title next month, but he knows he’ll have some company at the front of the pack.

“There are a good amount of talented runners in the field,” he said. “The fun thing is that on any given day someone might have a better day than you. I feel like I match up pretty well with how everyone in the AA field is running right now. I’m pretty confident on how my racing performances have been.” 

Lutmer opened his season at the Augustana Twilight meet in Sioux Falls finishing fifth (15:54) as the top South Dakota finisher. Lutmer went on a tear after that meet winning races in Aberdeen (15:45) and Huron (15:34). 

The only real blip on Lutmer’s season so far came at last week’s Rapid City Invitational where he finished fifth. Class AA runners Grady Loos of Rapid City Stevens and Peyton Cast of Douglas both finished in front of Lutmer. 

Lutmer said the middle school girls race in Rapid City started and was stopped mid-race because of a heavy downpour. For a bit Lutmer and the rest of the runners weren’t even sure the varsity boys race was going to happen. 

“It wasn’t my best day,” he said. “The leaders took off with about 1.5 miles left and I just didn’t have a response.” 

With about three weeks remaining before the state cross-country meet, Lutmer is hoping to put the finishing touches to his form. 

“We’ll be doing a lot of time specific workouts on the track or on the grass,” he said. “The rest will be just going out on runs. This last little bit you just have to have fun because that’s where you are at your best when you are having fun as a team.” 

Lutmer also excels in the classroom and decided he wanted to be an optometrist following his sophomore year.

“My freshman and sophomore year kinda burned me,” Lutmer said. “Last year I got all A’s except for one class.”

This newfound commitment to academics figures to play a large role in what school Lutmer decides to run for collegiately.

“Academics is going to play a big role for me,” he said. “I want to go to a school that has a fun group of guys and where I’ll be able to compete well and where I’ll be successful and that’s what’s important to me.”