154th Article at the Independent

Marshall girls cross country wins at Gale Woods, boys finish 8th

MINNETRISTA — The Marshall Tigers cross country teams competed in their third event of the year at Gale Woods in Minnetrista, with boys placing 8th as a team and the girls winning their second meet of the year at the event.

The girls Tigers won the event with a time of 1:39:38.8 and had seven runners place in the top half of the 78 participants in the race and four of those seven finished in the top 10. The highest finish went to junior Allyson Sample, who placed sixth with a time of 19:27.6. Freshman Taleigha Bigler placed seventh with a time of 19:30.8. Eighth-grader teammates Kaitlyn Leibfried placed ninth with a time of 19:45.1, Brooklyn Mauch placed 10th with a time of 19:50.7 and Avery Schneekloth placed 27th with a time of 21:04.9. The Tigers had the most eighth graders finished the race in the meet and all finished in the top 27. Other notable girls Tigers finishes were junior Carmeen Mcfarquhar who placed 35th with a time 21:18.1 and the youngest Marshall Tiger to finish on the race is seventh grader Peyton Denuth, who placed 37th with a time of 21:23.4. Head coach of the girls Marie Sample assessed her team’s performance and how proud she is.

“It was a very competitive meet with AAA schools to compete against and we were super excited to compete in that course as it is where we will run the Section 2AA meet to try to qualify for the state meet later in the season,” Sample said. “We had outstanding performances for all 10 girls who were able to race. It was very encouraging to have our front 4 running times on that course that they normally don’t hit until the section meet. Our 5th runner was 27th which was also very encouraging as our front 5 scorers where in the front of the race. We competed well and won the meet. We were able to see and beat Willmar who is ranked in front of us at this point in time. I couldn’t be more happy with the effort, grit, and determination these young ladies are showing. What is helping them grow the most is how they compete for one another as a team and they are doing the ‘little things’ that help them improve over other teams that maybe aren’t willing to do them.”

The boys Tigers team had four runners finish in the top half of the 88 participants that competed. The highest finish was freshman Sam Deutz, who placed 23rd with a time of 16:57.7. Teammates sophomores Keagan Anderson placed 34th with a time of 17:22.6, Josh Leibfried placed 38th with a time of 17:34.7 and Ethan Bly placed 44th with a time of 17:50.7. Head coach of the boys Brian Leibfried commented on the team’s performance in the meet.

“Overall, we had a great meet at Hopkins and this was a meet with primarily AAA schools with a lot of depth in their numbers so our 8th place finish was a good showing for our team,” Leibfried said. “Comparing to where we were last year at the same meet, we could see a marked difference in our competitiveness within the race. On average, we had an improvement over last year by an amazing 1 min 33 seconds per person on average. We’ve been talking about progress each week and believing in the process. Results early in the season can tend to go up and down quite a bit based upon many factors including hydration, nutrition, new routines with school starting, and our emphasis on building mileage and doing key workouts. The boys have handled this well to this point and are excited to see the progress continue.”

The Marshall Tigers cross country teams race next in their only home meet of the year at the Marshall Golf Course on Tuesday evening.