The Marshall boys and girls track teams faced stiff competition Thursday and Willmar, and several athletes used the challenge to acheive personal bests on the track and in the field events.
The Marshall girls took second place in the seven-team event, while the boys took third.
Willmar won the girls' competition with 235 points. Marshall finished in a distant second with 140 points, followed by Rocori (114) in third.
Marshall girls track coach Marie Sample said she had been talking to her athletes for a week leading up to the competition and told them it was a good opportunity to push themselves.
"There were a lot of good kids there, kids we haven't seen yet," Sample said. "I told them 'We're going to get challenged, but you're going to want to just step up to the plate and do the best you can.'
"When you're challenged, you grow and get stronger. It was good for us to get pushed to make us do better. I think the girls approached it very well today."
Fact Box
Girls Team Scores: 1. Willmar 235; 2. Marshall 140; 3. Rocori 114; 4. Redwood Valley 80; 5. St. Cloud Apollo 60.5; 6. New London-Spicer 29; 7. Central Minnesota Christian 17.
Marshall Individual Results
4x800m Relay: 1. Becca Fedde, Jenna Christianson, Haley VanKeulen, Maddie Verschaetse 10:19.
100m Hurdles: 4. Rachel Miller 18.20.
100m: 2. Sarah Buyse 13.25.
4x200m Relay: 4. Kendra Soupir, Amber Amick, Elizabeth Roseland, Sarah Anderson 1:59.20.
1,600m: 3. Rose Andersen 5:46.
3,200m: 2. R. Andersen 12:34.
4x400m Relay: 2. S. Andersen, Clarie Buysse, S. Buysse, Fedde 4:19.78.
300m Hurdles: 5. Rachel Miller 53.21.
800m: 1. Haley VanKeulen 2:30.
200m: 2. S. Buysse 26.92.
Long Jump: 3. Sydney Griffin 14-11; 6. Jessica Oaxaca 14-6.
Triple Jump: 2. Caitlyn Schaeffer 33-8; 3. Griffin 32-4.
Pole Vault: 2. Miller 7-0.
Shot Put: 1. Dani Crowell 32-10.75.
Discus: 2. Crowell 106-11.5.
High Jump: 1. Brianna West 4-10.
Boys Results unavailable.
Marshall thrower Dani Crowell was one of Marshall's athletes to step up to the challenge. She won the shot put with a personal best toss of 32 feet, 10.75 inches. She also threw a personal best 106-11.5 in the discus, missing out on first place by half of an inch.
Haley VanKeulen ran her best time of the year in the 800-meter run, winning the event in 2 minutes, 30 seconds. And although she didn't win, Rose Andersen shaved 10 seconds off of her time from Tuesday's TMB Panther Invite in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:46, which was good for third. She also got second place in the 3,200 run (12:34).
Marshall's 4x800 relay team ran its best time of the year (10:19) wo win the event. Marshall also got a first-place finish in the high jump, with Brianna West clearing the bar at 4-10.
Caitlyn Schaeffer took second in the triple jump with her leap of 33-8, which Sample said was more than a foot better than her previous best. Sydney Griffin took third in the event with a leap of 32-4, and she also took third in the long jump (14-11).
Beau Bofferding delivered a pair of first-place performances Thursday, leading the Marshall Tigers boys' high school track and field squad to a third-place finish in the team standings.
Willmar won the eight-team meet with 162.5 points, while Rocori was second with 137. Marshall took third place with 125.5 points, followed by St. Cloud Apollo (87), Redwood Valley (84), New London-Spicer (48), Central Minnesota Christian (30) and Community Christian (18).
Bofferding won both the 200-meter dash (22.9 seconds) and the 400-meter dash (50.44), while the Tigers' 4x400-meter relay team also finished first. Chad DeAustin, Tanner Bukowski, Hunter Peterson and Grant VanKeulen combined to run the eight laps in a winning time of 8 minutes, 31 seconds.
VanKeulen added a gold-medal result in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:04. DeAustin and Bukowski finished second and fourth, respectively, in the 1,600-meter run with times of 4:46 and 4:56.
Marshall's Andrew Bell was clocked at 10:20 to finish second in the 3,200-meter run, and the Tigers' 4x400-meter relay team was second with a time of 3:37.5.
Dallas Goslar placed eighth in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 18.06 seconds. Austin Leek was sixth in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet even.
Andre Kack (second, 43.5 feet) and Luke Bock (eighth, 38-2) turned in strong efforts in the shot put for Marshall, while Zachary Drum (second, 37-2) and Nathan DeRuyck (fifth, 35-10) were solid in the triple jump.
Peterson (sixth, 5-8) and Ryan Schultz (eighth, 5-6) rounded out the Tigers' highlight performances in the high jump event.
"We plugged a couple of new guys into the triple jump, and they both did a nice job," Marshall head coach Mike Jacobs said. "We had several bright spots, including good performances in the high jump, shot put, 400 and 3,200, as well. We went up against some good competition and had a good day overall."
Marshall will be back in action Tuesday, as the Tigers host a four-team meet.