Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Zach Matzner sprints towards the finish line with Worthington’s Adam Koller during their meet on Monday. Matzner took first place.

MARSHALL – The Marshall boys and girls cross country teams held its annual home meet on Monday, with multiple area teams competing at Independence Park.

Girls

On the girls side, Marshall took first place with a score of 42 points, followed by Murray County Central in third (130), Canby/Minneota in fourth (140) and Wabasso in 11th (264). Lakeview and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton had incomplete teams.

For Marshall, Natalee Sample took second with a time of 19:12.1 while Jersey Leyson took fifth with a time of 19:24.5 and Bellamy Sukalski came in sixth with a time of 19:30.7. Kate Bucher took seventh with a time of 20:18.1 while Allyson Sample took 20th with a time of 21:55.9. Saphi McFarquhar took 43rd (24.11.4) while Adrienne Simpson took 45th with a time of 24:17.4 to round out the Tigers times.

Marshall girls coach Marie Sample said she was pleased with the way her runners performed overall.

“This is our only home meet, so they love to run here. It’s always fun, they get kind of excited but they also get kind of nervous. Their plan was to go out in a pack and go out a little slower, but they ended up going a little faster, so that pack kind of broke up a little bit,” coach Sample said. “I was really happy with the way they kept going; they kept the pace up even though they were falling off a little bit of each other.

Coach Sample said their biggest takeaway will be trying to close their pack of runners even tighter and continue to lower their times throughout the season.

“Our fifth, sixth and seventh runners all PR’d and had the fastest times of their careers,” coach Sample said. “We’ve got some work to do to cinch that pack together again, but we’ve got some super hard-working kids and they’re willing to do whatever you ask of them to do. Their times are really coming down in big chunks every meet, so we’ll see how long we can keep that going.”

For MCC, Morgan Gehl took home first place with a time of 18:45.6 while Ashley Overgaauw took 27th with a time of 22:28.9 and Amanda Overgaauw took 29th with a time of 22:30.3. Josie Harms took 34th with a time of 23:16.7 while Ryanna Schreier took 39th with a time of 23:43.5 and Elle Stapek took 41st with a time of 23:56.0. Khloe Gehl took 44th with a time of 24:13.5 to round out the Rebels times.

For C/M, Grace Drietz took second with a time of 19:06.0 while McKenzie Reuther took 23rd with a time of 22:01.5 and Faith Traen took 30th with a time of 22:32.0. Aidyn Bruns took 38th with a time of 23:43.2 while Kameron King took 47th with a time of 24:41.4 and Makenzie Hemish took 52nd with a time of 25:08.1. Sarah Hansen took 66th with a time of 26:31.5 to round out their times.

For Wabasso, Chloe Haven took 22nd with a time of 22:00.8 while Genna Rothmeier took 55th with a time of 25:18.4 and Maddie Hanna took 60th with a time of 25:35.2. Sarah Franta took 62nd with a time of 25:47.7 while Allison Parker took 65th with a time of 26:27.1 and Haley Albu took 68th with a time of 27:18.4. Aubrey Mathiowetz took 72nd with a time of 28:20.7 to round out the Rabbits times.

Boys

On the boys side, Marshall took third place with 75 points while Canby/Minneota took fifth (140), MCC took sixth (165), Lakeview took ninth (253) and Wabasso took 12th (341). TMB and YME had incomplete teams.

For Marshall, Zach Matzner took home first place for the second year in a row, finishing the course in 16:41.6. Quentin Blomme took fourth with a time of 17:24.8 while Jenson Meyer took 14th with a time of 17:54.8 and Karter Wasberg took 19th with a time of 18:09.9. Damian Caron took 37th with a time of 18:57.3 while Landon Wherry took 42nd with a time of 19:07 and Simon Zahrbock took 46th with a time of 19:15.4 to round out the Tigers times.

Marshall coach Brian Leibfried said he was pleased with his team’s ability to get out in front and maintain good position, especially from Matzner.

“Defending on our home course, I thought our guys went out to the front and got themselves in a really good position,” Leibfried said. “For some, that maybe have been a little uncomfortable with the training that we’ve been doing, but overall I know the guys have worked extremely hard and competed their best. Obviously, Zach had a great race with winning and it came right down to the wire, and I really thought the Worthington kid was going to take it, but Zach found another gear and was able to come away with it.”

Leibfried said their biggest takeaway will be having more of a balance with their Top 5 runners but felt good with their overall performance.

“We need to look to narrow that gap between our No. 1 and No. 5 runners, and once we do that, we’ll start to score a little bit better,” Leibfried said. “I think we were in reach of winning the meet and with everyone’s best day I think we could’ve done that, so you’ve got to feel good about that you’re right in the mix of things. We’re seeing some people come around with our seniors and our juniors were our pushers and overall I’m happy with their performance and I look forward to going on Thursday.”

For C/M, Jalyn Ufkin took 16th with a time of 17:59.8 while Blake Stoks took 21st with a time of 18:14.1 and Jared Josephson took 24th with a time of 18:19.2. Sean Dilley took 38th with a time of 18:59.0 while Alexander Full took 41st with a time of 19:07.0 and Nolan Harding took 43rd with a time of 19:08.3. Zachary Hansen took 48th with a time of 19:27.3 to round out their times.

For MCC, Justin Clarke took eighth with a time of 17:34.6 while Spencer Wajer took 34th with a time of 18:45.9 and Nathan Everson took 36th with a time of 18:54.9. Jack Pierson took 40th with a time of 19:05.8 while Maverick Beckmann took 47th with 19:24.7 and Josh Lemke took 52nd with a time of 19:52.5. Simon Spittle took 59th with a time of 21:07.7 to round out the Rebels times.

For Lakeview, Ben Louwagie took 31st with a time of 18:41.6 while Noah Schmidt took 44th with a time of 19:10.5 and Andrew Loe took 53rd with a time of 19:55.6. Ethan Schwankl took 55th with a time of 20:11.6 while Cole Remiger took 70th with a time of 22:16.1 and Brock Bossuyt took 78th with a time of 24:58.0 to round out the Lakers times.

For Wabasso, Vander Mathiowetz took 61st with a time of 21:09.2 while Alex Schmiesing took 64th with a time of 21:16.7 and Ti Trost took 71st with a time of 22:38.4. Noah Arends took 72nd with a time of 22:48.6 while Jonathon Donner took 73rd with a time of 23:13.7 and Nicholas Irlbeck took 76th with a time of 23:54.5. Jacob Doyle took 79th with a time of 26:57.0 to round out the Rabbits times.