Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Kaia Sueker signs her National Letter of Intent to compete in cross country and track and field at the University of Mary on Wednesday.

MARSHALL – For thousands of high school athletes around the country, the time to officially announce where the next chapter of their careers arrived on Wednesday morning, and a pair of Marshall Tigers were among that group.

Surrounded by their family, friends, teammates and coaches, seniors Olivia Peterson and Kaia Sueker both signed their National Letters of Intent in the high school gymnasium, with Peterson playing golf at St. Cloud State University and Sueker competing in cross country and track and field at the University of Mary.

For Peterson, it’s exciting to finally have things figured out where she’ll be spending the next chapter of her academic and athletic career.

“It’s awesome; it’s just good to know that I have it all figured out,” Peterson said. “I’m really excited to go play golf and continue my education up there and be a Husky.”

The past few years, Peterson has helped lead the way for the Tigers on both the ice and the course, guiding Marshall to state appearances last season in both sports, including a runner-up finish in golf.

Peterson said there were a couple of factors that led her to St. Cloud, including her family members and what she wanted to study.

“Both of my parents went there, so I was kind of looking at that for that, and they also have a really good business school,” Peterson said. “I’m going into accounting so that’s something I was looking for, and also it’s just a great location. Not too far from home but also a good distance and it seems like a good school.”

Peterson added her coaches and teammates have had a big impact on her and she’s thankful of the opportunities she’s had with them.

“It’s just been a really great atmosphere as a team and with the coaches and we all just seem to get along really well,” Peterson said. “I’ll miss them, but I’m very thankful for the opportunities I’ve had to succeed with them.”

Peterson said the biggest takeaway she can take from her time at Marshall is the ability to work hard and be a good teammate.

“I think just working hard and being a good teammate,” Peterson said. “Those are two things that I’ve learned from my sports here at MHS and I’m excited to see how that works out up at St. Cloud.”

Before she heads up to St. Cloud, Peterson still has one more spring with the Tigers. She said she’s excited to have another opportunity to reach the state meet and see what they can do as a team.

“We’re really excited; we lost a few seniors last year, but I think some of the younger girls will be able to step up and fill their roles,” Peterson said. “I’m really excited to see what we can do as a team and get back to that state meet and hopefully get another medal.”

Meanwhile, Sueker is looking forward to getting to U-Mary and start to get to know her teammates and coaches more.

“It’s really exciting,” Sueker said. “I’m looking forward to just being up there and being with my teammates and having a lot of fun, so I’m really excited.”

Sueker has been an instrumental part to much of the Tigers’ success on the court, track and course throughout her time at MHS. She attributed that to the impact that her coaches and teammates have had on her.

“They’ve made such a big impact on me,” Sueker said. “They’ve just always been there for me through athletics, academics, everything. I’m just thankful to have them by my side as coaches.”

Sueker said when she visited the campus, she liked the atmosphere and felt she fit in well with the team. She’s also hoping to major in speech pathology.

“When I visited there, I really loved the campus and when I met the team, they were awesome and seemed like a great group of girls that I’d like to be with,” Sueker said. “Also, they have speech pathology, and that’s what I’m looking to major in.”

Before she does that, though, Sueker still has one more season on the court with the girls basketball team as well as a final spring on the track. She said she’s looking forward to just spending quality time with her teammates during the last part of her high school career.

“I’m just looking forward to spending that last time with my teammates and just having a great time with them,” Sueker said.