Photo by Chris Drummond: Marshall’s Allyson Sample competes in the 3200-meter run at the Class AA meet at St. Michael-Albertville High School on Friday morning. The junior ran a time of 10:59.69 to place third in the event.

ST. MICHAEL — Day one of the Class AA state tournament kicked off with the only non-preliminary running event, the 3200-meter run. Competing for Marshall in the girls race was Allyson Sample, who placed third in her first event as an individual at the state meet.

The race started off in a crowd as the girls were trying to position themselves throughout the race. Sample started to make a late run because she realized it now or never.

“Once I got through the first mile, then I realized I have to go for it,” Allyson Sample said. “I couldn’t wait until the last 100 meters, had to go now and tried to get as close to the second girl as possible but she was a little bit out of reach.”

Allyson Sample was seventh with two laps to go and kicked into high gear, going from seventh to third, where she would finish the race with a time of 10:59.69. Her finish was a new personal record and put her 1.49 seconds back of runner-up Olivia Goebel of Albany. Hutchinson’s Isabelle Schmitz won the race in 10:43.68.

“I was super excited how this worked out,” Marie Sample said of Allyson’s performance. “She was really hoping to be top three and she got it. She wanted to be under 11 minutes and she did that. As a coach, I am really proud of her. She is doing all the little things to be healthy and perform well for big events like this. She’s getting ready now for the 4×800 relay and planning on things to get ready for tomorrow. I understand the work it takes to do what she does. It is not easy. Takes a lot of dedication, effort and discipline doing the little things. I was so proud of her for setting goals and accomplishing them. This is a great group of kids and we are thankful for all these people.”

Allyson Sample’s performance earned the Tiger girls 8 points as a team, putting them in a tie with Bloomington Kennedy, Plainview-Elgin-Millville and St. Paul Academy and Summit School for 10th place through four final events after day one. Rocori leads the field with 19 points and Cloquet is second with 14.5.

In her 800-meter preliminary race, Taleigha Bigler finished in second place to qualify for today’s final and set a new school record of 2:16.81. The school’s record was previously held by Natalee Sample.

Jordan’s Kendra Krueger won the 800-meter heat in 2:13.05.

The Tigers 4×400-meter relay team finished sixth out of nine teams with a time of 4:04.80. The relay team consisted of Brianna Simpson, Taleigha Bigler, Katelyn Leibfried and Peyton Boeck and qualified for today’s final.

The Marshall athletes qualifying for the Class AA finals will compete again today at St. Michael-Albertville High School with events starting at 9 a.m.