MINNETRISTA — The No. 2 Marshall girls cross country team dominated the field at the Gale Woods-Minnetrista Invitational on Thursday night, putting four runners in the top 13 to cruise to a first-place finish out of 10 qualifying teams.

“These kids work really hard. They worked really hard over the summer, building base and actually building their team chemistry. They all met and practiced together and every single runner that we have actually did the summer running,” Marshall head coach Marie Sample said when asked about the team’s depth, adding that the summer training isn’t mandatory. “They know how to work hard and they’re doing it because they’re working really hard for each other, so it’s not for selfish reasons.

“They’re very into this team concept of we want to do really well together as a team this year, it’s not about individual performances.”

Allyson Sample, the No. 4 ranked individual in Class AA, led the barrage of Tigers with a fifth-place finish at 19:11.44. Oakley Schneekloth also put together a top-10 finish, crossing the line in 19:53 for ninth place. Chanhassen’s Marissa Long won the meet at 18:29.37.

“Sydney Drevlow was ranked I think number one in AAA and Ally got in front of her today. And Ally didn’t run her fastest time of the season but I was really happy with how she ran as far as what our training is,” coach Sample said of Allyson’s performance. “Even though her time wasn’t a PR [personal record] for the season, she got in front of some really tough competitors.”

Coach Sample added that she was proud of the team as a whole for racing on tired legs, as the race marked their third meet in nine days.

Marshall put together a team score of 56, blowing out runner-up Chaska by 42 points. Hopkins finished third with 99 points.

Just outside of the top 10, Katelyn Leibfried and Taleigha Bigler placed 13th and 14th at 20:11.06 and 20.14.49. Cameen McFarquhar rounded out the Marshall scorers in 22nd out of 85 finishers at 20:33.10

The Tigers will have a week to prepare and train before their next race at Crown College on Thursday at 4 p.m.

Marshall boys

MINNETRISTA — Sam Deutz put together a top-10 performance to lead the No. 3 Marshall boys cross country team to third place out of 12 qualifying teams at the Bauman/Rovn Hopkins Cross Country Invitational Thursday night.

“We’re very happy with what we saw today. With today’s third-place finish, it was the highest overall finish for us at this meet since we started going in 2017,” Marshall head coach Brian Leibfried said. “Our goal was to get five people in the top 25 and that’s exactly what happened. We challenged from the beginning and had a nice front group at the 1200-meter mark and were able to maintain our positions for the most part.

Deutz completed the 5k in 16:33.73, good for ninth place. Sam Scott of Minneapolis Southwest won the meet in 15:03.

The Tigers finished with a team total of 97 points, putting them 18 points ahead of fourth-place Hopkins. Eden Prairie won with 57 points while Minneapolis Southwest finished as the team runner-up with 69 points.

Kohen Holcomb and Keagen Anderson finished in quick succession of each other. Holcomb placed 19th at 7:10.73 while Anderson finished at 7:11.06.

Shortly later, Landon Marthaler and Chase Werner rounded out the Marshall scorers at 24th and 25th place. The duo crossed the line in less than a second of each other, with Marthaler finishing in 17:17.40 and Werner finishing in 17:17.64.

“The Gale Woods course is challenging and to have our times where they were today with this being our third meet in 10 days is very promising,” Leibfried said. “We’ll continue to work on our pack mentality and remind the boys that the mixing up of places among the team shows strength.”

Josh Leibfried also put together a fast time on the day, placing 31st out of 102 finishers at 17:31.01.

Marshall will take a week to recover before it next races at Crown College on Thursday at 4 p.m.