Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall freshman Katelyn Leibfried runs up a hill on the first lap of the Section 2AA cross country meet at Benson Park in North Mankato on Thursday afternoon.

NORTH MANKATO — The No. 2 Marshall girls cross country team didn’t leave much suspense in the Section 2AA championship meet at Benson Park on Thursday night. The Tigers put all of their seven runners in the top 16 places and beat the runner-up Hutchinson Tigers by 50 points to qualify yet again for next week’s Class AA state championship meet.

The Tigers were thankful to be healthy heading into the meet this year after battling illness last year, head coach Marie Sample said. She added that she felt this was a meet in which the team needed to perform to the best of its ability and she felt the girls did exactly that.

“We ran well as a team. The thing that makes these guys so competitive is that they’re really in it for each other. You can see that in their eyes if you watch them warm up, if you watch them on the starting line, coming to practice and spending some time with them. They’re in it for each other,” coach Sample said. She added that she’s glad that they also got to watch the Marshall boys team qualify for states with a runner-up finish at the meet, marking the first time in her 13-year tenure with the Tigers that both the boys and girls have qualified together.

As a team, Marshall finished with 38 points while Hutchinson placed second at 88. St. Peter rounded out the podium of the 11-team race at 104 points.

Leading off for Marshall was Allyson Sample, the No. 4 runner in Class AA. Her time of 18:44.1 put her in second place. Only Hutchinson’s Isabelle Schmitz, the No. 1 runner in the class, finished ahead of her at 18:20.2.

The course was wet and muddy, particularly for the girls race since the boys had gone first. Yet, that didn’t stop Katelyn Leibfried and Oakley Schneekloth from running particularly fast times.

“It was true cross country today. We had two loops of mud, a couple of little hills out there. The finish line was muddy, the straightaway to the finish line was muddy… those two young ladies [Leibfried and Schneekloth] are starting to grow into themselves and realize, ‘hey, we can do this. We can be fast, we can be elite, we can really push through this and really contribute and be some of the best runners,” coach Sample said. She added that the two are looking to see how close they can get to the top 20 or 25 at the state meet.

Leibfried placed fifth in the meet at 19:08.5 for her best time of the season and her second-best time of her career behind a 19:05.7 performance as an eighth grader at the Mankato East Invitational at Benson Park last year.

“I was just trying to stay with Ally as often as I could, and the rest of my team, and just try to pack up,” Leibfried said.

Schneekloth, an eighth grader, finished right behind her in sixth place. Her time of 19:26.7 was just 0.4 seconds shy of her personal best time at the Alexandria Lions Meet on Oct. 7.

“It feels really good [to medal as an eighth-grader]. I don’t think I would have been able to do it without the team. I think the team plays a really big part in it,” Schneekloth said.

Packing up just outside the top 10, Anna Kuecker, Cameen MCFarquhar and Taleigha Bigler took 12, 13th and 14th place to round out the Marshall scorers. Kuecker led the pack at 19:59.9 while McFarquhar and Bigler crossed the line at 20:01.1 and 20:07.8.

While only the top five runners score, that didn’t stop Marshall’s No. 7 runner from still putting forth a top time. Landrey Graven finished the race at 10:18.1 to place 16th in the 75-runner field.

The win marks the Tigers’ fifth consecutive section title. The last time they fell short was 2017 when they fell short against Willmar 53-50. Still, their runner-up finish qualified them for states that season.

Marshall will now contend for a state championship at Les Bolstadt Golf Course at the University of Minnesota on Saturday, Nov. 4. This is the first year that the event will have an admission charge after being moved from St. Olaf.

“It’s going to be a dogfight. We’re going to need everybody firing on all cylinders,” coach Sample said. “Both teams are super strong, [No. 1] Alexandria and [No. 3 St. Paul] Highland Park, and they’re ready and want a championship just as bad as we do. But what I tell the girls is I really believe in our training.

“What we’re doing out there, the proof is in the pudding today because you went out and you nailed it exactly how we planned it today. Now we’ve just got to do it one more time. If you show up like this on Saturday, tapered. We’re going to rest, we’re going to mental prep, we’re going to get our goals set… They should be tapered in peak and run their best race.”