‘They’re believing it and they’re chasing it’

Marshall girls, boys place top-5 at Lions Invite

ALEXANDRIA -- Allyson Sample placed in the top 10 out of 168 runners at the Lions Cross Country Invitational at Arrowwood Resort on Saturday afternoon, leading the No. 2 Marshall girls team to a fourth-place finish in the 25-team meet. The finish marks the team's best mark at the meet during head coach Marie Sample's tenure with the team.

The Tigers finished with 164 points, edging out No. 1 St. Paul-Highland Park by 6 points. Still, they came up short of catching No. 1 Alexandria, who won the meet with 137 points. 

Marshall had competed in a meet against Highland Park once before this year, falling just shy, but placing ahead of them was something the team had been working toward, coach Sample said. Alexandria, however, the Tigers had not seen this year.

"With those teams being so close, anything can happen," Sample said. "One of our runners has a bad day or is sick or whatever and it flip flops, so it was great to compete against them. It was great to see that we could beat Highland Park and get close to Alex. I do feel like if we're firing on all sylinders and everybody has a good day, I do feel like Alex is reasonable and I think our team does too."

Class A No. 1 St. Cloud Cathedral placed second with 154 points while Class AAA No. 6 Edina took third place at 159.

As an individual, Allyson Sample placed sixth in the meet with a personal-best time of 18:32.7. Her time put her four seconds back of Highland Park's Grace Lewis-Mosher and four seconds ahead of Willmar's Lauren Eilers. Coach Sample said that Allyson still believes she can put together even faster times before the end of the season, as can the rest of the group.

Staples-Motley sophomore Audrey Brownell won the meet at 18:14 while another sophomore, Isabell Mahoney of Monticello, took second at 18:18. 

Sample wasn't the only Tiger to finish near the top of the loaded field. Oakley Schneekloth and Katelyn Leibfried placed 25th and 27th respectively, crossing the finish line at 19:26 and 19:35. Willmar's Sophia Negan split up the duo at 19:28.

"They're really working to stay up there with Ally and we need that," coach Sample said. "I told them that by the end of the season, if you guys can all be top 10 or close to it, you guys are going to be hard to beat... They're believing it and they're chasing it." 

Taleigha Bigler and Cameen McFarquhar rounded out the Marshall scorers in 51st and 55th place. Bigler finished at 20:09.3, clocking in at the exact same time as Perham's Caidyn Breid and St. Cloud Cathedral's Cecilia Jamison. McFarquhar crossed the line at 20:15.2.

Though not scoring for the Tigers, eighth-grader Landrey Graven and freshman Avery Schneekloth also put together quality races, placing 80th and 81st at 20:47 and 20:49.

Marshall will wrap up its regular season on Wednesday at Benson Park at 3:15 p.m. From there, it will prepare to host the Big South Conference Meet on Tuesday. 

Ahead of the meet, coach Sample said that the focus for her team is on the small things like rest, nutrition and remaining mentally focused and positive.

"Something as simple as just filling your brain with positive information. Like if you're going to spend any time on your phone, be reading positive quotes. If your teammate's down a little bit one day, then let's pull up our teammates," coach Sample said, adding that there is plenty going on behind the scenes that goes beyond just running that plays a major role in the team's race-day performance. 

"It's a hard, grueling sport. It's hard to do that every meet and show up, especially at these big meets, especially as young as some of these kids are. That's why team mentality is so important."

Marshall boys place fifth at Invite

ALEXANDRIA -- Sam Deutz, Josh Leibfried and Keagen Anderson each placed in the top-30 of the 166-runner Lion Cross Country Invitational at Arrowwood Resort on Saturday afternoon to help the No. 3 Marshall boys team to a fifth-place finish at the meet. 

The Tigers finished with a team score of 162, putting them 10 points ahead of No. 4 Perham and just 2 points back of White Bear Lake.

Class AAA No. 4 Edina won the meet with 93 points while No. 6 Stillwater and No. 5 Mounds View rounded out the podium with 112 points each. 

Deutz placed 14th in the meet for the Tigers at 16:15.8, putting him 0.6 seconds back of Stillwater's Dylan Riniker for 13th. Leibfried finished at 16:33 to take 23rd place while Anderson placed 28th at 16:38.9.

Anderson's time put him in a tie with Willmar's Fathi Dubet and Perham's Carter Flatau. He also finished 0.3 seconds back of Edina's Torger Ohe.

Roseville's Robert Mechura won the meet at 15:06.0 while Chaska's Nolan Sutter and Perham's Anderson Bjorn placed second and third at 15:10 and 15:25.

Kohen Holcomb and Chase Werner placed 47th and 52nd to round out the Marshall scorers. Holcomb crossed the line at 16:58 while Werner finished at 17:01.

Landon Marthaler also placed 65th for the Tigers at 17:15.

Marshall will compete at Benson Park on Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. before returning to Marshall to host the Big South Conference Meet on Tuesday.