Photos by Jake McNeill: The Marshall girls (black) and boys (orange) cross country teams pose with their first-place plaques after winning the Big South Conference Meet. The win marked the girls’ 12th consecutive victory and the boys’ second in a row.

MARSHALL — There were some familiar faces taking home hardware at the Big South Conference Meet at Marshall Golf Course on Tuesday afternoon. Marshall won both the girls and boys large school championships. The wins marked back-to-back conference titles for the boys and 12 in a row for the girls.

“It’s been a lot of hard work. The kids put in a ton of work for this and they’re seeing the benefits of that work,” Marshall boys head coach Brian Leibfried said. “They’re working for each other and the thing that happens, you know, both sides [boys and girls]. It’s fun, they’re encouraging each other and kind of rallying with each other.”

For the girls team, Allyson Sample led the pack as the large schools individual champion. Her time of 18:12 put her 31 seconds ahead of the next closest large schools finisher. The large and small schools run simultaneously but with separate results, so the only runner with a faster time than Sample was Luverne’s Jenna DeBates, who ran 18:07 in the small schools division.

“It’s really cool and really fun, especially to get it as a team because we work really hard together,” Sample said of the individual and team wins. “It’s fun to train with each other all year long and this is the time that we’re waiting for conference, sections and state. So just looking forward to sections having got a confidence boost here.”

Sample’s large schools individual title comes a year after she finished as the large school’s runner-up behind St. Peter’s Macy Hanson. Sample ran a time of 18:52 to edge out DeBates by four seconds at Cedarcreek Park while Hanson won at 18:33.

Marshall’s Allyson Sample runs down the finishing chute at the Big South Conference Meet on Tuesday afternoon at Marshall Golf Club. Sample was the top finisher in the large schools division.

As a team, the Tiger girls scored 24 points to beat out runner-up St. Peter by 31 points. Marshall put seven runners in the top 11 spots.

Marshall girls coach Marie Sample said that after the race, someone showed her a video of Allyson finishing. She hasn’t seen Allyson finish live in years because she’s out on the course cheering on the remaining runners, something she said is key to the team’s success.

“That’s why our team is good is because it’s a team-centered atmosphere. So to have seven runners in the top 11 like that — I believe everybody PR’d, they ran their fastest time of the season — I mean, wow. That’s credit to them for sticking with it, believing in what they’re doing, showing up and doing hard work,” coach Sample said.

Inclement weather last week had the girls team finding new ways to train, such as an indoor practice in the YMCA pool, but this is a team that’s willing to do whatever it takes to train and get better, coach Sample said.

“It’s a beautiful thing when I go to the starting line before the meets, they’re gathered, they’ve got their arms wrapped around each other, and you can tell they’re in it for each other,” coach Sample said. “There’s not a lot of nervousness there even though they’ve got big goals because it doesn’t all fall on one person.”

Waseca took home the bronze with 68 points while Fairmont and Worthington placed fourth and fifth respectively in the big schools division.

Keira Friedrich of St. Peter and Hanson took second and third in the girls race before Katelyn Leibfried, Oakley Schneekloth and Taleigha Bigler took the next three spots for Marshall. Leibfried crossed the line at 19:19 while Schneekloth and Bigler finished at 19:31 and 19:36 respectively.

After St. Peter’s Lucia Penner took seventh place for the last All-Conference spot, Anna Kuecker and Cameen McFarquhar finished as the top two honorable mentions at 19:50 and 19:52. Shortly thereafter, Landrey Graven also crossed the line for Marshall at 20:04.

Marshall runners were particularly effective in their ability to stay together as a pack for much of the race. Leibfried, Oakley Schneekloth and Bigler stayed with Sample for much of the early race while Kuecker, McFarquhar and Graven formed another pack shortly behind them.

“There’s energy in the pack,” coach Sample said, adding that the team typically finds its packs mid-season in practice and carries it into race day. She added that she also likes to join the packs on easy days in practice because of the energy there.

“I just get sucked into that energy too, it’s such a wonderful thing, and it ultimately helps them train faster, helps them be faster, helps them race faster and helps when they see those times and they see what they’re hitting at practice and now at meets like this,” coach Sample said. “They’re like, ‘Okay, this works,’ and they believe in it. They believe in the training, they believe in each other and it’s a lot of fun when this happens.”

In the boys race, Josh Leibfried and Sam Deutz led a group of four All-Conference selections for the Tiger boys team. Leibfried finished as the individual runner-up at 16:16 while Deutz took third place at 16:21. The team had hoped Deutz and Leibfried would be able to stay together throughout the race and they did just that, coach Leibfried said. Worthington’s Fanuel Wolday, the No. 5 individual runner in Class AA, won the meet at 16:00.

“It feels pretty great. We’ve been working with our team all summer and it’s just a great accomplishment to have as a whole team,” Josh Leibfried said.

Marshall’s Josh Leibfried reacts as he crosses the finish line for a second-place finish among large schools at the Big South Conference meet at Marshall Golf Club on Tuesday afternoon.

Coach Leibfried said that the team had a big workout on Saturday that he was unsure of how the team would respond to. Yet, they came out of the gates on Tuesday and ran away with the victory.

“We’ve been talking like a different person steps up each time and certainly had that again today,” coach Leibfried said. “It’s nice because, overall as a team, we’re competing very well and getting the results we need as a team and it was a super effort today.”

St. Peter’s Alexander Bur took fourth and Waseca’s Isaac Feldkamp took fifth, but Marshall had four consecutive runners from there. Landon Marthaler and Chase Werner took home All-Conference honors at 16:40 and 16:46 while Kohen Holcomb and Keagen Anderson each were honorable mentions at 16:59 and 17:05. Werner’s time was a big step up, coach Leibfried noted, as it was his first time breaking the 17-minute barrier.

Ethan Bly’s 12th-place finish for Marshall didn’t count towards the Tigers team score but did help displace other team’s runners. His time of 17:10 put him ahead of runner-up Worthington’s No. 3 runner and every other team’s No. 2.

As a team, the Marshall boys finished with 26 points to blow out runner-up Worthington’s 64 points. Fairmont rounded out the podium at 79 points while St. Peter and Waseca were fourth and fifth in the large schools division.

“Going into the race, we were expecting to win,” Deutz said. “I think we’re doing really well. Finally on the coaches poll they put us at number two and I think next week at sections we can definitely hang with [top-ranked Mankato] East and hopefully beat them and be number one.”

Both the boys and girls teams have steadily improved throughout the season. Now, both teams are ranked No. 2 in the latest Class AA coaches poll. They’ll look to continue to try to build up as they prepare for the section championship meet — and potentially beyond. While the teams have high hopes, all the focus now is on sections at Benson Park on Oct. 26.

“We’re focused on sections… We’re hoping to win state as a team this year. We’ve been working for so many years to try to get it done, but we’re really hoping to get it done this year,” Allyson Sample said.

Coach Sample said that she feels her team is peaking at the right time to make a run at its first state title, particularly due to its depth.

“It’s an endurance sport, we want to be at our best in championship season,” coach Sample said. “We have three senior girls who have been with us since seventh grade and this is their sixth year [Sample, Kuecker and McFarquhar] and the other young girls that are around them want to get it done for that group of people this year. So there’s a sense of urgency… Marshall girls cross country has never won a state championship and we can feel it right now. So if things progress as we are, we’re able to keep healthy, stay healthy and keep running for each other, something bigger than ourselves and not individuals, we can get that championship this year.”

While the Tigers typically just have one meet a year, they were fortunate to host the conference championship this year as well. Both coaches noted the community support the team had received leading up to its conference championship.

“There’s a lot of people that came out to support the team today that maybe haven’t ever been to a cross country meet before,” coach Leibfried said. “They’ve been following the team all year, both sides, and it’s really exciting. There’s a buzz in town with people checking in on the kids and it makes it exciting for us since cross country is sometimes a sport that’s not in the limelight but things have been going well and I’m really happy for the kids that they get to experience that.”

The girls will race first at next Thursday’s section meet, with the gun going off at 3 p.m., and the boys race will start an hour later at 4 p.m.