Photo by Jake McNeill Marshall senior Allyson Sample signs her letter of intent in Marshall High School on Wednesday morning to run cross country for the Augustana Vikings next year.

MARSHALL — Allyson Sample, a senior on the Marshall cross country team, signed her letter of intent at Marshall High School on Wednesday morning to compete for the Augustana Vikings next year.

Sample cut 21 seconds off her time this year to set a personal-best time in the 5k of 18:12 at the Big South Championship meet. She also finished as the individual runner-up at the Tigers’ section meet and finished in third at the state meet.

Still, she consistently emphasized the importance of team goals over individual success throughout the season. The Tigers captured those team goals, winning the conference, section and capturing the first state title in program history at the Class AA meet in at Les Bolstad Golf Course.

Sample’s first season with the Tigers was in 2018, during which she ran a season-best time of 19:51 as a seventh grader. She has only steadily improved since then, helping Marshall to a fourth-place finish at states as a sophomore and a third-place finish as a junior before leading this season’s state championship team.

Augustana placed second at this year’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship meet and at the NCAA Central Regionals.