Photo by Jake McNeill Chase Werner (center) prepares to sign his letter of intent to run at the collegiate level with the University of Minnesota Crookston next year in the Marshall High School gym on Friday morning. Alongside him (left to right) are his brother Colton, his father Casey, his mother Amber and his brother Cayden.

MARSHALL — Chase Werner signed his letter of intent at Marshall High School on Friday morning to compete for the Minnesota Crookston cross country and track teams next year. Werner said that many factors contributed to his decision but that the general atmosphere of the university and the program were chief among them. 

“I’m excited to go onto this new chapter. It’s going to be fun,” Werner said.

After coming into his senior year with a personal-best 5,000-meter time of 18:17, Werner had a breakout season in which his times topped out at 16:47 in the Big South Conference Meet at Marshall Golf Club.

Werner was the Tigers’ fifth scorer at the Section 2AA Championship, helping Marshall to a runner-up finish and a state meet qualification, and placed sixth for the third-place Tigers in the Class AA state meet. 

Werner intends to study software engineering when he heads up to Crookston in the fall, saying that he made his decision based on his natural inclination toward math and video games.