Photo by Brian Leibfried: Marshall’s Claire Kruse runs down the course at Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul on Saturday as part of the Roy Griak Invitational. The Marshall girls cross country team placed 38th out of 45 teams in the event while the boys team placed 44th.

ST. PAUL — The Marshall cross country teams traveled to Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul, the site of the state tournament meet, to take on the Roy Griak Invitational over the weekend. The Tigers have had many a recent win on the course, with the girls team winning the state title in 2023 and the boys in 2024, but the girls finished 38th out of 45 teams this time around while the boys finished 44th.

The team went into the race with some soreness and illness issues, boys head coach Brian Leibfried said, adding that they knew going into the meet that it would be a challenge given the field comprising of top teams from across the midwest. Still, he felt it was a positive experience as it gave the team a quality workout with championship-level competition that can’t be simulated just anywhere.

The Marshall girls finished with a total of 956 points as a team, sandwiching them between Liberty North’s 1026 and White Bear Lake Area’s 922. Wayzata won the girls meet with 106 points, followed by Pella (Iowa) at 148 and Sioux Falls Christian (S.D.) at 176.

On the boys side, Marshall’s 1,068 points put them just ahead of Annandale’s 1,158 and behind Trinity Academy’s 1,048. Sioux Falls Lincoln (S.D.), Summit (Colo.) and Liberty North (Mo.) took the top three spots in the meet at 161, 185 and 230.

Sam Deutz was the top Marshall individual in the event, placing 45th in the boys meet at 16:56.4. On the girls side, Jasmine Murphy led the way in 137th at 21:24.2.

Sophomore Claire Kruse also placed 160th in the field of more than 400 girls runners at 21:40.7, followed by Katelyn Leibfried in 166th at 21:46.3, Kaitlyn Soupir in 275th at 23:01.0and Brooklyn Purrington rounding out the girls scorers in 379th at 25:32.9.

On the boys side, Aidan Schuerman was Marshall’s No. 2 in 262nd at 18:46.4 while Charles Mueller-Thompson was the Tigers’ No. 3 at 18:54.4 to place 281st.

Noland Munson also placed 319th at 19:11.3 while Isaac Leibfried rounded out the boys scorers at 19:17.7, placing 331st out of 446 runners.

Marshall next sends its boys team to compete at Redwood Falls on Thursday.