Photos by Jake McNeill: Marshall’s Sam Deutz runs on the course at Benson Park in North Mankato during the Section 2AA cross country championship meet on Thursday.

NORTH MANKATO — Sam Deutz earned his fifth consecutive state cross country meet berth with a fourth-place finish at the Section 2AA boys cross country championships on Thursday. The Marshall senior placed fourth out of 76 individuals in the meet to earn one of six individual qualifier slots and lead the Marshall boys team to a third-place finish.

“I’ve been staying consistent, believing in the training and that’s where I’ve been at all season,” Deutz said. “[It feels] pretty good. I’m glad for how I did and I’m excited for state.”

Deutz ran a time of 16:20.9 in Thursday’s section championship, his fastest time since his 15:43.7 performance at the Lucky Lindy Invitational on Sept. 11.

While the time was slightly behind his 15:54.6 finish in his runner-up outing at last year’s section championship outing, he did what he needed to do in order to return to state and have the opportunity to close out his career with another All-State selection after a ninth-place finish in last year’s state meet.

“He’s been going [to state] since he was in eighth grade, but it was a gutsy race for Sam,” Marshall head coach Brian Leibfried said. “Hasn’t been 100% and he’s certainly not there yet, so for him to compete up there in the front and with guys who don’t have to deal with that is pretty impressive. It shows his heart. He was trying to compete for the team and help our team make it and do what he could in that regard, so I’m excited that he gets to do another race and help finish off his career at MHS cross country.”

Marshall entered this season as the reigning state champions, but Deutz was the lone returner from last year’s scoring members. Still, Deutz spent most of the year ranked as a top 10 individual in Class AA and his contributions helped Marshall work its way into the top 10 as a team at points.

In a crew full of fresh faces, the Tigers showed progress all season long. While Marshall was short on veterans, the team consistently put in the work to get better and it showed in the results over the course of the season.

“I’m extremely proud of this group. We’ve got a lot of senior leadership there,” Leibfried said, adding that injuries have hurt the team’s seniors’ ability to compete at points in the season, but that he was proud of the heart his team showed. “Our young guys have kind of found what it’s like to run varsity and complete. I thought we really stuck to our plan well to be in a spot where we were fighting for position to go to state with a young crew.”

As a team, Marshall finished with 86 points in the meet to place third, one spot ahead of Mankato West’s 108. Mankato East won the meet with 49 points while Belle Plaine was the runner-up to earn the other team state bid with 71 points.

Belle Plaine and Mankato East are always both consistently top-level programs that Marshall is always jostling with for position for a state meet qualification, Leibfried said, but Belle Plaine had four senior scorers and Marshall will look to put together some more tough battles against them in the coming years with its young crew continuing to develop.

Marshall’s depth showed after Deutz with three consecutive Tigers finishing in the late teens. Senior Aidan Schuerman placed 16th at 17:15.2 to close out his prep career, while seventh and eighth graders Noland Munson and Isaac Leibfried each set new personal records to place 17th and 18th.

Munson crossed the line at 17:15.9 on Thursday, beating his previous personal-best of 17:23.9 that he set a week prior at the Big South Championship. Leibfried also bested his own time from the conference meet, finishing the section championship at 17:22.7 to PR by seven seconds.

Freshman Charles Mueller-Thompson rounded out the Marshall scorers in 31st place, crossing the line at 18:01.9.

Also running for Marshall, Corbin Leibfried placed 35th at 18:15.2 while senior Mykel Paulsen placed 38th at 18:28.5.

Paulsen had battled with some ailments over the course of the season, coach Leibfried said, and he was proud of the way Paulsen closed out his prep career.

“Just to see him get out and grind it out to do the best he could, he’s a guy that’s done what we’ve asked him too all the time, both on the track side and the cross country side. He’s a team player,” coach Leibfreid said of Paulsen.

Leibfried also described Schuerman as a “utility guy” in the way that he helps the track team with his hurdling and sprinting ability, while also showing off the stamina as a consistent cross country scorer. While injuries derailed Schuerman’s junior year, he was able to put it all together in his senior season, compete in each race and was a key mentor to helping the Tigers’ young core assimilate to the varsity level, coach Leibfried said.

“He was the guy to help the young kids along, and was in the races encouraging he young kids to do what they could and stay with them,” coach Leibfried said. “I thought he was a really good mentor for those guys, so I’m definitely proud of that.”

Leibfried added that he was also proud of senior Brady Dubbs, who was unable to race on Thursday but was a valued presence on the team after just joining at the start of the season.

Deutz will finish off his prep career on Saturday, Nov. 1 at Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul at the Class AA championship meet. The boys race is slated to start at 12:15 p.m. Deutz said the goal is just to see what he can do, perform to the best of his ability and place as well as he can.