Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall's Katelyn Leibfried (left) and Murphy look at each other’s medals as they stand on the podium after placing fourth and fifth in the Section 2AA girls cross country championship meet.

NORTH MANKATO — While the Marshall girls cross country team wasn’t able to extend its streak of team state meet qualifications, the Tigers still earned a pair of individual bids to the state meet at Thursday’s Section 2AA championships at Benson Park. Katelyn Leibfried and Jasmine Murphy each placed in the top five of Thursday’s race to return to the state meet as individuals.

“It means a lot to be able to go together,” Leibfried said, with Murphy adding that she was “just so happy that we get to go with each other, it’s so much better this way.”

Leibfried has battled through injuries all season. The team rested Leibfried for multiple weeks as she tried to heal an ankle sprain, but Leibfried wanted to return early to help her team at the section meet, Marshall head coach Marie Sample said.

“Katelyn’s a very unselfish person… She’s choosing to work through and push hard for her team,” Sample said. “She went out and she knew that she needed to run well and run up in the top to help her team succeed, and she gave it everything that she had to make her team go. I think she’s a little disappointed that her team isn’t going… because she’s gone to state every year with her team, and that’s a fun group of cross country kids, so it’s bittersweet, but I’m sure she’s excited that she gets to go.”

Leibfried ran a time of 19:26.2 on Thursday to place fourth in the section meet. The performance marked the junior’s fifth consecutive season placing in the top 10 in the section meet and her third time placing in the top 5.

The time was also a four-second improvement from her previous season-best time that she set at the Big South Championship on Oct. 14, and was her best time since her 19:18.5 mark that she set at last year’s state meet to earn a 22nd-place finish.

“[My previous years with this team at the state meet] just made me such a way better person. I wouldn’t be where I am without my teammates,” Leibfried said. “They’re like the best people I know, and we’re just like such a good family.”

“She’s so resilient, very unselfish team player,” Sample said of Sample. “I hope some of Katelyn bleeds out onto the others. And it has, but I hope it continues, because she’s just a great kid. Full of perseverance and determination, but very, very, very unselfish… I would take five Katelyns any day.”

Murphy, in her second season with the team, was right behind Leibfried in fifth place at 19:37.6. Her finishing time was a 40-second improvement from her 14th-place finish as a seventh grader at last year’s section championship meet.

“My team’s been a big help in just getting me through any of the troubles I had along the way,” Murphy said when asked about the keys to her performance.

Murphy was feeling unwell at school earlier in the day, Sample said, and the team was unsure of whether it was illness or nerves about the meet. It turned out to be the latter, and those nerves melted away as soon as Murphy got to the starting line and got off to the races.

“Once she got about a mile into the race, she’s like ,’Nope, I’m going to fight through this,’ and she decided to push through to get to that top five,” Sample said. “She’s a good leader, even though she’s young, so I’m looking forward to working with her and her sister going forward. I’ve known those two since they were little and lived across the street from us. I’m just glad that they’re on our team.”

Marshall finished fourth as a team in the meet with a score of 87 points, 8 points behind third-place Mankato West and 28 points ahead of fifth-place Jordan. St. Peter and Mankato East earned the team qualification slots with 46 and 58 points, respectively.

Sample has coached the Tigers for 14 seasons. After missing the state meet in her first season, in which Marshall placed third at the section meet, Marshall had gone to the state meet every season since (except for the 2020 season, in which there was no state meet due to COVID-19) until this year.

“I hope this gives them a little bit of fuel,” Sample said. “Like okay, I see you know, we’ve got to work a little harder… but we’re willing to take that extra step to get to that level again… Their future is bright. I’m excited for them. Effort today was good, we’ve just got to do some little things, and all the little things really add up to big things that make it so we can go to the state tournament.”

With no seniors on the roster, Marshall can return its full team next season. Leibfried, a junior, is the lone upperclassman while the remainder of the roster is made up of middle schoolers, freshmen and sophomores.

The Tigers can also return Landrey Graven for her junior season after she was unable to compete for the team this year. Graven was a part of the Tigers’ 2023 state championship team and brings additional leadership for the group, Sample said.

Sophomore Claire Kruse was Marshall’s No. 3 runner in the meet, placing 21st in the field of 68 runners with a time of 20:20.3. Shortly thereafter, Shyann Murphy and Kaitlyn Soupir crossed the line consecutively in 28th and 29th to round out the Marshall scorers.

Shyann Murphy, an eighth grader, set a new personal best with a time of 21:06.8 to break her previous high-water mark by 19 seconds. Soupir finished at 21:14.2.

Madysson Hasert and Jenna Sanders also ran in the meet for Marshall, finishing at 22:01.2 for 40th place and 22:38.8 for 47th place, respectively.

Leibfried and Jasmine Murphy will continue to prepare for the state championship meet, which will be held at the University of Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul on Saturday, Nov. 1. The Class AA girls meet is slated to begin at 1 p.m. While both Leibfried and Murphy have the opportunity to head home with hardware, the next week isn’t just about the numbers on the clock at the finish line.

“[I’m most excited about] just being together more and having fun,” Murphy said of the state meet.