Photos by Brian Leibfried Marshall senior Sam Deutz (388) competes in the Class AA boys cross country championships at Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul on Saturday. Deutz placed 27th in the race to close out his high school career.

ST. PAUL — Sam Deutz, Jasmine Murphy and Kaitlyn Leibfried each placed within the top 40 of the cross country state championships at Les Bolstad Golf Course on Saturday to represent the Marshall cross country team as individuals. Deutz placed 27th in the boys meet while Murphy and Leibfried placed 28th and 33rd in the girls meet.

Deutz, a senior, closed out his prep cross country career with a time of 16:14.8 in Saturday’s Class AA championship, leaving him two spots shy of All-State status. He closes his time as a Tiger with one All-State finish and a team state championship, after his ninth-place finish as a junior helped the Tigers to a Class AA title.

Photos by Brian
Leibfried
Marshall junior Katelyn Leibfried (579) and eighth grader Jasmine Murphy (580) compete in the Class AA girls cross country championships at Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul on Saturday. Murphy and Leibfried placed 28th and 33rd, respectively, in the girls race.

In the girls meet, eighth grader Jasmine Murphy put together an exceptional performance in her second state meet appearance. After placing 76th in her debut as a seventh grader, Murphy beat her mark from last year by 1:15, crossing the line at 19:15.4 for one of the best times of her prep career.

Leibfried, a junior, rounded out the Tiger individuals with a 33rd-place finish at 19:26.6. Making her fifth state meet appearance, the performance left her just shy of her second all-state honors after she placed 22nd in the 2024 championship at 19:18.5. Leibfried also already has a state title under her belt after scoring for the team in its 2023 state championship.

After sending both the boys and girls teams to the tournament the last few seasons, Marshall finished just shy of a team qualification this time around, with a third-place finish from its boys team and a fourth-place finish from its girls team at the 2AA championships on Oct. 23 at Benson Park.