Photo courtesy of Brian Leibfried Marshall’s Avery Schneekloth [5849], Landrey Graven [5838], Cameen McFarquhar [5844] and Madysson Hasert [back] run as a pack during the Mankato East Invitational at Benson Park in North Mankato on Wednesday afternoon.

NORTH MANKATO — Allyson Sample was the top finisher at Wednesday’s Mankato East Invitational at Benson Park, beating the next runner by 35 seconds to help the No. 2 Marshall girls cross country team to a first-place finish at the meet.

“We’re super excited about it… Not everybody PR’d [set a personal record] today, which is kind of encouraging because we’ve still got more in the tank for later,” head coach Marie Sample said. “Things are coming together. We’re working hard to try to do the little things to stay healthy and just really keep people’s spirits up and keep focused on enjoying each day.”

Sample, Class AA’s No. 5 Individual in the latest coaches poll, set a personal record in the meet, crossing the finish line at 18:29.2. Waconia’s Madeline Lage was the next closest runner at 19:05 while Mankato West’s Landree Quint took third place at 19:11.

As a team, Marshall finished with 41 points to beat out runner-up Waconia by 22 points and third-place Owatonna by 73 points. No. 12 Belle Plaine also finished fourth in the meet with 142 points while No. 11 Mankato West placed sixth with 144.

In addition to Allyson Sample, Oakley Schneekloth and Katelyn Leibfried also put together top-10 performances at the race. Schneekloth placed fourth at 19:27.2, edging out Faribault’s Brooklyn Becker by a half second, while Liebfried took sixth place at 19:30.5

Taleigha Bigler placed 12th for the Tigers at 19:54.7 while eighth-grader Landrey Graven rounded out the Marshall scorers in 18th at 20:28.6.

All nine of runner-up Waconia’s runners were ahead of Graven when Sample told her that she has to get up ahead of the pack. From there, she set a new personal-best time by 45 seconds. 

“It’s the time of year where these young kids who haven’t had a lot of racing experience yet, maybe this is their first or second year, they’re just really like, ‘okay, I can do this. I can fill these holes. I can compete well, I can compete like the older girls, I’m ready for it,'” Sample said. “They have a lot of confidence so I just hope that we can — knock on wood — stay healthy and they have a nice shot at [a section title] because they’ve worked so hard.”

Coach Sample said that a few runners have gotten sick late in the season, something that hurt the team in last year’s postseason meets, but that she’s hopeful the team can be healthy and compete for bigger and better things.

Benson Park will serve as the course for the section meet in two weeks, something that coach Sample views as a positive. While some of the team’s runners had competed on the course before, being able to race it again after they’ve all increased their mileage and built their aerobic base can be beneficial to getting the racers prepared to compete for a section title there in a few weeks, Sample said.  

The team’s goals are going beyond section, though. The Marshall girls team hasn’t won a state title before but Sample says she believes this team has the potential to do it.

“There’s good competition, but that’s the way you want it. You want to go out there and try to be the first and the team that shows up on that day comes out on top, so that’s really what they’re aiming for,” coach Sample said. “They’re hoping for an opportunity for them to go out and qualify as a team to try to make states again… There’s all kinds of things that could happen, but we’re doing the best we can to prepare and give them the best opportunity out there.”

Marshall’s championship season will begin on Tuesday when it hosts the Big South Conference Championship at Marshall Golf Club on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.