Another stellar lead-run performance by Morgan Gehl — along with up-front finishes from Ashley Overgaauw , Amanda Overgaauw, Josie Harms and Ella Stapek — sparked Murray County Central / Fulda to the varsity girls’ team championship at the 52nd annual running of the Turkey Trot high school cross country meet at Prairie View last Thursday, September 12.
It was the third team victory of 2019 for the Warrior gals, who have finished second once (at Marshall, September 10) and claimed meet titles at Mountain Lake (August 29), Tracy (September 5) and Worthington (September 12).
Gehl, a strong-running junior, completed the challenging 5,000-meter course in an exceptional time of 18:06.5 — 53.2 seconds before Luverne sophomore Tenley Nelson ran an impressive second-place time of 18:59.7. Fairmont freshman Laura Thompson was third, clocked at 19:19.3, as the girls’ race featured a trio of runners ranked among the top-five in Minnesota’s Class A.
Prior to Thursday, Gehl was ranked second, Thompson fourth and Nelson fifth. Natasha Sortland, a freshman who runs for the combination of Zumbrota-Mazeppa and Kenyon-Wannamingo, is the state’s top-ranked girl in Class A.
Thompson had taken a late lead on Gehl at Mountain Lake 15 days earlier and Morgan needed a blazing finishing kick to pass her back and win by a mere tenth-of-second (19:12.1 to 19:12.2).
The anticipated close repeat never materialized as Gehl took the lead early and continually stretched the distance between herself and the rest of the field of 101 finishers, representing 12 teams.
“Morgan showed her strength on the hills today,” declared MCC/F head coach Dominick Damm. “She ran a super time for mid-September on difficult course, which had a few soggy spots after two nights of rain.”
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