Individual state-meet cross country qualifiers Justin Clarke and Morgan Gehl will again represent Murray County Central / Fulda Saturday afternoon (November 3) on the grounds and woods around the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield.
The Class A boys’ race is first, beginning at 1 p.m. with the girls’ race over the same 5,000-meter course following at 2 p.m.
After finishing fourth in last week’s Section 3A Meet at Luverne, Clarke will run for a third straight time at Northfield. As a freshman in 2016, he placed 89th among 176 finishers with a time of 17:35.3. Last year, as a sophomore, he ran the course a little faster (17:29.1) and finished in 88th place.
Now a sophomore and a three-time sectional champion, Gehl, is the state’s fourth-ranked Class A girl and ran the second-fastest time among all eight section meets last week. Tierney Wolfgram, a sophomore at the Math and Science Academy in Woodbury, won the Section 4A race with a sizzling time of 17:26.9. She is a two-time defending state cross country champion and is ranked first in Class A.
Gehl’s time of 17:48.0 was the next best, followed closely by Section 1 champion Grace Ping, a sophomore at Winona Cotter (17:49.9) and her younger sister Lauren, an eighth-grader who finished second with her time of 18:09.8.
Last year, the Ping sisters — who are ranked second and third — finished between Wolfgram and Gehl at the state meet, while Luverne’s Tenley Nelson (ranked eighth this year) was fifth.
Wolfgram’s winning time in 2017 was 17:31.6, while Lauren Ping (18:19.7), Grace Ping (18:27.5), Gehl (fourth, 18:35.1) and Nelson (18:50.9) claimed the next four places at Northfield.
Gehl was eighth as an eighth-grader two years ago with her time of 19:25.5 and she finished 61st in 2015 state meet as a seventh-grader, clocked at 20:29.7.
“Morgan has continued to improve,” summed up her coach, Dominick Damm. “She loves to race and is well-prepared to run up near the front with the best of the best.”
