Having won seven team titles at a variety of high school cross country meets this fall, the Murray County Central / Fulda varsity girls are seeking to win another team championship when they race Thursday (October 24) in the huge 24-team Section 3A Meet at the Madison Golf Course.
The Warriors, third-ranked in all of Class A, ran on that same course on a hot day back on September 17, winning the smaller 10-team Lac qui Parle Valley / Dawson-Boyd Invitational by 14 points (33-47) over Canby / Minneota, currently ranked 13th.
Standing in the way of a team championship for the MCC / Fulda girls is four-time defending sectional champion Luverne. The Cardinals, ranked fourth in Class A, mirror the Warriors in several ways, as both squads are talented, deep and young.
Luverne is led by sophomore Tenley Nelson, who has finished second in each of the last two Section 3A Meets — behind MCC / Fulda ace Morgan Gehl, who is seeking her third consecutive individual title. Gehl, now a junior, finished 11th in the section race as a seventh-grader in 2015 (20:40.5), improved to fourth in 2016 (19:44.1) and finished first in both 2017 (19:06.5) and 2018 (17:48.0).
As a team, the Warriors have been steadily climbing up the ladder. Four years ago, the MCC / Fulda girls finished ninth in the team standings with 263 points. In 2016, they were sixth (203 points) before improving to fifth two years ago (164). Last year, MCC / Fulda placed third in the team standings with 111 points (1-23-25-29-33), missing state-meet qualification by just 12 points — behind LQPV / D-B’s total of 99.
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