Finally! It has happened to thee: Marshall makes history as 4×800 relay team state champions | News, Sports, Jobs

“I have no words right now.”

Words expressed by senior Marshall Tiger Miracle Tucker after winning a gold medal with her teammates in the 4×800 relay on Saturday morning. The rest of the team is comprised of Allyson Sample, Taleigha Bigler and Anna Kuecker. It is the first gold medal in school history along with first medal for head coach Marie Sample. The team finished with a time of 9:22.37 which is a class record and personal record.

This was the first race of the morning and Tucker started it off for the Tigers. She was steady and paced herself with the rest of the pack in the beginning of the race. After her second lap, she passed the baton to Allyson Sample, who won 3rd in the 3200 Meters race yesterday. Allyson Sample was able to get around some runners and positioned herself in the front of the pack. With two runners left in the relay, Mankato East was 1st and Marshall was in 3rd but not far behind

The third leg was Kuecker and she closed ground between the team’s, running hard on the last 200 Meters of the second lap to pull ahead of 3rd place and be in second for Bigler to anchor the finished. Bigler easily closed ground and sprinted her last 200 Meters to distance herself from the rest of the pack, leaving no doubt as the Marshall Tigers had won the 4×800 relay becoming state champions. All of the team members spoke about the journey to end their season as champions and what is expected in the future.

“It was a really fun race to run,” Tucker said. “Something that help me is that you have three other teammates and you’re running for them. Great things happen when you do that and that’s what we did today. There is more to come. We have a bunch of 7th-8th graders coming up to break even more records.”

“We’ve worked hard all season and now all of it paid off today,” said Bigler. “My teammates got me in the perfect spot to give me the shot for the win and I was trying to do the best for my team.”

“I just think we’ve had a really fun season, hard work paid off,” Kuecker said.

” We were going out to have fun today and see what we could do,” Allyson Sample said. ” We have had great runners before us too setting us up for this moment. We have to pull the younger girls in because we have depth and their is more to come.”

Head coach Marie Sample who has brought her team to the last 12 out of 14 state tournaments gleefully spoke on the accomplishment of the 4×800 relay team.

“It is special,” Marie Sample said.” We have had a lot of good runners and athletes come through our program. This group really banded together in a really unique way. We saw an opportunity this year. We’ve had some good teams in the past but we also have faced some great competition. This year was the same. This team is resilient. This team was focused all throughout the tournament. The team executed well. It was the perfect storm against some really good competition. I am proud of them and they did it. Tucker and I have known each other since eighth grade. She ran hard for her team and we will miss her next year. I’m really proud of her, she gets to walk away with a gold medal and her name on the state board.”

The Tigers we’re not done medaling on this day as Paige Gillingham, who competed in the shotput event got 6th place and had a personal record with a 37-04.25 as a freshman. Bigler competed in the 800 Meters events and also got a 6th place finish with a time of 2:19.00. Marshall had another relay team in the state tournament of the 4×400. The team consisted of Katelyn Leibfried, Brianna Simpson, Peyton Boeck and Bigler. The Tigers finished 6th in this race with a time of 4:05.57.