Top 13 Heartland Girls With National Aspirations


Morgan Gehl, Murray County Central/Fulda (MN)

In Minnesota's Class A division, the Pings and Tierney Wolfgram battle so often that they often get most of the attention. Yet Morgan Gehl has earned herself into the conversation with those three All-Americans after her strong breakout campaign. Gehl broke 18:00 multiple times against essentially no competition, often winning races by two or three minutes against other small school opponents. She hadn't been challenged until the Minnesota State Meet, where she took third in 17:53, the fifth fastest time of the day. Gehl has been the clear fourth best runner in Class A, but in her lone matchup against the top Minnesota runners, was in striking distance of Lauren Ping. If she has a performance of equal caliber, Gehl could surprise and punch her ticket to Portland.