Westwood No. 1 doubles player Karlie Kargela returns a shot against Negaunee during the Mid-Peninsula Conference tournament on Wednesday in Kingsford. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Adam Niemi)

KINGSFORD — Despite rain and lightning delaying and then suspending the Mid-Peninsula Conference tournament, Negaunee won enough points to secure the championship on Wednesday.

An approximately three-hour delay because of rain and lightning in the morning came after the tournament had already started and teams collected some of the points. Play resumed around noon.

The tournament came down to the Miners and Westwood. The Nos. 1 and 2 singles finals were suspended just after 8 p.m. EDT because of lightning and a downpour.

The two remaining flights then resumed Thursday afternoon in Negaunee with the Miners’ Megan Syrjala defeating the Patriots’ Marissa Carello at No. 1 singles and Westwood’s Madelyn Koski felling Negaunee’s Jenna Sager at No. 2.

Scores weren’t available from any of the championship matches, though WHS coach Chris Jackson knew both Thursday matches went three sets.

The Miners missed a perfect score by two points, finishing with 46 as they won seven flight championships and were runners-up in the eighth.

“I thought we played really well today. One of the goals at the beginning of the year is to get the conference,” Negaunee head coach Kyle Saari said on Wednesday. “The other one, hopefully, compete for the (Upper Peninsula Finals).

“For all the girls to respond and come and win six titles up to this point (the seventh was won on Thursday) is definitely a good feeling for us.”

Westwood took six second places to go with a win and a fourth place for 32.

“I think the hardest part was all the people who had byes in the first round,” Jackson said of the weather delays. “They’re the ones that had to sit a little extra. Some didn’t get on the court until maybe 1:30 (p.m.) for their first match. I think for the kids that had first-round matches it was easier to adjust to. All in all, I think it might just take a couple of them longer to get started.”

Gladstone took third place with 20 points, while Iron Mountain was fourth with 15 and Ishpeming fifth with 7. Gwinn did not score.

With the U.P. Finals next week, Jackson said the Patriots’ performance in the M-PC tournament should help them prepare, but they couldn’t overcome the talent the Miners had this week.

At the U.P. Finals, it won’t be a problem as Negaunee plays in Division 1 and Westwood and the rest of the M-PC is in Division 2.

“We’ve had a really good day. Our lower flights were able to play up,” Jackson said. “That’s going to help us for U.P.’s. It was kind of an uphill battle with Negaunee having all of the (No.) 1 seeds. We pushed it in the end in some flights and came up short.”

Iron Mountain’s No. 2 doubles made it to the finals as the team’s highest finishing flight. The duo had a bye to start the day before beating Westwood in the semifinals.

Saari said the play by Negaunee’s Maci Aho at No. 4 singles was among the strong performances to help the Miners roll to the championship.

“It’s been tough talking about individual girls throughout the course of the year because, top to bottom, the girls have been playing so well,” Saari said. “One in particular today, Macy Aho, played a real solid final. She had dropped the first set and played a real good player from Westwood. She had to be mentally tough in the third to pull it out.”