Marquette’s Garrett Rudden, left, approaches the finish line ahead of Gladstone’s Adam Bruce, right, on Thursday at the Gladstone Invitational. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Mike Mattson)

ESCANABA — Thursday was a good day for cross country for high school runners at Beauchamp’s Grove in Flat Rock.

The day featured cool temperatures and overcast skies. It was, as Marquette coach Kyle Detmers said, “A good day to be a Redmen … and Redette.”

Much to Detmers’ delight, Marquette swept the boys and girls titles at one of the area’s most established meets.

“We love coming here,” Detmers said. “We love the people. It’s a cross country course.

“We usually run fast here. We are starting to peak, which is always good to see your kids getting faster and staying healthy. We had some kids battling the flu but they ran through it.”

In the boys meet, Marquette totaled 43 points to finish ahead of second-place Ishpeming’s 56. Escanaba was third with 127, followed by Negaunee with 142. Munising was sixth with 161.

The Redmen’s Garrett Rudden pulled away down the stretch to win in 16 minutes, 23 seconds. He was followed by Gladstone’s Adam Bruce, who finished second with a personal-best 16:28.

MSHS won with its usual depth as Luke Rambo was a close third in 16:40, Garrett Zueger 10th in 17:48, Mathurin Gagnon 11th in 17:50 and Nathan Zika 18th in 18:09.

Ishpeming’s Spencer Giroux was fourth in 17:08, Jonah Broberg sixth in 17:28, Devin Tasson ninth in 17:41 and KJ Pruett 14th in 18:01.

Negaunee’s Elliot Prusi was the other area runner to crack the top 10, finishing eighth in 17:30. In addition, Munising’s Darren Castello was 13th in 17:59, teammate TJ Wing 17th in 18:06 and Manistique’s Alex Misniakiewicz 19th in 18:15.

In the girls’ meet, Marquette scored 50 points ahead of runner-up Negaunee’s 78, with Menominee third with 113 and Munising fourth with 125.

Negaunee’s Emily Paupore won by nearly 30 seconds in 18:52. She was pushed during the race by second-place teammate Clara Johnson and her personal-best 19:21.

“That was a big goal for the entire season,” Paupore said about the 19-minute mark. “I’m usually 10 seconds away. Today, I just felt good and ran a good race.”

Marquette picked up plenty of top finishers. The Redettes’ Ericka Asmus was third in 19:45, Reegan Ketzenberger eighth in 20:53, Delaney Sall ninth in 20:53, Samantha Borzick 14th in 21:18 and Guinn Wuorinen 16th in 21:34.

Joining Paupore and Johnson for Negaunee in the top 20 were Allie Mahoski, 15th in 21:19, and Talon Prusi, 17th in 21:47.

Munising’s Madeleine Peramaki was fourth in 19:56 and teammate Alyssa Webber fifth in 20:21.

Superior Central’s Danika Walters was 11th in 21:11.