On a cloudy and humid 70-degree day, Marquette claimed the boys GNC crown with 121 points while Kingsford took the girls title with 84 points.

Escanaba was the runner-up on the boys side with 56 points followed by Kingsford with 49 and Menominee with 24.

Marquette finished second on the girls side with 70 points followed by Menominee with 60 1/2 and Escanaba with 38 1/2.

Marquette boys head coach Kyle Detmers said winning the meet against three strong programs was satisfying.

Marquette's Guinn Wuorinen runs the girls 3,200-meter relay at the Great Northern Conference meet on Thursday afternoon in Marquette. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

“It feels great,” he said. “This is a very important meet to us because it is a championship. We haven’t seen Kingsford all year so this was our first look at them and they have a really good program, and of course Escanaba and Menominee as well. So we’re very thankful for this win.”

Detmers added his team is still trying to rest up ahead of U.P. Finals after a busy season schedule.

“We’re coming off of a pretty brutal stretch,” he said. “We’re still a little flat but everybody ran hard, so now we’ve just got to get ready for U.P. Finals.”

Kingsford girls head coach Lisa Harry said the victory took an entire team effort, citing the points earned in several field events as well as sprints and relays.

“It’s been a first for us in a while, it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to knock off Marquette,” she said. “I have an awesome group of girls this year and they made it all happen. Everyone picked it up a little bit, we had a lot of personal records and everything came together for us.”

On the boys side, the Redmen won nine of 17 events, three of those coming from senior Garrett Rudden including his contribution to the 1,600-meter relay.

Rudden earned individual 1st-place finishes in the 1,600 run, the 400 dash and the 3,200 run.

The 1,600 relay team that also included juniors Julien Malherbe and Mathurin Gagnon and senior Nathan Zika beat out Kingsford by just over three seconds in 3 minutes, 37.54 seconds.

In Rudden’s individual wins, he clocked 4:40.99 in the 1,600, 52.67 seconds in the 400 and 10:48.96 in the 3,200.

Marquette also won the 3,200 relay with the team of Malherbe, Zika, senior Ramsey Nofal and junior Garrett Zueger racing to a time of 9:05.87 to beat out Escanaba.

Kingsford won the 800 relay in 1:35.86 while Escanaba took the 400 relay in 45.57.

The Redmen notched a sweep of the podium in the 100 as well, with junior Ethan Martysz clocking in at 11.77 seconds followed by teammates Elijah Pickard and Joseph Carlisle.

The Eskymos dominated the field events, earning a podium sweep in the high jump as well as winning the pole vault and discus.

The Kingsford girls won seven events and junior Olivia Allen had a hand in four of them.

Allen won the 100, 200 and 400 as well as running with the 1,600 relay victors.

In the 100, Allen clocked 13.58, edging Marquette senior Abby Kroll. Allen came in at 27.85 in the 200 and 59.19 in the 400, where she edged out Marquette sophomore Delaney Sall’s 59.91.

Marquette girls head coach Natalie Messano said it was a strong second-place finish despite trying to keep her team healthy for U.P. Finals.

“It was a tough day for us,” she said. “We had a lot of girls pulling up sore here and there and basically a week before U.P. Finals, we’re not going to risk it. We’re playing it safe, and Kingsford, they showed up and competed well.

“It’s a bummer that (today) was the first time we’ve seen them all year but we’ll see them in a week and hopefully we’re in better shape.”

Messano added that despite the rough week of both soreness and illness, her team’s spirits aren’t flagging.

“That’s alright,” she said. “Get it out now, hopefully rest and get back at it for next Saturday (June 2 at Kingsford).”

The Redettes won the 3,200 relay with Sall, freshmen Josie Danielkiewicz and Guinnevere Wuorinen and junior Molly Welch, who raced to a time of 10:39.61 and beat out the Flivvers by more than 13 seconds.

Sall won the 800 in 2:41.01 while freshman Kali McDonough took the pole vault with a mark of 9-feet and junior Rachael Hunt the long jump with a leap of 15-3.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.