Westwood’s Madelyn Koski, right, looks for a teammate to pass to while being gaurded by Hancock’s Kristen Dennis during their high school girls basketball game played Dec. 28 at the Patriots’ gym. The Westwood girls are the area’s lone team atop the initial Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters high school basketball poll that were released today. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

UPSSA Basketball Polls

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BOYS (first place votes in parentheses)

Divisions 1-3 W-L Pts Pvs

1. Iron Mountain (6) 8-0 30 —

2. Marquette 7-2 24 —

3. Houghton 5-3 10 —

4. Negaunee 4-4 9 —

5. Westwood 6-2 7 —

Others receiving votes: Escanaba (4-4) 4, Ironwood (8-0) 4, Calumet (5-3) 2

Division 4 W-L Pts Pvs

1. Brimley (4) 9-0 27 —

2. Carney-Nadeau (2) 6-1 25 —

3. North Central 8-1 14 —

4. Bessemer 6-1 13 —

5. Rapid River 4-3 7 —

Others receiving votes: Munising (6-2) 3, Dollar Bay (5-2) 1

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GIRLS (first place votes in parentheses)

Divisions 1-3 W-L Pts Pvs

1. Westwood (4) 8-0 24 —

2. Negaunee (1) 7-0 21 —

3. Marquette 5-2 15 —

4. Bark River-Harris 7-0 7 —

5. West Iron County 4-2 4 —

Others receiving votes: Menominee (7-1) 3, Gwinn (5-1) 1

Division 4 W-L Pts Pvs

1. St. Ignace (5) 7-0 25 —

2. Ontonagon 6-0 16 —

3. Ewen-Trout Creek 5-1 11 —

4. Baraga 6-1 8 —

5. L’Anse 4-3 7 —

Others receiving votes: Chassell (3-3) 3, Brimley (6-1) 3, Rudyard (5-2) 1, Forest Park (3-2) 1

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MARQUETTE — Both the boys and girls teams from Westwood, Negaunee and Marquette broke into the top five in the first high school basketball polls of the season conducted by the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association and released today.

Westwood (8-0) sits atop the Divisions 1-3 girls rankings, receiving four of the five first-place votes.

Despite being a perfect 7-0, Negaunee could only get the No. 2 spot in the same poll, garnering the other first-place vote.

Next in line is Marquette (5-2) in third in Divisions 1-3.

On the boys side, the Redmen (7-2) are second only to undefeated Iron Mountain in Divisions 1-3, while the Miners (4-4) are fourth with all four of their losses coming to teams that received votes.

The Patriots (6-2) came in fifth, also with losses only to No. 1 IM and No. 3 Houghton.

Four other area schools also had a team at least receive votes in this initial poll.

Munising (6-2) earned three votes in the boys’ Division 4 ratings as the first team to miss that poll’s top five.

Gwinn (5-1) got one vote in the girls’ Divisions 1-3 ranking for seventh overall.

In the girls’ Division 4 ratings, Baraga (6-1) is fourth and L’Anse (4-3) is fifth.

In the first state Associated Press poll of the season, also released today, Munising was 18th in the Division 4 boys poll.

The first AP girls poll comes out next Tuesday.

In top games involving area ranked teams in the upcoming week, the Negaunee girls are at Divisions 1-3 No. 5 West Iron County (4-2) tonight, the Gwinn girls play L’Anse at a location to be determined on Thursday and the Munising boys are at Division 4 No. 2 Carney-Nadeau on Monday.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.