IRON MOUNTAIN — Marquette overwhelms even the largest schools in the Upper Peninsula with its numbers at cross country meets this season.

MSHS placed all seven of its runners in the top 10 to score 27 points and earn its seventh straight boys title at the Great Northern Conference meet held at Iron Mountain City Park on Thursday.

But Gladstone was able to put two of its underclassmen at the top of the list in the race.

Braves’ sophomore Giovanni Mathews captured his first GNC title, covering the hilly 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 44.6 seconds. Freshman teammate Drew Hughes was runner-up in 17:45.2.

Gladstone edged Menominee 58-62 for runner-up honors.

“I’m super relieved,” Mathews said. “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to run today. I was sick last weekend and just came back to practice (Wednesday).

“I was trying to focus on what I needed to do. I’m sure Drew’s excited about taking second in the conference. Marquette has so many good runners. They’re a good opponent in a meet like this.”

Hughes, who had also been feeling under the weather, said he and Mathews planned on running together.

“Gio told me we needed to stick together and said ‘We can take this,”‘ Hughes added.

The Marquette girls won a much closer race for that team title, edging Kingsford 32-36 for their 20th consecutive crown. Third-place Menominee scored 84 points.

“This was very interesting,” Marquette coach Kyle Detmers said. “Kingsford beat us last time at the Barnyard (Classic near Gladstone). The girls were looking forward to competing. Great job to Kingsford. They’re so well coached. We knew they were going to be good and they’re getting faster.”

Back in the boys race, Marquette senior Moses Waite placed third in 17:57.2, followed by teammates Colin VanderSchaaf (18:09.1) and Hogan Nemetz (18:22.1).

“We ran a nice pack,” Detmers said. “We have about 10 guys running together in practice. They kept getting faster together. From 1 to 7 they’ve been within 50 seconds consistently and today it was 56.”

Kingsford junior Melanie Wenzel won the girls’ race at 21:05.4. Marquette junior Olivia Moffitt was runner-up in 21:36, followed by Kingsford junior Sarah Kulas (21:45.4).

“I wanted to go out fast and tried to pick it up on the hills,” said Wenzel, who started to get separation midway through. “We had to do that in practice and it prepared us well. The hills were mostly in the middle of the race and you had to gauge how much energy you had left.”

Moffitt was generally pleased with placing second.

“This wasn’t my best time, but it’s a very hilly course,” she said. “I’d say this is a confidence boost going into the finals.

“I tried to go out fast. I wanted to get ahead of the pack and led for nearly half the race. I didn’t really know where I was going. Melanie is very good.”

Marquette ran without its top two runners, including three-time GNC champion Ericka Asmus.