MARQUETTE — A girls’ cross country meet was as close as could be here Friday as Marquette squeezed past Negaunee by one point, 50-51, for the team title at the Queen City Invitational.

Houghton was a competitive third with 62 points, while Munising came in fourth with 101, Westwood fifth with 128 and Manistique seventh with 201. Ishpeming and Newberry were among several squads that didn’t post team scores.

Gremlins senior Ingrid Seagren used a strong finishing kick to earn top individual honors, covering the 3.1-mile course at Presque Isle Park in 20 minutes, 39.3 seconds on a cloudy and cool morning.

Ishpeming sophomore Lola Korpi was runner-up in 20:46, followed by Negaunee junior Endla Harris (21:54.2) and Houghton senior and defending Upper Peninsula Division 1 champion Paige Sleeman (22:08.1).

“With this being my senior year, I’m trying to make every race count,” Seagren said. “Lola definitely pushed me a lot. I would love to run at (Michigan) Tech, although I’m definitely keeping my options open.

“I have plenty of motivation to do well. I tried to go out as hard as I could and see what I could do.”

Marquette’s boys, placing six among the top eight, won with 20 points. They were followed by Houghton with 43 and Escanaba with 84.

Negaunee came in fourth with 100, Westwood fifth with 130 and Manistique sixth with 167. Munising, Ishpeming, Gwinn and Newberry were among the units not posting a team score.

Houghton senior Eric Weiss earned the boys title in 17:26.6, with Marquette occupying six of the next seven places — senior Luke Janofski second in 17:51.1, junior Brady Ketzenberger third in 17:53.6, Cullen Papin fourth in 18:22.5, Colin VanderSchaaf fifth in 18:23.3, Adam White seventh in 18:32.4 and Chase Thomsen eighth in 18:35.5.

The only runner breaking up that group was Munising freshman Trevor Nolan, who was sixth in 18:26.6. Rounding out the top 10 was James Dan of Negaunee in 10th in 18:57.2.

“At first, I just wanted to feel out the field,” said Weiss, who said he averaged 35 miles a week this summer. “I was a little nervous coming in here but was able to start relaxing a little after the second mile.

“The temperatures were in the low 60s. It was a perfect day for a race. It felt good to just get a race in.”

“The Houghton boy ran a nice race,” Marquette coach Kyle Detmers said. “We were missing Carson (VanderSchaaf), but we have a lot of depth this year. Brady has really improved from last year. Our top four girls, except for Courtney, have never really run varsity before. This is a real good start for our team.”

The girls’ leaders were running side by side with about a half-mile remaining before Seagren gained the upper hand.

“When I was walking the course, I was wishing there would be some competition here today,” Ishpeming’s Korpi said. “You can’t win them all. Ingrid was my competition in track, and we’ll be in many of the same races this season.

“You learn more when you finish behind somebody. Hopefully, she’ll push me into the 18(-minute range) this year. It’ll come down to who feels better on that given day.”

Westwood sophomore Retta Boburka took fifth (22:16.7). Marquette junior Courtney Larson was sixth (22:45.7), and Negaunee freshman Marlee Plaxco was seventh (22:50).

Three more area runners rounded out the top 10 — Abby Harma of Marquette was eighth in 22:54, Jenna Matson of Munising ninth in 22:56.5 and Lauren Ossenheimer of Negaunee 10th in 22:58.8.

“I’m really proud of the girls,” Negaunee coach Vickie Poupore said. “Marquette always has a great program, and Houghton has a real good team. We had three freshmen running and one got seventh place, and we’re happy Endla came in third.

“They ran hard all summer. Some had PRs (personal records) today, which is very exciting.”