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ISHPEMING — The Negaunee track and field teams prevailed over Ishpeming and host Westwood in both the girls and boys competition at the WIN Meet on Tuesday afternoon.

The seasonal competition in many sports is a matchup of the schools in the “WIN” abbreviation — Westwood, Ishpeming and Negaunee.

The Miners girls cruised to their victory with 92 points, with Westwood finishing in second with 25 and Ishpeming finishing with 19.

Westwood's Lenny Pizziola goes high on one of his boys' pole vault attempts as he won during the WIN Meet in high school track and field held at Westwood HIgh School on Tuesday. (Journal photo by Travis Nelson)

The boys meet was much closer with a race between the Miners and Hematites. NHS prevailed by a small margin, 82-71, with Westwood third with 16.

The NHS girls had winners in seven of 11 running events, including the two relays that were completed. The final event, the 1,600-meter relay, was canceled due to lightning. Negaunee was just as dominant in field events, winning four of five.

The team of Maddie Beaudry, Ellie Sundberg, Macy Dellangelo and Addie Lein won both the 400 and 800 relays with times of 55.59 seconds and 2 minutes, 38.78 seconds, respectively.

Negaunee’s other team of Marlee Plaxco, Aubrey Johnson, Lauren Ossenheimer and Endla Harris took home the 3,200 relay in 11:12. Plaxco also won the 800 in 2:39.75, while Seere Helms-Gleason won the 200 title in 30.03. Madison Pekrul was another double winner for the Miners, winning both the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles in 16.91 and 53.22.

Helms-Gleason also won the long jump for her second victory with a leap of 14 feet, 11 inches. Eliana Juchemich and Alyssa Hill won the throwing events, taking the shot put with a heave of 33-1 and discus with a toss of 103-1.5. Johnson rounded out the Miners’ impressive day in the pole vault by clearing 7-6.

Negaunee's Kai Lacar runs ahead of the pack in the boys' 200-meter dash during the WIN Meet in high school track and field held at Westwood HIgh School on Tuesday. (Journal photo by Travis Nelson)

“I think this performance … shows the depth of our team,” Negaunee girls coach Vickie Paupore said. “We have a very strong senior class, but we have a lot of really talented underclassmen that are complementing them this year, and it’s giving us a lot more depth.

“(For example,) Madison Pekrul in the two hurdles races, she’s only a freshman and she ran fantastic times today. Our distance crew has really been coming on strong, and Marlee Plaxco won the 800 and I just wanted to give kudos to Endla Harris because she stayed right with Lola Korpi (of Ishpeming), who is an excellent distance runner.”

Korpi picked up three victories, while Lexi Olson of Westwood was a double winner. Korpi corralled wins in the 3,200 (12:52.44), 1,600 (5:48) and 400 (1:06.78). Olson won the 100 in 13.58 and the high jump by clearing 4-10.

The Ishpeming boys had eight victories and Negaunee had seven in the 16 events that led to the meet going down to the wire.

Kai Lacar was a double winner for the Miners in the 100 and 200 in 11.44 and 24.06, respectively. Lacar edged out teammate Philip Nelson in both races for the title.

Ethan Ihamaki took the 400 in 53.63, and NHS took two of the three relay races in the 400 and 800 with respective times of 47.37 and 1:39.93.

Isiah Wood captured the team’s only field event title in shot put with a throw of 43-3.

Parker Gauthier was a triple winner for the Hematites in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. He set the pace in all three events with times of 2:20.34, 5:13.19 and 11:35.44, respectively.

James Dank of Negaunee was neck-and-neck in the 1,600 and 3,200.

Ishpeming’s Tramon Gauthier took the 300 hurdles in 44.59, while the Hematites’ 3,200 relay also won. Ishpeming also got three wins in field events, as Aiden Rajala won the discus with 110-4.5, Tramon

Gauthier took long jump in 17-11 and Hunter Smith won high jump by clearing 6-0.

Westwood’s lone winner was Lenny Pizziola in pole vault after he cleared 12-0.

“We emphasized for this meet just to better our scores today, and try to build on what we’ve been doing and get ready for regionals,” Negaunee boys coach Kevin Bell said. “The kids were excited just to try and improve, and this was one of our meets where we had the whole team there, so it was a good team day just to give everybody a chance to run.

“We also emphasized that we wanted to compete and do well today, too, so I’m really happy with how they performed.”

All three schools will participate at 3 p.m. Friday at the Negaunee Lions Invitational.

Travis Nelson can be reached by email at tnelson@miningjournal.net.

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