NEGAUNEE — The Negaunee girls and Marquette boys kept it all in the county as champions at the Negaunee Lions Invitational high school track and field meet held Friday afternoon at Miners Field in Negaunee.

The NHS girls won six events to breeze to a relatively easy victory in the girls meet with 104 points as runner-up Marquette had 71. Escanaba was a distant third with 47, while Ishpeming came in fourth with 44, Westwood fifth with 35 and Gwinn seventh with 12.

MSHS won seven boys events to win that meet by more than 30 points, scoring 112 to runner-up Kingsford’s 81. Gladstone was third with 63 1/2, Negaunee fourth with 41 and Ishpeming fifth with 33 1/2.

Here is a synopsis of each meet:

——————–

Miners girls victorious

Negaunee girls coach Vickie Paupore was elated with her team’s victory.

“I am very proud of my team’s performance,” she said in an email. “They are making improvements at the right time with regionals coming up next week.”

And she wasn’t even able to be at the meet.

“I want to give a big thank you to my assistant coach, Krista Squiers, for covering the meet while I was at the Mid-American Conference (college) meet watching my daughter Emily run,” Paupore said. “She is a fantastic assistant coach.”

The Miners’ Madison Pekrul and Eliana Juchemich each won two individual events, with Pekrul joining a triumphant relay team, too.

“We had some outstanding performances from Eliana Juchemich in the throws,” Paupore said. “She had a big personal record in the discus.

“Madison Pekrul also had a hand in three firsts and ran very well.”

Pekrul took the 100-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles while joining Negaunee’s victorious 1,600 relay unit that also included Kayleigh Manninen, Olivia Lunseth and Seere Helms-Gleason.

Juchemich swept the discus and shot put.

In addition, the Miners won the 3,200 relay with Helms-Gleason, Marlee Plaxco, Endla Harris and Aubrey Johnson as Paupore added that Johnson had a personal record in a third-place finish in the pole vault.

The runner-up Redettes had a pair of individual victories with Ella Fure taking the 3,200 run and Julia Ott the 100 dash and also came out on top of the other two relays, the 400 and 800.

Sophie Skytta and Baux Truckey ran on both those winners, with Megan MacPhee and Siena Lingle joining them on the 400 relay and Hailey Bolf and Ott also members of the 800 relay winners.

Westwood’s Faith Spiroff was the meet’s only three-time winner in individual events as she took the 400, high jump and long jump, while Ishpeming’s Lola Korpi doubled up by taking the 800 and 1,600.

And the Patriots’ Lexi Olson won the pole vault.

The only girls event not won by an area athlete was Gladstone’s Jacie Tuljus in the 200.

——————–

MSHS boys hold off Kingsford

The Redmen won seven events, including three of the four relays, to outlast the Flivvers in a likely preview for the Division 1 race for the title at the Upper Peninsula Finals to be conducted in less than three weeks.

Marquette’s Jacob MacPhee won the 400, Colin VanderSchaaf the 800, James Kreag the 3,200 and Drew Bradley the pole vault, while the Redmen were victorious in the 400, 1,600 and 3,200 relays.

Several Redmen ran on two of the winning relays — VanderSchaaf and Cullen Papin were on the 1,600 and 3,200 relays, while Nate Benninger was on the 400 and 1,600 relays.

The balance of those winning runners were Wyatt Lakenen, Adam DuVall and Kyler Sager in the 400, MacPhee in the 1,600 and Adam White and Carson VanderSchaaf in the 3,200.

Ishpeming’s Tramon Gauthier won the 300 hurdles, while Negaunee’s best individual placings were runner-up finishes by Joe Rosten in the pole vault and Brady Mager in the high jump.

Kingsford won the 800 relay and added firsts by Michael Floriano in the 100 and 200 along with a leg of the 800 relay, Noah Johnson in the discus, Garrett Veale in the shot put and Cardel Morton in the long jump.

Gladstone took the 110 high hurdles by Luke Bracket and 1,600 by Drew Hughes, while Menominee’s Darrent Butler captured the high jump.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.