They had talent — a lot of talent.

That’s borne out in the U.P. honor squads that were named a week or so after the MHSAA U.P. Finals were held in the Gladstone-Escanaba area in late October.

That was according to information provided by Negaunee head coach Vickie Paupore, who is also vice president of the U.P. Cross Country Coaches Association.

While the boys and girls runners of the year came from other schools, MSHS placed four boys and two girls on the seven-member All-U.P. Dream Teams.

Ishpeming's Lola Korpi widens her lead in the girls race at the Tracy Strom Invitational high school cross country meet held at the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming on Sept. 28. She would win by nearly 45 seconds. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Seppi Camilli, Evan Balko, Lucas Ballard and Peter Argeropoulos were the Marquette runners on the boys’ Dream Team, while Ella Fure and Monet Argeropoulos made it from MSHS for the girls.

In addition, several Dream Team honorable mention athletes were named that included Marquette’s Abby Harma for the girls.

And those number of quality runners insured Marquette would be named both boys and girls Team of the Year and Derek Marr being named Coach of the Year in Division 1.

In both D-1 U.P. Finals meets, Marquette was dominant enough to have a bigger margin of victory than it scored points, accumulating just 23 in the boys meet to runner-up Houghton’s 53 and scoring only 22 in the girls meet as second-place Sault Ste. Marie had 64.

Several other area runners also earn high distinction in All-U.P. voting.

Marquette’s Ella Fure, left, runs alongside Houghton’s Tessa Rautiola during the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in Division 1 girls cross country in Flat Rock on Oct. 21 Fure won the race, leading MSHS to the team title. (Photo courtesy Jason Juno)

They’re led by Ishpeming runner Lola Korpi, who shared the all-division Girls Runner of the Year award with Talya Schreiber of Pickford. Both, of course, were included on the Dream Team, too.

Also on the girls Dream Team was Newberry’s Samantha Taylor and Abby Taylor, while teammate Kaylen Clark made the Dream Team honorable mention.

All of the top 15 finishers in each division at the U.P. Finals were named all-state, with the next set of 10 down to 25th place earning All-U.P.

Each of the runners already listed here earned all-state and were joined by, from our area in Division 1, Chase Thomsen, James Barch, Cullen Papin, Cora Wernholm, Tessa Bruns and Eryn Veverka of Marquette; and Simon Jaklin, Marlee Plaxco and Riley Conklin of Negaunee.

Division 2 all-staters include Danny Goss, Nolan Dolaskie, Alexandra Goss, Olivia Cotey and Kate Mattson of Munising; Kemper Gearhart, Levi Nicholls and Laynie Korpi of Ishpeming; Ben Gilroy, Maya Carlson and Calista Watchorn of Manistique; and Sophie Desrochers of Baraga.

Division 3 all-state is made up of Will Spranger of Superior Central, and John Wheeler and Ethan Lawrence of Republic-Michigamme.

All-U.P. for Division 1 from our area has Maija Maki-Warne of Marquette; Michael Slawinski and Seere Helms-Gleason of Negaunee; and Roman Yuhas, Retta Boburka and Addy Hallum of Westwood.

In Division 2, All-U.P. went to Blake Lakosky of Munising; Thomas Jenkins, Matthew Jenkins and Donald Jourden of Gwinn; and Ellie Delene of Baraga.

For Division 3, the All-U.P. runners were Cody Moore and Cole Ozoga of Superior Central, Kenneth Ambuehl and Zoe Blubaugh of Republic-Michigamme, and Sam Rahilly of Newberry.

For the entire U.P., the Division 2 Teams of the Year were the Jeffers boys and Hancock girls with Jeffers’ Sam Kilpela named Coach of the Year.

In Division 3, Teams of the Year were the Dollar Bay boys and Chassell girls with Stephenson’s Kate Kuntze the Coach of the Year.

All-division awards for boys included Gabe Litzner of Sault Ste. Marie named Boys Runner of the Year with he, teammate Shea Armstrong and Chassell’s Kalvin Kytta named to the Dream Team and Landon Larson of Jeffers earning Dream Team honorable mention.

Corresponding girls awards included the Dream Team having Tessa Rautiola of Houghton and the DT honorable mention with Roman Peterlin of Houghton.

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