They’re 4 square: 3 area schools each earn a quartet of Mid-Peninsula Conference boys basketball honors
NEGAUNEE — Marquette County’s west end shared almost equally in Mid-Peninsula Conference boys basketball honors that were announced recently.
Negaunee, Ishpeming and Westwood each earned four awards, while Gwinn further to the south received one and Manistique over in Schoolcraft County had a pair of honors.
Also included in the four-award honor group was Iron Mountain in Dickinson County along with Gladstone in Delta County.
The league champion Mountaineers, however, captured the two “special” awards — Player of the Year Oskar Kangas, who is a junior, and Defensive Player of the Year
Kangas went on to be named First Team All-State by The Associated Press in Division 3 earlier this week.
Of the Marquette County schools, Westwood holds several distinctions — the Patriots were the only ones to have two players named First Team All-Conference, while WHS also had the only underclassmen named to any of the honor squads.
That underclassman was sophomore guard Ethan Marta as he was one of two Westwood players named First Team.
He was joined on the First Team by Patriots senior forward Andrew Niemi, Negaunee senior guard Gavin Saunders and Ishpeming junior guard Caden Luoma.
Saunders, however, was the only player from any school honored twice as he also grabbed a spot on the M-PC All-Defensive Team.
Among those on the Second Team All-Conference are Hematites senior guard Reece Kangas, Miners junior guard Baron Heslip and Manistique senior guard Wyatt Demers.
Joining Saunders on the All-Defensive Team from area schools are a trio of senior guards — Westwood’s Eddie Anderson, Ishpeming’s Hunter Smith and Manistique’s Parker Graphos.
And senior guard Connor Dupras was Gwinn’s all-league representative on the Honorable Mention list as he was joined by Ishpeming senior guard Parker Gauthier, Westwood senior guard Liam Luke and Negaunee junior guard Jordan Guenette.
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Here are the other all-conference awards for non-area teams Iron Mountain and Gladstone. Each is listed with year, position and school:
First Team — Gerald Sampell-Torres, jr. guard, IM
Second Team — Drake Johnson, sr. forward, Gladstone; Kaden Gibbs, sr. guard, Gladstone
Defensive Team — Nick Matthews, sr. guard, Gladstone
Honorable Mention — Luke Bracket, sr. guard, Gladstone; Ian Marttila, jr. guard, IM
Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.