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NEGAUNEE — The Marquette boys and Negaunee girls were rather decisive champions at the Negaunee Lions Invitational high school track and field meet held at Miners Stadium in Negaunee on Friday.

The Sentinels boys rolled up 171.83 points, well ahead of runner-up Kingsford’s 117 total. Gladstone was third with 78.33, just ahead of the host Miners with 71.33. Menominee took fifth with 32, followed by Houghton with 29, Escanaba 18, Westwood 3 and Gwinn 1.5.

In the girls meet, Negaunee totaled 136 points to outscore Gladstone by 46 as the Braves had 90. Marquette was a close third with 83, while Houghton had 66, Menominee 51 and Westwood in sixth with 36.

Negaunee’s Sadie Rogers, right, has a small lead on teammate Madison Pekrul as they run side by side leaping hurdles before crossing the finish line in the top two places in the girls 300-meter hurdles at the Negaunee Lions Meet in high school track and field held at Miners Stadium in Negaunee on Friday. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

Escanaba was right behind the Patriots with 35, with the field rounded out by Kingsford with 22 and Gwinn 4.

L’Anse didn’t score in either meet.

Marquette, Negaunee, Westwood and Gwinn will participate in the Marquette County Meet, along with Ishpeming and Republic-Michigamme, at 3:30 p.m. today at the Patriots’ track.

Every Upper Peninsula school will take part in an MHSAA U.P. regional meet this week, with Marquette and Manistique

traveling to Gladstone and Negaunee and Westwood both going to the Miners’ track for Division 1 meets on Wednesday afternoon.

R-M and Superior Central will be at a Division 3 regional at Rapid River, while Baraga and L’Anse area at a D-3 regional at Lake Linden-Hubbell, both also on Wednesday afternoon.

Marquette’s Jacob MacPhee keeps his lead while approaching the finish line to win the boys 400-meter dash at the Negaunee Lions Meet in high school track and field held at Miners Stadium in Negaunee on Friday. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

Ishpeming is scheduled to host its own Division 2 regional on Thursday afternoon, Newberry will be at a D-3 regional at St. Ignace on Friday afternoon, and Gwinn and Munising will be at a D-3 regional in Munising on Saturday morning.

Here is a roundup from each Lions Invitational meet:

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Marquette dominates boys

In the boys meet, Marquette’s Jacob MacPhee placed highly in every dash, winning the 400-meter, taking second in the 200 and third in the 100. He also joined the Sentinels’ 1,600 relay with a win of more than 12 seconds in 3:36.67 to set a school record. The other members of that quartet were Evan Balko, Lucas Ballard and Cullen Papin.

MSHS was also dominant in the longest race, the 3,200, sweeping 1-2-3 for a 24-point haul with winner James Barch, runner-up Rorik Holmquist and third-place Chase Thomsen. Each had what was listed as a personal record, Barch coming in at 9:52.77.

“We are proud of the team’s performance today as a whole,” Marquette boys head coach Derek Marr said. “With the limited entries allowed in the meet, we spread around opportunities and we are pleased with the attitudes and efforts of everyone that participated.”

The Sentinels’ David Williams also won the long jump with a personal-record leap of 20 feet, 4.75 inches.

Barch and Balko, winning the 1,600 in 4:29.43, each joined the MSHS top-10 all-time marks in their events, according to Marr.

“We are excited at what is possible for the rest of the season if we maintain our attitude, effort and support in the weeks to come,” the Marquette coach said.

Marquette also added a win in the 3,200 relay with James Kraeg, Brody Clements, Peter Argeropoulos and Ben Kuhl in 8:45.57, and in the 800, with Beepsee Teeple victorious in 2:06.08.

In field events, the Sentinels’ Drew Bradley won the pole vault by clearing 12-6.

Brady Mager had the lone event win for the fourth-place Miners boys in the 300 low hurdles in 41.71.

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Rogers, Bell lead Negaunee girls

The Miners girls used their depth to run away from the field as they only won three events — two by Sadie Rogers and another by Ashley Bell.

“I am very proud of our team’s performance tonight,” Negaunee head coach Vickie Paupore said. “We are a relatively young team, but I was happy with the confidence that the girls displayed. They are starting to believe in themselves more and are showing more determination and drive.”

Rogers led a 1-2-3 sweep and 24-point event for the Miners in the 300 hurdles as Rogers clocked 50.71, just two-hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Madison Pekrul as NHS’ Josie Mechling was third.

Rogers’ other win was in the 100 hurdles as Pekrul was again second — Rogers clocked 17.32 with Pekrul in at 17.64.

“Our hurdlers have been pushing each other hard in practices and at meets, and their efforts are paying off,” Paupore said. “Ashley Bell had another nice night for us in the throws getting first in the discus and second in the shot put.”

Bell claimed the discus with a throw of 102-9 while finishing second by just an inch in the shot put as Menominee’s Erika Peterson won that event with a heave of 28-9.

Despite finishing third, Marquette didn’t have an individual winner, while sixth-place Westwood had three victors, all in field events. Faith Spiroff won the high jump by clearing 5-2 and long jump with a leap of 16-2, while teammate Lexi Olson claimed the pole vault by getting over the 10-6 barrier.

Caden Sierra can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 551. His email address is csierra@nmu.edu.

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