“This was a true team effort and I couldn’t be more proud of our determination,” the veteran Miners girls coach said. “We had a number of girls qualify that were not ranked to do so, but believed in themselves and got the job done.”

That’s the kind of depth that the Negaunee girls have shown over the years in doing well — and winning quite often — at the D-1 U.P. championships.

As in all Division 1 and Division 2 regionals, the top four places in each events advance to Kingsford on the Saturday after Memorial Day, this year on June 1.

On Wednesday, the Miners rolled up 85 points in the girls meet, far ahead of runner-up Houghton with 37 as Calumet was third with 27. Westwood took fourth with 23, while Kingsford came in fifth with 15.

Negaunee’s Brady Mager, right, and Houghton’s Brody Mattila go neck and neck, leaping over the final hurdle almost simultaneously in the boys’ 300-meter hurdles at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 regional track and field meet held at Miners Stadium in Negaunee on Wednesday. Mattila would come up with the win by eight-hundredths of a second even as Mager set a school-record 40.86 seconds in the event. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

Kingsford won the boys meet with 78.6 points, followed by Houghton with 66.2 and Negaunee in third with 32.6. Westwood claimed fourth with 5.6 and Calumet had 4. The unusual tenth-of-a-point totals came after a big tie for fourth place — the 1 point it was worth had to be split up five ways — in the boys high jump.

The U.P. Finals will combine the top finishers from this regional with the ones from the other Division 1 regional held in Gladstone, also Wednesday, that included Marquette and Manistique.

Up next for the Miners and Patriots boys and girls teams is the Mid-Peninsula Conference meet to be held at Westwood at 3:30 p.m. Monday. Ishpeming, Gwinn, Manistique, Gladstone and Iron Mountain will join Negaunee and the host Patriots there.

Here are details from each regional meet in Negaunee:

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Negaunee’s Riley Conklin starts the final leg of the girls’ 1,600-meter relay as the Miners would win by nearly four seconds at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 1 regional track and field meet held at Miners Stadium in Negaunee on Wednesday. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

Waterman leads NHS girls

Keira Waterman contributed 13 points with her stellar performances for Negaunee, winning the 200- and 400-meter dashes along with the 800 run, while also placing second in the 100 as well.

“That is a difficult combination of events to do, especially for a freshman, but she showed how talented and motivated she is,” Paupore said about Waterman.

And in the 300 hurdles, Madison Pekrul led a Miners’ 1-2-3 sweep with Sadie Rogers and Jose Mechling close behind to take second and third places, respectively.

Paupore also added how emotional it was seeing Seere Hel

ms-Gleason go from being unranked in the 3,200 to qualifying for the finals in third place.

“It is inspiring to watch these athletes give it their all,” the coach said. “The depth that my team displayed … was impressive. This may be the first time in my 30 years of coaching that we qualified for the U.P. Finals in every event.”

Rogers won the 100 hurdles and teammate Ashley Bell the discus, while the Miners’ 400 and 1,600 relays were also victorious with Pekrul a member of the 1,600 and Rogers on the 400. Negaunee’s other winning relay members were Macyn Dellangelo, Isabelle Francisco and Ellie Sundberg in the 400 and Kayleigh Manninen, Olivia Lunseth and Riley Conklin in the 1,600.

Westwood was dominant in the field events, winning three — Faith Spiroff captured both the high jump and long jump, while Lexi Olson took the pole vault.

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Negaunee boys qualify

Although the NHS boys didn’t win the meet, they saw plenty of great performances and qualifications around their roster. Brady Mager led the Miners by winning the high jump and finishing runner-up in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, setting a school record of 40.86 seconds in the 300.

“Our kids keep working hard in practice and the improvements on the track are the proof of that hard work,” Negaunee boys head coach Kyle Bell said.

Other notable performances for the Miners included Derek McEachern winning the 400, Kai Lacar placing third in both the 100 and 200, and Kyle Waterman qualifying for the finals in the 110 and 300 hurdles.

Negaunee’s Baron Heslip also qualified both on the track and in the field, making it in the high jump and as part of the 400 and 800 relays.

Westwood qualified for the U.P. Finals with a pair of its relays — the 800 and 3,200 — while the Patriots’ Trenton Wash was part of the logjam third-place tie in the high jump, and Louis Salmi and Gavin Comero made the top four in the pole vault.

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

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