That led to the Miners having the highest team finishes among area schools at the meet, whose titles were swept by Houghton.

The Negaunee girls finished runner-up in the girls meet with 61 points, well behind the Gremlins’ 21 but just ahead of third-place Hancock’s 64. Calumet was fourth with 93, while Westwood had 113 as three other schools didn’t have enough finishers to post a team score — host Ishpeming, Escanaba and West Iron County.

The Miners slotted in three girls in a row in sixth, seventh and eighth places, all less than eight seconds apart.

NHS senior Marlee Plaxco was sixth in 22 minutes, 36.1 seconds, junior Nori Korsman seventh in 23:34.8 and sophomore Riley Conklin eighth in 23:43.7.

Negaunee’s Marlee Plaxco approaches the finish line to come in sixth place during the girls race at the Tracy Strom Invitational high school cross country meet held in Ishpeming on Thursday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

The next area finisher in the girls race was Westwood junior Addy Hallum in 13th in 24:18.7. Also cracking the top 20 were Negaunee freshman Maija Roberts, 16th in 25:16.3, and Westwood senior Lexi Thibeault, 17th in 26:20.0.

Ishpeming’s first finisher was senior Laynie Korpi, 25th in 27:44.0, while Westwood’s Nos. 2 and 3 finishers were less than five seconds apart, sophomore Oni Heinzel, 29th in 28:42.8, and junior Madeline Rye, 30th in 28:47.5.

The girls race was won by Houghton junior Tessa Rautiola in 20:41.2, just over 20 seconds ahead of senior teammate Roman Trevino Peterlin in 21:02.8.

In fact, the Gremlins had the top four finishers as HHS freshman Sela Niska was third in 21:17.4 and Houghton senior Lily Ross fourth in 21:59.7. The top five were rounded out by Hancock senior Ella Keranen in 22:04.6.

In the boys meet, Negaunee junior Simon Jaklin was ninth in 19:36.7, the highest finish for an area runner.

Houghton’s Birk Seagren, second from right, leads the start of the boys race at the Tracy Strom Invitational high school cross country meet held at the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming on Thursday. Seagren won the boys race and Jeffers’ Landon Larson, front left, was runner-up. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

He led the Miners to third place with 103 points. Houghton won a close race for the team title with 30 points as Jeffers was runner-up with 36.

Westwood was just behind Negaunee in fourth with 108, while Calumet was fifth with 118 and Gwinn sixth with 135. Teams represented but not with enough runners for a team score were Ishpeming, Republic-Michigamme, Hancock, Escanaba and WIC.

Five more area runners finished in the boys’ second 10 — Negaunee senior Michael Slawinski was 11th in 19:55.2, Gwinn senior Thomas Jenkins 14th in 20:29.5, Westwood junior William Niemi 15th in 20:41.6, Gwinn senior Ezekiel Post 17th in 20:56.8 and Westwood junior Breckin Jensen 19th in 21:05.8.

Slawinski only missed 10th-place Blake Heltunen of Jeffers by seven-tenths of a second.

Ishpeming’s lone finisher was freshman Logan Goyen, 43rd in 28:03.8, and R-M was represented by senior Kreegan Gransinger, 46th in 30:34.9.

Houghton senior Birk Seagren won the boys race in 17:43.4, exactly 15 seconds ahead of Jeffers junior Landon Larson in 17:58.4. Larson’s teammate and fellow junior Cameron Anderson was third in 18:03.2, while Gremlins junior Benjamin Hemmer was fourth in 18:27.0 and Calumet sophomore Andrew Junttila fifth in 19:04.9.

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