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Slippery when wet: Even winners slide around at Al Quaal at Strom Invitational

Negaunee junior Emily Paupore, center, gets off to a fast start in the girls race at the Tracy Strom Invitational high school cross country meet held at Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 27, 2018. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)

ISHPEMING — Despite rain for much of the day, the precipitation stopped long enough to let a handful of Upper Peninsula high school cross country teams compete in the Tracy Strom Invitational at Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming Thursday afternoon.

The meet also served as a West PAC meet for the conference realigned this fall.

Ishpeming won the boys crown to remain undefeated on the season, while Hancock claimed the girls title.

The Hematites boys accumulated 29 points, with Houghton runner-up with 53, Chassell 67, Negaunee 88 and Westwood 123.

Hancock scored 52 points on the girls side, followed by Houghton with 55, Chassell 69, Ishpeming 87, Westwood 98, Calumet 133 and West Iron County 168.

Ishpeming senior Jonah Broberg, right, approaches the finish line as runner-up in the boys race and ahead of Houghton's Joe Wood at the Tracy Strom Invitational high school cross country meet held at Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 27, 2018. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)

Gwinn also participated but didn’t post a team score.

In the boys meet, Hematites senior Spencer Giroux won in 17 minutes, 24.4 seconds, the second best time in the last nine years on the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) Al Quaal course. His time was second only to former Negaunee standout and now-University of Michigan runner Colton Yesney, who has the record of 16:54.4 set in 2016.

Ishpeming head coach P.J. Pruett credited a few of his boys runners for a strong day.

“We had a good day,” Pruett said. “Jonah (Broberg) is a candidate for the (U.P.) Dream Team and he did very well. I also had a boy come from junior varsity, Joey King, who saved the show for us. He really showed his stuff (today) and helped pull the team together.”

Broberg was runner-up behind Giroux in 17:51.9, while King was 13th in 18:55.4.

Pruett added as the season goes along, competition doesn’t get easier.

“The boys want to go undefeated all year and that’s a tough thing because next week we’ll begin having double meets every week leading all the way up to U.P. Finals,” he said about the Oct. 20 culmination of the season in Munising. “Competition will get tougher, the boys want that undefeated season, I hope that they get it, but we’ve got some tough meets coming up.”

As for Giroux, he earned that second-best course time after having some trouble at the beginning due to wet conditions.

“There were definitely muddy parts,” he said. “A lot of the hills were slippery and at the start I almost fell because they were slippery. It was a little rough but other than that, it was the same as any other race.”

Down but not out, Giroux added the mishap motivated him.

“I’m not sure how I regained balance after that, but I kind of used that momentum of me falling to keep pushing the pace,” he said.

Houghton’s Joe Wood rounded out the podium in third in 17:56.8, while Negaunee junior Eric Anderson was fourth in 18:00.2.

Westwood’s top finisher was freshman Jacob Jestila in 19:15.1, while Gwinn’s first finisher was Jacob Porubsky in 20:50.0.

In the girls meet, Miners junior Emily Paupore was the class of the field as she has been all season. She won in 19:36.2, beating out Houghton’s Anabel Needham by exactly 61 seconds. Needham was runner-up in 20:37.2.

Paupore also had a near fall, but regrouped and cruised to the finish line after looking at the meet as more of a workout than a race.

“The terrain was a little tough to get your footing on,” she said. “I almost slipped once. It was interesting, very muddy, but overall it was a really nice course. I love all the hills because it makes for a hard workout. My coach and I decided on Tuesday to take it as a workout, try to sprint up those hills and keep steady on the straights.”

Paupore added the challenging, hilly course didn’t bother her.

“It’s probably the toughest course in terms of hills, but it’s definitely nice if you do like hills,” she said. “I really like hills, I don’t know why, it’s just something I enjoy. It makes it a tougher course, it makes you dig a little bit deeper and I enjoy that.”

Negaunee head coach Lisa Bigalk said she had hoped the hilly course didn’t affect her team too much.

“It is a challenging course but we try to stress the hills in practice anyway, so we generally like them,” she said. “But it was a tough course so it made for a good, hard workout. My team is working really hard, I appreciate the hard work and I’m very proud of them.

“Hopefully we continue to improve our times and get faster so we can peak at the U.P. Finals.”

Rounding out the podium for the girls was Chassell’s Lela Rautiola, who was third in 21:35.9.

Ishpeming freshman Abby Racine finished eighth in 22:09.1, while Westwood earned a top-10 finish from senior Amanda Matznick in 22:24.8. Gwinn’s Alexia Basner finished 39th in 25:18.3.

Westwood head coach Eric Hill said his team put on a strong performance, especially after having some girls at the meet who have been occupied with the Patriots’ girls tennis team.

“Our girls did great today and our boys did very well, too,” Hill said. “We had some tennis players who have only run a couple of meets for us this year, but they gave us some nice points and a couple of nice surprises. I’m happy with where they’re at right now. We’ve also had some girls all season that had great showings (today).

“Hopefully we can get the tennis girls back within the next week or so, train them for a couple of weeks and get ready for conference meets and the U.P. Finals.”

Gwinn, Ishpeming, Negaunee and Westwood will all compete at the West PAC meet No. 3 at Wawonowin Country Club on Tuesday.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.

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