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Patriots boys, Miners girls runners-up in Houghton

By Journal Sports Staff

HOUGHTON — The Westwood boys and Negaunee girls finished as runners-up at the Houghton Invitational cross country meet held in Houghton on Monday.

The Patriots boys used their depth to pull out second place over Negaunee, which had two finishers ahead of all of Westwood’s.

Westwood scored 58 points to the Miners’ 88 as the host Gremlins won the meet with 28. Calumet was fourth with 103, Gwinn fifth with 114 and Hancock sixth with 133. Ishpeming didn’t have enough runners for a team score.

In the girls meet, a deep Negaunee squad earned the No. 2 team position with 68 points as Houghton again won with 18. Hancock was third with 82, even as a Hancock runner beat out the Miners’ best, while Calumet was fourth with 84 and Westwood fifth with 101. Ishpeming, Gwinn and West Iron County didn’t have a team score.

Negaunee had three top-10 finishers in the girls meet — senior Marlee Plaxco was sixth in 20 minutes, 53.5 seconds, junior Nori Korsman eighth in 21:08.1 and sophomore Riley Conklin ninth in 21:26.3.

Westwood junior Addy Hallum just missed the first 10 in 11th place as she clocked 22:17.4.

In addition, Ishpeming senior Laynie Korpi was 16th in 23:23.0, while Westwood had three in a row less than 30 seconds apart — senior Lexi Thibeault was 20th in 24:15.9, junior Madeline Rye 21st in 24:18.4 and sophomore Oni Heinzel 22nd in 24:39.1.

Negaunee had two more seniors immediately after those Patriots — Olivia Orchard was 23rd in 24:45.6 and Emma Arbelius 24th in 24:55.0.

Gwinn’s finisher was sophomore Adeline Derwin, 36th in 31:08.0.

Overall in the girls meet, Houghton’s claimed the top three spots, junior Tessa Rautiola winning in 19:11.6, senior Roman Trevino Peterlin runner-up in 19:48.3 and freshman Sela Niska third in 19:55.0.

In the boys meet, the top two area finishers were from Negaunee — both junior Simon Jaklin and senior Michael Slawinski were called in a dead heat for fifth place, each in 18:01.2.

But Westwood had three finishers — all juniors — not far behind them, with its other two scorers also cracking the top 20.

Leading the Patriots was Michael Stickel, eighth in 18:27.0; then Breckin Jensen, ninth in 18:41.6; and also Jared Waterman, 10th in 18:47.5.

Westwood’s scoring was rounded out by junior William Niemi in 13th in 19:24.4 and senior Niko Heinzel in 18th in 19:46.8.

Gwinn had two seniors in this area of the standings. Thomas Jenkins was 11th in 18:47.9, while Donald Jourden was 12th in 19:24.0.

Eight more area runners finished between 20th and 30th — Westwood junior Johnny Jestila was 21st in 20:02.4, Gwinn sophomore Eloi Perez 22nd in 20:24.2, Westwood junior Isak Ruspakka 24th in 20:31.5, Negaunee sophomore Joshua Frederick 25th in 20:41.0, Negaunee freshman Marvin Niemi 26th in 20:45.2, Negaunee senior Caden Steede 27th in 20:54.5, Negaunee junior Blayne LaCosse 29th in 21:22.3 and Negaunee freshman Anders Johnston 30th in 21:26.7.

Ishpeming’s finishers were junior Anthony Rimshas, 36th in 26:29.5, and freshman Logan Goyen, 37th in 28:33.9.

The Houghton boys claimed the top two and three of the first four finishers. Gremlins senior Birk Seagren won in 16:38.1 while junior teammate Benjamin Hemmer was runner-up in 16:54.9.

Area teams are scheduled to participate in conference championships on Thursday.

Negaunee, Westwood, Gwinn and Ishpeming will be at the West PAC Championships at Wawonowin Country Club in Champion at 4 p.m.

Munising is set to be at the Skyline Central Championships at Stephenson at 4 p.m. EDT that day, while Marquette is set for the Great Northern Conference Championships in Kingsford at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

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

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