The Sentinels left no doubt that they would, running away with their fifth consecutive championship by scoring what some are scrambling to find out if it could be a state-record 200 points — that would be a state record for both the Upper and Lower peninsulas.

Marquette, which also won for the ninth time in 10 years, was followed by Sault Ste. Marie way, way back with 65 points, Kingsford 53 and Negaunee in fourth with 47.

The Sentinels piled up more points than those three closest challengers combined — with 35 points to spare.

Gladstone and Houghton tied for fifth with 40 points, while Menominee had 31, Calumet 25, Escanaba 17, Westwood 10th with 6 and Manistique 11th with 3.

Marquette's Kyler Sager, center, crosses the finish line to easily win the Division 1 boys 400-meter relay at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday in Kingsford. His relay teammates were Drew Bradley, Pierce Pittsley and James Goodwin. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

“They’re a real hard-working group,” Sentinels coach Derek Marr said. “We talk about effort and attitude. We give the guys challenging goals and support them with continuous positive reinforcement.”

Marquette senior Michael Cattoor set the U.P. all-finals pole vault record after clearing the bar at 14 feet, 7 inches, shattering the previous all-time best (14-feet even in Class A-B) by Wade Hodge of Menominee in 1992 and the former D-1 record (13-8) set by Dayton Miron of Escanaba six years ago.

He also topped the previous school record, which he had shared with classmate Drew Bradley at 14-6 since Wednesday.

Bradley was runner-up this time at 14-0. Westwood junior Louis Salmi placed third with 13-6, while Gladstone sophomore Andrew Karl was fourth at 12-6.

“I had the guy from Gladstone and Drew here to push me,” Cattoor said. “Drew and I have been pushing each other back and forth. It’s good to have that competition in practice. We’ve been putting in extra time. We stayed about an hour extra each day.”

Marquette grabbed the top three places in the 200-meter dash, led by senior Jacob MacPhee in 22.72 seconds. He was followed by juniors Pierce Pittsley in 22.87 and Ford Richardson in 22.95, all less than a quarter-second apart.

MacPhee added a first in the 400 relay (50.69), helped the Sentinels set the U.P. Finals record in the 800 relay (1:36.30) that surpassed the 15-year-old record of 1:36.73 held by Kingsford, and anchored the winning 1,600 relay (3:34.44).

Sophomore Lucas Ballard added a first in the 800 (1:58.09). He was followed by Houghton junior Luke Hill (1:59.72) and Marquette junior Beepsee Teeple (2:00.88).

“I’m excited about it,” Ballard said. “We had a good day. It was great running with our seniors for the last time. I’ll probably take a week off and get back in training.”

Sentinels’ senior James Barch earned his first 1,600 title in a personal-best 4:19.52, followed by Soo junior Gabe Litzner (4:20.16) and Ballard (4:21.40).

“I was hoping to sneak under 4:20 in the last meet of the year,” Barch said. “This is pretty satisfying. I ran 4:22 twice. Last year I had a 4:35 here.

“I decided if anybody took the lead, I’d go with them. If they slowed down, I’d take it.

“We have a team that’s deep, which makes it fun. It’s nice to have guys to run with. It makes you want to get out and run more.

“Cross country definitely gave us momentum for track. With all of us around 15 minutes, it makes it exciting.”

Litzner improved on last year’s U.P. D-1 record time by more than four seconds in the 3,200. He ran a 9:31.20 on this sunny and mild afternoon compared to 9:35.63 at the end of last season.

“I didn’t really have much of a strategy,” he said. “I wanted to take the lead at different times to spice things up a little. I’m happy about it.

“I actually went out a little slow, then picked up the pace in the last 600 meters. I really pushed myself in the end.

“This is a big confidence builder. Things didn’t go quite the way I planned this year. This will motivate me to do some hard training during the summer.”

Litzner will be among several U.P. distance runners in pursuit of the all-time two-mile record (9:22 in Class C) set by Fred Teddy of L’Anse in 1972.

Soo junior Javonte Bellamy captured the 100 in 10.97, missing the U.P. Finals record by just two-hundredths of a second, and Negaunee senior Brady Mager broke the 40-second barrier in the 300 hurdles for the first time, winning in 39.88.

Marquette junior Jacob Norman won the 110 hurdles at 15.52, edging Mager by 0.13 of a second.

John Vrancic is a regular sports contributor at the Daily Press in Escanaba and was reporting this story for the Michigan High School Athletic Association website, mhsaa.com.