#1

Kwynn Voskuhl of L’Anse runs the opening leg of the Division 3 girls 800-meter relay at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Kingsford. The Purple Hornets’ quartet, which also included Sylvia Allen, Princess Pierre and Breyelle Bowers, finished runner-up. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

#2

Princess Pierre of L’Anse runs the third leg of the Division 3 girls 800-meter relay at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Kingsford. The Purple Hornets’ quartet, which also included Kwynn Voskuhl, Sylvia Allen and Breyelle Bowers, finished runner-up. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Princess Pierre of L’Anse runs the third leg of the Division 3 girls 800-meter relay at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Kingsford. The Purple Hornets’ quartet, which also included Kwynn Voskuhl, Sylvia Allen and Breyelle Bowers, finished runner-up. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

#3

Breyelle Bowers of L’Anse, second from right, crosses the finish line in second place in the Division 3 girls 800-meter relay at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Kingsford. St. Ignace won the event as the Purple Hornets’ team also included Kwynn Voskuhl, Princess Pierre and Sylvia Allen. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

#4

Newberry’s Adanne Nwose, center right in black, wins the Division 3 girls 100-meter dash by four-hundredths of a second over over Lake Linden-Hubbell’s Emily Jokela, just to her left, at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Kingsford. They were followed by Big Bay De Noc’s Destiny Bleau, second from left, Engadine’s Bianca Briggs, between Bleau and Jokela, and Ontonagon’s Alli Bobula, just right of Nwose. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

#5

Newberry’s Samantha Taylor leads during the second lap and would go on to win the Division 3 girls 1,600-meter run at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in track and field held Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Kingsford. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

#6

KINGSFORD — The Taylor sisters have been a mainstay in Newberry High School girls track and field throughout this season.

And on Saturday, they provided more than half of their team’s scoring to help Newberry gain its first MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 3 Finals championship in a decade with 84 points.

Runner-up Lake Linden-Hubbell scored 76 points, while third-place Stephenson had 52.

St. Ignace was fourth with 47, followed by Brimley with 42, Big Bay de Noc and Dollar Bay with 31 each, Forest Park 25 and Rapid River and Ewen-Trout Creek 18 apiece.

L’Anse tied North Dickinson and Chassell for 11th, all with 16 points, while Ontonagon had 15, Engadine 14, Carney-Nadeau 11, Baraga came in 17th place with 9, Escanaba Holy Name 4 and Mid Peninsula 2.

“This is also the first time our boys and girls won together, which is very exciting,” Newberry coach Cori Canfield after the Indians boys also scored 84 points and also beat out LL-H as the runner-up school.

“We’re going to lose some good seniors, but we’ll have some good freshmen coming in. I’m optimistic about the next two to three years. You prepare the kids for this all year, then it’s up to them to execute the plan.”

Junior Samantha Taylor set a U.P. Finals record in the 1,600-meter run in 5 minutes, 8.47 seconds, shaving nearly 6.5 seconds off last year’s record time of 5:14.9.

Earlier, she established a school record in the 3,200 in 11:42, while sophomore Abby Taylor took the 800 (2:26.71).

“I really wanted to try my hardest in the mile, which is my strongest event, and work hard in the other races, and it paid off,” Samantha Taylor said. “This makes me feel more confident in my training and gives me a little momentum going into the cross country season.

“Being supported by my teammates and coaches is definitely a highlight. Going into my senior year gives me more motivation because it’s my last year.”

She anchored Newberry to a runner-up finish in the 1,600 relay (4:29.54), while Abby Taylor was runner-up in the 1,600 (5:30.82) and 3,200 runs (12:35.24). In the 3,200 relay, Abby anchored the third-place finisher (10:38.89).

Senior teammate Adanne Nwose won a close 100 dash in 12.91 seconds, with Lake Linden-Hubbell senior Emily Jokela edging Big Bay de Noc freshman Destiny Bleau on a lean for second place, clocking 12.947 to 12.950 — a four-hundredths of a second difference between the top three finishers.

“I worked on my starts this week,” Nwose said. “I was really nervous coming in here. I wasn’t supposed to win the 100, which made for added pressure. It was very nerve-wracking.

“I didn’t think I had won. There were two people to my right. It was crazy close. I’ve been getting under 13 seconds in the past few meets. I would have been very disappointed if I hadn’t gone under 13 today.”

Bleau won the 200 in a meet and school-record 26.02, followed by Rapid River senior Emma Sundling (26.86) and Nwose (26.93).

“I feel pretty good about it,” Bleau said. “It’s a good way to end the season. There were a lot of schools here I hadn’t seen before. I’d say I had good starts. I think this is something I can learn from.”

Her meet record in the 200 topped the previous best of 26.36 seconds set by Jamie Dompier of Chassell in 2013.

Jokela, a Grand Valley State recruit, was a triple winner by taking the 100 hurdles in 15.98, 300 hurdles (46.46) and 400 dash (59.84).

“I think the competition draws the best out of me,” she said. “They (Newberry) are a bigger school. We’re happy with where we finished. My starts were pretty good. I think this will give me more motivation to work hard for next year.”

Dollar Bay junior Kiera Isaacson won the high jump with a school record as she cleared a height of 5 feet, 4 inches, and sophomore teammate Laila Bell claimed the long jump (15-7) and placed third in the pole vault (8-0).

Baraga’s Elisa Delene was runner-up in the pole vault, clearing 9-feet even as Avery Visnaw of St. Ignace won it by getting over at 9-6.

L’Anse’s Breyelle Bowers was second in the long jump with a leap of 14-9.25, while the Purple Hornets were runner-up in the 800 relay with a team that included Bowers.

Stephenson junior Faith Cappaert took second in the 800 (2:28.6), third in both the 400 (1:02.35) and 1,600 (5:48.01), and anchored the winning 3,200 relay (10:24.35).

Brimley junior Tallulah Slabosheski captured the shot put (33-6.5) and discus (109-9).

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.