SHEPHERD — Seniors Peter Argeropoulos and Ella Fure each finished in 14th place in their respective boys and girls races to lead Marquette at the Bluejay Invitational high school cross country meets held in downstate Shepherd on Saturday.

Argeropoulos clocked 15 minutes, 50.39 seconds on the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course to miss the top spot by just under 35 seconds as the Sentinels boys finished in seventh place in a field of 35 teams in the Elite Division.

Fure came in at 18:35.60 to complete the course a little more than 90 seconds after the winner as the MSHS girls were 18th in their 22-team Elite Division.

In both boys and girls meets, Marquette was the lone Upper Peninsula entrant in what was otherwise all Lower Peninsula teams.

The Sentinels head to Escanaba on Thursday afternoon for the Eskymo Invitational to be held at Ludington Park near Lake Michigan.

Here are more details from the Bluejay Invite:

Boys make strong run

The Marquette boys scored 268 points as Flint Powers Catholic won with 109. The other teams finishing ahead of the Sentinels were Grand Ledge with 154, Lowell 176, Alma 210, East Grand Rapids 217 and Grand Blanc 237.

The rest of the top 10 included Traverse City Central right after MSHS in eighth with 272, Charlevoix 314 and Oxford 390.

Flint Powers’ Lennox Naswell won in 15:13.94, barely more than two seconds ahead of runner-up Ian Morgan of Okemos in 15:15.94.

Argeropoulos was less than 20 seconds behind seventh-place Xavier Solgot of Macomb L’Anse Creuse North in 15:31.65 and within 13 seconds of 10th-place Avi Elabed of Lowell in 15:37.77.

Another Marquette senior, Rorik Holmquist, was less than 10 seconds after Argeropoulos, finishing 17th in 15:57.84.

Next for the Sentinels was junior Lucas Ballard, who was 42nd in 16:24.18, then senior Beepsee Teeple in 65th in 16:41.21, sophomore Lake Skytta 135th in 17:31.74, sophomore Welly Fillmore 169th in 18:01.41 and sophomore William Lindsay 171st in 18:02.06.

The standings showed 246 runners completing the boys race.

Fure paces MSHS girls

Marquette had a harder time in team scoring in the girls race as besides Fure, the other scorers for the Sentinels each came in around 100th place.

MSHS scored 384 points as host Shepherd was right in front of them with 380. Traverse City West won with 108, while Okemos was a close second with 117, followed by TC Central third with 160, then Midland Dow 204 and Utica 212.

Coming after Marquette were Remus Chippewa Hills in 19th with 438, Stanton Central Montcalm 521, Macomb L’Anse Creuse North 529 and Flushing 589.

Katie Berkshire of Gaylord won the girls race in 16:58.71, not quite 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Rachel Smith of Okemos in 17:06.86 as the field included 163 finishers.

Fure finished within 30 seconds of sixth-place Taryn Moore of Oxford, who clocked 18:06.42, and was not quite 15 seconds after 10th-place Elise Barden of Frankenmuth in 18:21.37.

Marquette’s four other team scorers were all within 10 seconds and five places of each other, with MSHS head coach Kyle Detmers noting that all his girls runners posted season-best times.

Junior Eryn Veverka led that pack in 97th place in 21:16.05, followed by senior Esme Ulland-Joy in 99th in 21:22.85, freshman Ava Cantway 101st in 21:24.70 and sophomore Evelyn Grant in 102nd in 21:24.72.

The Sentinels’ other two runners weren’t too far behind them, either. Freshman Amira Perrier was 109th in 21:46.94 and sophomore Olivia Koren 118th in 22:02.33.

JV races

Senior Caden Laurn led the Marquette JV boys to seventh place among 24 teams with 201 points. He clocked 18:04.15 to finish 23rd as fellow senior Carson Wernholm was 30th in 18:13.72 and sophomore Garrett Crimmins 33rd in 18:14.28.

The Sentinels finished 12th among 17 teams in the JV girls meet with 279 points. Junior Ava Polkinghorne paced MSHS in 25th in 22:39.37 while freshman Alana Figler was 45th in 23:12.94.

Story contents based on email received from Marquette head coach Kyle Detmers and an examination of the results at Athletic.net. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.