Held at Forest Akers East Golf Course, this all-day event featured a dozen races, eight of them for varsity high school teams. There were also two college meets and two high school JV meets.

Marquette head coach Kyle Detmers, who said it was a hot but otherwise beautiful day in the southern Lower Peninsula, noted that the Sentinels were the only Upper Peninsula school in attendance, while there were several high schools from the Toledo, Ohio, area, and possibly other places out of state.

The Marquette girls ran in the Green Race meant for MHSAA Division 1 or equivalent schools, while the boys were in the Elite Race for the best programs regardless of division.

Fure close to winning

From left in the bright red singlets for Marquette near the front of the pack at the start of the boys race are Lucas Ballard, Rorik Holmquist, Peter Argeropolous and Lake Skytta during the Queen City-Dale Phillips Invitational meet held at Presque Isle Park in Marquette on Aug. 28. All four Sentinels runners finished in the top 10, including Argeropolous winning. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Fure, a senior, led the Sentinels girls with a third-place finish on the five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course in 19 minutes, 38.4 seconds. She was one of two runners to break Novi’s stranglehold at the top of the standings as that Detroit-area school had three of the top five finishers.

Novi’s Katelynn Egli won in 19:25.0, about 13 1/2 seconds ahead of Fure, and runner-up Emerie Schmidlin of St. Ursula of Toledo, Ohio, came in at 19:37.1, barely more than a full second in front of the Marquette runner.

With those top finishers, Novi was also a big winner in the team standings with 48 points as St. Ursula was runner-up with 137.

The Sentinels placed 11th of 29 schools posting a team score (and four that didn’t) with 347 points as Fure was the only Marquette runner in the top 50.

Senior Esme Ulland-Joy was next for MSHS in 72nd place in 22:07.8, while junior teammate Eryn Veverka was 76th in 22:17.7 and sophomore Evelyn Grant right after her in 77th in 22:20.6.

Marquette’s Esme Ulland-Joy runs her way to fourth place in the girls race at the Marquette County Meet held at Presque Isle Park in Marquette on Sept. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Freshman Ava Cantway led another cluster of Marquette runners and was the last team-scoring Sentinels’ athlete, placing 141st in 23:49.2. Close on her heels were sophomore Olivia Koren in 142nd in 23:50.3 and freshman Amira Perrier 144th in 23:51.0.

Also, senior Elle DeBolt was 220th in 26:19.5 and junior Ava Polkinghorne 229th in 26:56.5.

The results on Superior Timing, online at superiortiming.com, showed 269 finishers out of about 290 that started the race.

Argeropoulos

fits in

Argeropoulos, a senior, placed 18th in the boys Elite Race in 16:22.1, a little over 45 seconds after race winner Brandon Cloud of Northville, who clocked 15:34.3.

Marquette placed seventh among 13 scoring teams (and seven that didn’t) with 175 points. Northville won with 53 with Brighton runner-up with 128 and Alma third with 131.

Right after Argeropoulos was senior teammate Rorik Holmquist in 19th in 16:24.2. Both of them missed a top-10 finish by less than 25 seconds.

This race included 143 finishers out of 145 who started.

After the two Sentinels seniors, scoring for their team was junior teammate Lucas Ballard, 33rd in 16:51.6; senior Beepsee Teeple, 58th in 17:35.7; and sophomore Lake Skytta, 86th in 18:16.7.

Also competing for MSHS was sophomore William Lindsay, 104th in 18:48.9; senior Carson Wernholm, 106th in 19:08.0; sophomore DJ Menhennick, 107th in 19:12.5; sophomore Jayden Seekie, 124th in 19:46.5; sophomore Welly Fillmore, 125th in 19:53.6; senior Caden Laurn, 126th in 19:58.8; and sophomore Garrett Crimmins, 142nd in 22:28.3.

JV races

Marquette’s top finish over the boys and girls JV races was senior Zuri Brindle in the girls race finishing 33rd in 25:25.4 as the Sentinels were fifth among 15 scoring teams with 180 points.

Northville won that meet with 20 points, taking four of the top five places, including race winner and sophomore Ella Rohrhoff in 21:53.8.

Nest for the MSHS JV girls were a trio of freshmen — Sophie Coxen 37th in 26:04.6, Alaira DeGroot 43rd in 26:23.5 and Camilla Papin 45th in 26:28.4.

The Marquette JV boys didn’t have a full team with three runners, all freshmen, but Dale Taylor had the Sentinels’ highest finish of 94th in 22:13.8.

Northville and Romeo had every one of the first 16 finishers, led by Northville senior Alexander Lipski winning in 17:55.7.

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