Marquette’s Peter Argeropoulos celebrates winning the boys race during the Queen City-Dale Phillips Invitational high school cross country meet held at Presque Isle Park in Marquette on Thursday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — A shorthanded girls team pulled out victory by a single point for the usually dominant Marquette Senior High School cross country runners at the Queen City-Dale Phillips Invitational held at Presque Isle Park in Marquette on Thursday morning.

The Sentinels girls scored 53 points to 54 for runner-up Houghton in a field of 15 schools on a cool but beautiful day, according to MSHS head coach Kyle Detmers.

In the boys meet, Marquette had a much more comfortable margin of victory, scoring 22 points to 56 for second-place Benzie Central from the Lower Peninsula.

Gwinn is scheduled to host the Gwinn Invitational at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at K.I. Sawyer, while on Thursday, the Marquette County Meet is set for 4 p.m. back at Presque Isle and include the Sentinels, Negaunee, Ishpeming, Westwood and Gwinn.

Here are details from each half of the Queen City-Dale Phillips Invite:

Win without

all horses

Detmers reported his girls team was without its top runner, Ella Fure, and No. 3 runner, Evelyn Grant. But with their depth, the Sentinels were able to prevail despite just one runner in the top 10 — that was freshman Emma Ziegler coming in third in 20 minutes, 55.1 seconds.

She missed first place by less than a minute behind downstate Benzie Central’s Avery Kelly, who finished in 20:01.3. Kingsford sophomore Maria Murvich was a distant runner-up in 20:40.3.

Marquette made its “hay” with the rest of its point scorers all cracking the top 20. Junior Eryn Veverka was 11th in 22:07.4, senior Esme Ulland-Joy 12th in 22:13.0, freshman Ava Cantway 16th in 22:54.8 and sophomore Olivia Koren 17th in 22:55.2.

Benzie Central was a close third with 62 points, while Negaunee was fourth with 91, followed by Kingsford getting 146, Stephenson 152, Rapid River 178, Hancock 180 and Westwood ninth with 218.

Ishpeming, Munising and Gwinn were among a half-dozen teams without a full set of five runners, thus not posting a team score.

After Ziegler in third, Houghton senior Tessa Rautiola was fourth in 21:05.2 and sophomore teammate Holly Cooke fifth in 21:38.8.

Negaunee’s fastest runner was junior Keira Waterman, sixth in 21:43.2, while senior teammate Nori Korsman slipped just in front of the big Marquette group in 10th in 22:03.9. Another Miner, freshman Brynn Wiecich, was 22nd in 23:29.4.

Munising’s top two were just a few seconds apart. Sophomore Addie Bowerman was 25th in 23:43.3, while senior Olivia Cotey came in 26th in 23:45.9.

Locally, next was Negaunee junior Riley Conklin in 28th in 23:52.5, then Ishpeming’s first in was freshman Sophie Mahoski, 35th in 24:18.7.

Westwood’s top finisher was senior Addy Hallum in 41st in 25:18.0, with fellow Patriots senior Elizabeth King 44th in 26:06.3.

Gwinn’s lone representative was freshman Wanda Lucas, 73rd in 40:07.9.

In the girls JV meet, Marquette scored 20 points to Houghton’s 38 as the Gremlins’ Sela Niska won in 21:38.9, but the Sentinels counted the next five places, led by junior Ava Polkinghorne as runner-up in 23:55.5.

Argeropoulos

the fastest

Senior Peter Argeropoulos led a 1-2-3 sweep by Marquette in the boys meet, clocking 16:32.3 as fellow Marquette senior Rorik Holmquist was second in 16:39.6 and junior teammate Lucas Ballard third in 16:50.6.

That trio had a more than 30-second margin on the rest of the field, which was paced by Negaunee senior Henry Plummer in fourth in 17:25.3.

Two more Sentinels cracked the top 10, senior Beepsee Teeple seventh in 17:53.2 and sophomore Lake Skytta ninth in 18:14.6.

In the team standings, after No. 1 Marquette and No. 2 Benzie Central, Houghton was third with 93 and Gladstone fourth with 140.

Close on their heels were Westwood and Negaunee, each with 142 as the Patriots won the sixth-runner tiebreaker by one spot.

Rapid River finished seventh with 191, followed by Kingsford with 211 and Stephenson 221.

Gwinn, Munising and Ishpeming again were among a half-dozen schools not fielding full teams.

Westwood had the first pair of area runners in the second 10. Freshman Calvin Carlson was 15th in 18:29.7, while senior teammate Jared Waterman made 17th in 18:55.6.

After Marquette sophomore Welly Fillmore was 19th in 19:03.7, Munising junior Blake Lakosky was 22nd in 19:15.4, Marquette senior Carson Wernholm 27th in 19:25.4 and Ishpeming junior Kemper Gearhart 31st in 19:50.6.

Gwinn’s top finisher was next among locals, freshman John Green, 35th in 20:04.2, followed by a trio from Westwood — senior William Niemi, 39th in 20:10.0; senior Johnny Jestila, 41st in 20:18.3, and junior Caleb Christensen, 42nd in 20:23.7.

And Ishpeming had senior Mateusz Wozniak 44th in 20:33.4, while Negaunee sophomore Anders Johnston was 49th in 21:04.8.

In a boys JV meet with four scoring teams, Marquette easily won with 17 points, while Negaunee was runner-up with 58 as Houghton and Gladstone each had 70.

The Sentinels carried off their win by sweeping the top four places, led by senior Caden Laurn winning in 18:36.4 and sophomore teammate Garrett Crimmins runner-up in 18:45.9.

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