Sponsored by Northern Michigan University, the marathon drew runners from far and wide, just evidenced by the variety of states represented near the top of the standings.

One big selling point for this event is that it annually has been one of the final qualifying events for next spring’s Boston Marathon, the granddaddy of marathons both by size and the years it has been around, and also one of the fastest qualifiers with its overall downhill slope in elevation from Ishpeming down to the city of Marquette.

Just about perfect Upper Peninsula weather greeted runners, which included 460 for the marathon, 596 in the half marathon, 45 people in 15 teams of three for the marathon relay, and 105 in the Wildcat 5K.

Organizers listed 57 men and 59 women for a total of 116 runners qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

Former Northern Michigan University All-American nordic skier Ian Torchia, now of Ann Arbor, shows off his form in winning the men’s half marathon at the Marquette Marathon that was run between Negaunee and Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Among those was the first finisher from the area, Talon Prusi of Negaunee, a former cross country and track and field star for NMU, who was 12th among women in 3:07:41.4, while right behind her was Erica Nelson of Marquette, who raced in the women’s 30-39 year-old age group and finished in 3 hours, 12 minutes, 19.2 seconds, third fastest of her age group and 16th overall among women.

Still among those from Marquette, about a minute behind Nelson was Jeff Nyquist, a 40-49 men’s racer, who was 14th in his age group and 66th among all men in 3:13:11.1.

Also cracking the top 50 from the area in the women’s race were two Marquette runners in the 30-39 group, Alex Bott in 30th in 3:18:40.7 and Leah Vizena in 31st in 3:18:47.2.

Those five runners were among the Boston Marathon qualifiers.

For Marquette men, Andrew LaCombe in men’s 30-39 was 28th in his age group and 69th overall in 3:13:41.3, while Joshua Collins of Ishpeming, also in 30-39, was 71st overall in 3:16:52.8, and Gabe Daavettila of Negaunee, another in 30-39, was 74th in 3:18:39.5.

Kameron Torchia of Ann Arbor won the women’s division in the half marathon at the Marquette Marathon that was run between Negaunee and Marquette on Saturday. The former Kameron Burmeister was an All-American at Northern Michigan University in cross country running and track and field. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Also breaking into the men’s top 100 was Justin Kleinschmidt of Marquette, 93rd in 3:27:34.2.

And just missing the first 100 was David Ward of Marquette, 101st in 3:29:35.7, Wyatt Makosky of Marquette, 104th in 3:31:12.1, and Gabriel Migda of Gwinn, 105th in 3:31:45.7.

Ward was also a Boston Marathon qualifier in the 50-59 age group as the qualifying times vary depending on the age group.

And another area runner also made Boston — Peter Wertanen of Negaunee finished 193rd in 4:14:38.4, a good enough time for the 70-over age group.

Cracking the top 100 for area women was also Amelia Frederickson of Negaunee, a 30-39er, in 56th in 3:40:23.6, along with Greta Rickauer of Marquette, in 20-29, 76th in 3:50:35.0; Amber Place of Marquette, in 20-29, 78th in 3:51:20.8; Ahna Larson of Marquette, also in 20-29, 82nd in 3:52:30.5; Julia Moyle of Marquette, in 19-under, 89th in 3:57:22.4; Melissa Ravitz of Marquette, in 30-39, 91st in 3:58:26.8; Kelsey Clark of Marquette, in 20-29, 96th in 4:01:28.1; and Quinn Kyle of Ishpeming, in 30-39, 98th in 4:03:53.5.

Marquette Senior High School and Northern Michigan University graduate Shayla Manitowabi, now from Albuquerque, N.M., finishes in third place in the women's division in the half marathon at the Marquette Marathon that was run between Negaunee and Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

The overall fastest runner in the marathon was Jesse Greenhagen of Mount Pleasant in the men’s 30-39 group, who finished in 2:34:59.2, about 5 1/2 minutes ahead of the runner-up. He was reported to be in second place at the 21-mile mark of this just over 26-mile race before he passed then-leader Samuel Parlette of White Lake, another 30-39er.

Second place for the men went to Seth Jones of East Lansing in 2:40:36.3, while in third was Daniel Serventi of Soldotna, Alabama, in 2:41:19.6.

All those fast runners, along with the fastest women, were easily Boston qualifiers.

For the women, Grace Heyward of Weston, Massachusetts, a 20-29 racer, won in 2:55:38.8, and like Greenhagen, trailed until the 17.7-mile marker before she overtook fellow Weston runner Olivia Hayward, who would finish runner-up in 2:57:35.7.

In third place was Abi Salm of Minneapolis in 2:59:57.6 as the only women breaking the three-hour mark.

Half-marathon

Former NMU All-American nordic skier Ian Torchia, in the 20-29 age group and now from Ann Arbor, won the half marathon in 1:04:20.2, nearly 7 1/2 minutes ahead of runner-up Mitchell Lenneman of Canton, who clocked 1:11:49.7.

Torchia was reported ahead of the pack at race start and led at every marker along the route.

In third place was Caleb Bey of Plymouth in 1:14:25.7.

Another similar sounding story came for the women’s winner, Kameron Torchia of Ann Arbor, Ian Torchia’s wife and the former Kameron Burmeister, who was an All-American in both cross country running and track and field at NMU.

Like her husband racing in the 20-29 age group, she clocked 1:18:21.9 on Saturday, nearly 3 1/2 minutes ahead of runner-up Steph Cloutier of Eleva, Wisconsin, after Kameron Torchia led at every race marker.

Shayla Manitowabi, a Marquette Senior High School and NMU graduate who ran on both schools’ cross country and track teams, was third in 1:25:30.0. She now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Also in the half marathon were more than 50 racers who currently call area cities and towns home, led by MSHS cross country member Beepsee Teeple, who won the male 19-under age group in 1:14:25.8, also missing third place overall for the men by just a tenth of a second.

Matthew McNamara of the Luce County community of McMillan was 15th in the men’s race in 1:27:22.7, while Caleb Christensen of the western Marquette County community of Champion was 36th in 1:38:23.7.

Joshua Ingber of Marquette was 40th by crossing in 1:38:35.9, Jackson Speaker of Negaunee 43rd in 1:39:04.4 and James Conlin of Marquette 47th in 1:40:18.8.

For the women, Kyle James of Marquette was 16th in 1:38:44.4, Ingrid Hoenke of Marquette 25th in 1:42:22.0, Amanda Atkins of Marquette 31st in 1:46:16.4, Ayla Miller of the Baraga County community of Pelkie 32nd in 1:46:24.5, Cicily Fortin of Marquette 34th in 1:46:32.6, Madeline Dodge of Ishpeming 42nd in 1:48:00.7 and Elizabeth Miller of Marquette 49th in 1:50:22.3.

Just missing the women’s top 50 was Brandi Logan of Marquette in 52nd and Brooke Logan of Marquette in 53rd.

Relay

In the men’s marathon relay, the Marquette-based trio of Just Beat Mitch, which included Liam Fraboulet, Hunter Gandee and Nicolaas Vermaat, was third in 3:24:25.5. Winning was Duck, Duck, Goose of Beverly Hills and composed of Tyler Dew, Jack Chope and Luke Mercer, who won by exactly 15 minutes in 2:40:42.8.

For the women, Third Street Striders of Plymouth, Minnesota, who included Sarah Kilpela, Abby Prendergast and Nicole Elasson, won in 3:17:51.2, while The Sistas of Marquette was fourth in 4:10:35.4 that included Paiton Plutchak, Brooke Kleiman and Megan Miller.

In the Co-Ed division, #freebananas of Michigamme who only were listed as Anna, Kyle and Jessica, were runners-up in 4:37:05.9. The winners by more than an hour and a half was The Crusty Jugglers of Grand Rapids, Justin Wegner, Mary Keegin and Cat McGrath, in 3:06:51.8.

Wildcat 5K

With just over 50 entries in both male and female divisions, the highest area finish in the Wildcat 5K five-kilometer run was Molly McNamara of McMillan, second place in he women’s division in 21:23.1.

Stella Rector of Marquette was fourth in the female division and winner in the 14-under division in 22:36.8, while Kelly Menge of Negaunee was fifth for women and first in 40-49 in 22:49.5.

With none from the area listed in the top 10, the men’s winner was Britton Wheeler of Traverse City in 19:15.6, about 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Connor Ptacek of Bruce, Wisconsin, in 19:25.8.

The area did have six finishers among the next 11 — Benjamin Trevillian of Marquette was 11th in 22:36.3, Evan Menge of Negaunee 12th in 23:05.1, Michael Paling of Gwinn 14th in 24:20.6, Grant Langdon of Marquette 15th in 24:30.0, Peter Holliday of Marquette 20th in 25:51.0 and John Gustafson of Marquette 21st in 26:03.0.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the meet and an examination of the Superior Timing online results at www.superiortiming.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.