They’ll likely be leading contenders at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals when they’re held in all divisions for both boys and girls at the Pictured Rocks Golf Club in Munising on Saturday morning and afternoon.

Four of the all-conference runners each come from Negaunee and Westwood with another pair haling from Ishpeming.

The Miners and Patriots will compete in Division 1 against the U.P.’s biggest schools on Saturday, while the Hematites are in Division 3, which has the smallest schools but also the largest number of teams.

Making All-West PAC for the Negaunee boys were Henry Plummer and Simon Jaklin, while for the girls it was Nori Korsman and Riley Conklin.

Ishpeming’s Sophie Mahoski works her way to ninth place in the girls race at the Tracy Strom Invitational high school cross country meet held at the Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming on Sept. 25. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Westwood honorees were Calvin Carlson, Jared Waterman and Breckin Jensen for the boys and Addy Hallum for the girls.

And from Ishpeming were Kemper Gearhart for the boys and Sophie Mahoski for the girls.

Houghton was named the West PAC Girls Team of the Year and Jeffers the conference Boys Team of the Year.

And their coaches, the Gremlins’ Traci Welch and Jets’ Sam Kilpela, earned the same Coach of the Year honors.

At the West PAC meet held on Oct. 9 in Calumet, Mahoski, a freshman, had the highest finish among Marquette County girls in fourth place in 21 minutes, 47.8 seconds, while Hallum was 11th.

In the conference boys finals held at the same time, Plummer won in 16:37.5, with Gearhart fifth, Jaklin sixth, Carlson eighth and Waterman ninth.

Story contents based on email received from Negaunee head coach Vickie Paupore. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.