Local Sports

Munising just misses doubling up at U.P. Finals

HOUGHTON -- It was oh-so-close to a sweep for the Munising squads in Division 2 at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals in high school cross country held at the Michigan Tech Ski Trails near Houghton on Saturday.

Even with its highest finisher in third place, the Mustangs teams were poised to win both team titles. MHS pulled it off for the girls, beating out runner-up Rudyard by nine points.

But the boys team championship came down to the sixth-runner tiebreaker, and there Rudyard prevailed with 16th place compared to 18th for Munising.

Here are more details from the meets:

Boys

Both the Mustangs and Bulldogs scored 42 points, totaled by taking the place of each runner among those included in team scoring. Runners from schools not posting a team score aren't figured into point scoring.

Jeffers was also close in third place with 50, while Brimley had 101 and Ironwood 127.

A number of other schools didn't field a full five runners, thus not having a team score, and included Ishpeming, Gwinn, Hancock, Wakefield-Marenisco and Norway.

Ishpeming senior Kemper Gearhart won the boys title in 17 minutes, 48.2 seconds, a little over a dozen seconds ahead of runner-up Eli Folkersma of Rudyard in 18:00.7.

Munising senior Blake Lakosky was third in 18:10.1, with the other Mustangs scorers being freshman Evan Kelto seventh in 18:48.5, senior Orin Shalom 11th in 19:12.7, senior Nolan Dolaskie 12th in 19:18.3 and sophomore Dylan Krause 14th in 19:30.3.

Their sixth runner was senior Ben Dryke, who was 22nd among all runners in 20:22.6, with junior Bryce Kevern finishing 34th.

Rudyard had the second, eighth, ninth, 13th and 15th runners with its sixth runner coming in 19th, junior Bryce Mitchell in 20:11.6.

Gwinn's top finisher was sophomore John Green in 18th in 20:06.6, with sophomore teammate Jonathan Sheen 38th and junior Weston Anderson 42nd.

Ishpeming's other finisher was freshman Sam Ryan in 43rd.

Girls

It was a bit more cut-and-dried for the Munising girls even as Newberry had the top two finishers.

The Mustangs scored 48 points, with Rudyard runner-up with 57, Jeffers having 69, Hancock 113 and Brimley 115.

Newberry was sixth with 123 while Ironwood had 196. Several other schools didn't post a team score.

Newberry senior Abby Taylor won by just a shade over 13 seconds in 20:16.1 over sophomore teammate Molly McNamara, who clocked 20:29.3.

They had the better part of a minute over the rest of the field. Munising freshman Emma Conklin was third in 21:15.1 and freshman Siri Jacobson of Wakefield-Marenisco fourth in 21:37.8.

Ishpeming, which was just one runner shy of a team score, was led by sophomore Sophie Mahoski in fifth in 21:38.2.

Also cracking the top 10 from the area was Mustangs junior Addie Bowerman, seventh in 21:56.0.

Munising also plugged in three more finishers in the second 10 -- freshman Edon Kidd was 14th in 23:27.2, junior Maya Weiss 15th in 23:30.5 and junior Zoey Kidd 17th in 23:51.2.

The Mustangs saw freshman Natalie Brock finish 22nd in 24:31.2 and junior Brynn Meyer in 31st.

Ishpeming junior Madison Longtine was 35th, with freshman teammate Leah Nerlfi 41st and junior Lani Paananen 50th.

For Newberry among its seniors, Emily Mills was 44th, Ari Cornell 45th, Delaney Bliss 49th and Allison Wallace 52nd.

Story contents based on an examination of the Superior Timing website at www.superiortiming.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.