Newberry’s Taylor fastest at Negaunee Invite
Newberry’s Abby Taylor works her way in second place around a mile into the girls race at the Negaunee Invitational high school cross country meet held in Negaunee on Tuesday. Taylor won by nearly 20 seconds. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Ishpeming's Kemper Gearhart crosses the finish line as runner-up in the boys race at the Negaunee Invitational high school cross country meet held in Negaunee on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Newberry’s Abby Taylor works her way in second place around a mile into the girls race at the Negaunee Invitational high school cross country meet held in Negaunee on Tuesday. Taylor won by nearly 20 seconds. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Ishpeming's Kemper Gearhart crosses the finish line as runner-up in the boys race at the Negaunee Invitational high school cross country meet held in Negaunee on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
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NEGAUNEE -- A pair of Newberry runners crashed the West PAC party at the Negaunee Invitational high school cross country meet and made off with a first-place ribbon on Tuesday afternoon.
Indians senior Abby Taylor won the girls race by nearly 20 seconds, while sophomore teammate Molly McNamara was a close third.
Otherwise, West PAC members Negaunee and Houghton carted off girls and boys team titles, respectively, while a Gremlins runner also won the boys race by almost 20 seconds.
West PAC teams were scheduled to run at the Wawonowin Country Club in Champion on Thursday for conference meet No. 3, then travel to Houghton for the Gremlin Invitational that doubles as West PAC meet No. 4 next Thursday.
Newberry was set to join the field at the John Prokos Memorial Elks Invite in Escanaba on Thursday before going to Engadine for Eastern Upper Peninsula Conference meet No. 1 on Monday.
Here are details from the Negaunee Invite:
Girls
Taylor clocked 20 minutes, 6.8 seconds to beat out runner-up Julia Plaxco, a freshman at Negaunee, who came in at 20:25.7.
About 5 1/2 seconds later was Newberry's McNamara in 20:31.2.
But with Newberry only having four runners, the Indians didn't post a team score.
Instead, the Miners edged out Houghton for the team title, scoring 25 points to 32 for the Gremlins.
None of the other eight schools who had finishers had the five runners required for a score. In addition to Newberry, they included Ishpeming, Gwinn and Republic-Michigamme.
Negaunee's second finisher was senior Keira Waterman in fifth place in 21:27.9, while sophomore teammate Brynn Wieciech led four consecutive Miners just a little further back.
Wieciech was 10th in 23:16.7, followed by junior Eliza Sicotte 11th in 23:50.0, senior Riley Conklin 12th in 24:20.7 and junior Adela Miller 13th in 24:43.9.
Before that group was Ishpeming sophomore Sophia Mahoski, who took eighth in 22:41.7. Hematites junior teammate Madison Longtine was 20th in 27:05.0.
From R-M, senior Zoe Blubaugh was 21st in 27:11.0, while Gwinn's first finisher was freshman Rylee Brower in 24th in 28:04.2. In addition, Negaunee senior Chloe LaCosse was 25th in 28:12.4.
Boys
Houghton won the team title with 29 points, followed by Gladstone with 45, Negaunee 52 and Westwood 94. Other schools had runners, but not the five needed for a team score.
Gremlins junior Brandon Van Karsen won in 18:09.7, with Ishpeming senior Kemper Gearhart runner-up in 18:28.0.
Just one other area runner also cracked the top 10 -- Miners sophomore Tyler Rautiola was eighth in 19:32.4.
Negaunee had another four in the second 10, however, all consecutively. Miners junior Anders Johnston was 12th in 20:21.9, junior Quin Karlstrom 13th in 20:28.6, freshman Evan Menge 14th in 20:29.2 and senior Marcel Juul 15th in 20:36.8.
Westwood's top time came from senior Caleb Christensen in 16th in 20:37.3, while sophomore teammate Nicholas Christensen was 20th in 21:04.4.
Gwinn's first finisher was sophomore John Green in 22nd in 21:18.9, while Patriots freshman Noah Wachter was 23rd in 21:26.2 and WHS sophomore Jude Kyllonen 25th in 22:10.0.
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.