MARQUETTE — The only surprise about Ishpeming winning the boys title Saturday morning in Iron River is that the Hematites were even there.

Ishpeming got the OK to return to playing sports in time for its cross country teams to appear at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 finals held at the George Young Recreation Area.

It couldn’t have been a surprise that the deep Hematites ran off and hid with the championship trophy, placing all five of its scoring runners in the top six with two more runners in the next six places just for insurance.

Ishpeming scored 17 points to 57 for distant runner-up Jeffers. Wakefield-Marenisco/Bessemer was third with 98, Ironwood fourth with 109 and Manistique fifth with 114. Baraga was among three teams that didn’t post a team score but had runners at the event.

In the Division 3 meet held Saturday afternoon at Pictured Rocks Golf Course in Munising, the host Mustangs carted off the girls title with 54 points, also using quality depth to hold off runner-up Chassell, which had 73. Stephenson was third with 106, Newberry fourth with 120 and Superior Central 10th with 204.

Here are details about the boys and girls races at each venue:

Division 2 meet

At Iron River, Silas Broberg led a 1-2-3-5-6 finish by the Hematites in the boys meet. Each of those top finishers is a senior as Broberg clocked 20 minutes, 24.8 seconds to beat out teammate Jordan Longtine, who was about 35 seconds back in 20:59.6.

Ishpeming’s Joseph King was less than five seconds behind Longtine in 21:03.8, while the Hematites’ David Liimatta was fifth in 21:23.2 and Levi Giroux sixth in 21:45.5.

It was only Jeffers sophomore Tavin Larson who broke up a perfect score by Ishpeming as he finished fourth in 21:18.7.

The Hematites’ insurance policy was “filed” by freshman Parker Gauthier, who came in 10th in 22:30.9, and sophomore Preston Gauthier, who was 12th in 22:49.4.

Leading Manistique was sophomore Grant Mason, who was 14th in 22:55.5, while fellow Emeralds 10th-grader Austin Mischell was 18th in 23:58.6.

Baraga’s finisher was senior Matthew Tangen, 31st in 28:08.9.

In the girls meet, freshman Lola Korpi led Ishpeming to a fourth-place finish with 76 points, just three points behind No. 3 Ironwood. St. Ignace won the meet with 53 as Hancock was a single point back with 54. West Iron County was fifth with 85 and Manistique sixth with 144 as Baraga didn’t field a full team.

Korpi clocked 23:42.9 to finish within 15 seconds of race winner Aundrea Stengard of Ironwood, who finished in 23:28.1.

Led by freshman Wisteria Brady finishing fourth in 25:13.7, St. Ignace had just two runners in the top 10 but another three placed in the second 10 to eke out the team title.

Hematites junior Taylor Longtine was seventh in 25:48.3, while senior teammate Jadyn Maki was 17th in 27:53.4 and senior Chyanne Gardner 21st in 28:54.8.

Baraga freshman Ellie Delene was 23rd in 29:07.6 and sophomore teammate Logan Desrochers 25th in 29:50.6.

Manistique was paced by sophomore Clara Gilroy, who was 29th in 30:19.1, and freshman Aubrey Ekstrom, 30th in 31:37.4.

Division 3 meet

At Munising, Mustangs sophomore Hattie Cota provided the horsepower with a runner-up finish in 21:27.0 before four of her teammates finished between 10th and 19th to insure their victory.

Cota ended up about 10 1/2 seconds behind race winner and senior Daisy Englund of Mid Peninsula, who finished in 21:16.4.

The second-fastest Alger County runner, however, was Superior Central sophomore Madisen Begovac, who was seventh in 21:54.7.

From Munising, sophomore Monique Brisson was 10th in 22:03.8, freshman Sabryna Smith 12th in 22:18.0, freshman Julia Prunick 15th in 22:53.3 and junior Jenna Matson 19th in 23:16.9.

In the midst of those Munising runners, Newberry freshman Kaylen Clark was 11th in 22:16.5, whle senior teammate Abigail Smithson was 14th in 22:38.9 and junior Jorja Suriano 20th in 23:22.1.

In the boys meet, Newberry senior Ephram Evans finished fourth in 18:15.6 to led the Indians to a third-place finish with 85 points. Dollar Bay cruised to the team victory with 42 points as Rudyard was runner-up with 83, just two points ahead of Newberry.

Curiously, the top two runners came from schools that didn’t post team scores. Ewen-Trout Creek junior Jonah Nordine won in 17:34.9 while Chassell senior Koslon Kytta was about 25 seconds back in 17:59.7.

The first team-scoring finisher was Brimley senior Cameron Hoornstra, who was third in 18:05.5 and about 10 seconds ahead of Evans.

Republic-Michigamme came in sixth with 147, while Munising was seventh with 154 and SC didn’t post a team score.

Newberry had three more senior runners finish in the top 25 as Andrea Labionda was 16th in 18:54.7, Aiden McPherson 17th in 18:55.7 and Logan DePew 23rd in 19:22.6.

Munising junior Nick Singer was 19th in 18:58.8, while a trio of R-M runners made the top 35. Senior Gabe DuPont was 26th in 19:29.9, senior Isaac Lawrence 27th in 19:38.8 and sophomore Jack Skogman 34th in 20:02.7.

SC’s top finisher was sophomore Paavo Mannisto, 84th in 26:52.5.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.