Negaunee girls, Gladstone boys capture M-PC crowns | News, Sports, Jobs

By Journal Sports Staff

NEGAUNEE — The Negaunee girls and Gladstone boys captured team championships at the Mid-Peninsula Conference high school track and field meet held at Miners Stadium in Negaunee on Monday afternoon.

While the Miners won just eight of the 17 girls events, Negaunee still ran away and hid on the scoreboard, accumulating 192 points to just 91 for runner-up Manistique. Ishpeming and Gladstone tied for third with 65 apiece, while Iron Mountain was fifth with 56, followed by Westwood with 31 and Gwinn 19.

Gladstone also won eight events in the boys meet, but had a bigger challenge from runner-up Negaunee for the title as the Braves scored 146 points to 118 for the Miners. The surprising Emeralds were third with 100, followed by Ishpeming with 86 1/2, Iron Mountain 64, Westwood 6 and Gwinn 2 1/2.

Here is a rundown on each meet:

Relays, fields events key Miners

Negaunee girls head coach Vickie Paupore knew right away what the keys were to her team’s success.

“This was a total team effort,” she said in an email about the meet. “We scored points in every event.

“All four of our relay teams got first place, which is rare in a conference meet.

“Madison Pekrul is really bringing her times down in the hurdles and had two personal records tonight.

“We also had some nice performances from our field events, particularly in the long jump, pole vault and discus. Eliana Juchemich threw over 116 feet in the discus, which was a personal record for her.

“Hopefully we can keep this momentum going into our West PAC meet on Wednesday night.”

Pekrul accounted for two victories as she locked up with Gwinn’s Lena Pleaugh in the hurdles events.

Pekrul won the 100-meter hurdles in 16.75 seconds, just two-hundredths of a second ahead of runner-up Pleaugh.

But the Modeltowners senior evened the score in the 300 hurdles, winning that race in 49.80 seconds, just eight-hundredths ahead of Pekrul.

No other hurdler was within 1 1/2 seconds of them in the 100 nor within 3 1/2 seconds in the 300.

Pekrul also ran a leg on the Miners’ winning 1,600 relay team that won by less than two seconds over Manistique.

Negaunee’s individual event star was Juchemich, who swept the discus and shot put. She was particularly dominant in the discus, winning by more than 20 feet over runner-up and teammate Ashley Bell, while she settled for an 11 1/2-inch win over Ishpeming’s Mya Hemmer.

Nori Korsman gave the Miners wins in a majority of the field events after she took the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 8 inches, just an inch and a half better than teammate Seere Helms-Gleason as Hemmer was only another inch back.

Helms-Gleason was just one of five Negaunee girls to have a hand in two relay wins. She was part of the 1,600 and 3,200 relays, while Olivia Lunseth ran with the 800 and 1,600 relays and Macyn Dellangelo, Ellie Sundberg and Maddie Beaudry made up three-quarters of the 400 and 800 relay victors.

Others running in those relays were Adelyn Lein in the 400, Kayleigh Manninen in the 1,600 and Marlee Plaxco, Endla Harris and Aubrey Johnson in the 3,200.

Despite its runner-up finish, Manistique won just one event as Kelsey Muth captured the 400 dash.

Like Negaunee, the Emeralds picked up quite a few second and third places to burnish their point total.

Among those were Maya Carlson finished second in the 1,600 and third in the 3,200, Leah Goudreau second in the 800, Danielle Lund coming in third in the shot put and discus, and Manistique finishing second in three relays.

Lola Korpi piled up points for Ishpeming as she dominated the distances as is her custom, winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. None of those were races were particularly close as she won the 800 by about five seconds, the 1,600 by about 19 seconds and the 3,200 by just over 25 seconds.

Westwood got a win from Lexi Olson in the pole vault, while the meet’s only other multiple winner was Gladstone’s Jacie Tuljus capturing the 100 and 200.

Depth also help NHS boys

The Miners were solid runners-up despite winning just one event in the boys meet as Nico Lukkarinen triumphed in the shot put with a heave of 44-1.

Like the top girls teams, these Miners piled up second- and third-place finishes to attain their lofty finish.

Among them, Lukkarinen was third in the discus while the Miners were second in the 400, 800 and 1,600 relays and third in the 3,200 relay.

And Judge Anderson was second in the 800 and third in the 1,600, Kai Lacar second in the 200, Broc Bonovetz second in the pole vault, Brady Mager second in the high jump and Simon Jaklin third in the 3,200.

Manistique attained the century mark in points heavily based on winning four events, including the 100 and 200 by Wyatt Demers, the high jump by Elmer Zellar and the Emeralds taking the 800 relay anchored by Demers as he was joined by Grant Mason, Dillon Hayes and Carter Miller.

Manistique also picked up quality seconds and thirds as it was second in the 3,200 relay and third in the 1,600 relay, while Mason was second in the 400, Austin Hinkson second in the 3,200 and Brenden Mead third in the 800.

Ishpeming had just one win, that by Brayden Martin in the discus, but with a long list of seconds and thirds, too — but surprisingly none in distance running events. Instead, Tramon Gauthier was second in the 300 hurdles and long jump and third in the 110 hurdles, Hunter Smith third in the 200 and high jump, AJ Prosser third in the long jump, Preston Gauthier third in the 400 and Brayden Smith third in the shot put.

Gavin Comero picked up most of Westwood’s points by placing third in the pole vault, winning a three-way tie for that spot, while Gwinn earned fifth place in the 400 relay and a tie for sixth by Donald Joudren in the pole vault.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is [email protected].

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