Ishpeming, Norway Race to Shared Finals Fame

By John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com

June 6, 2021

KINGSFORD — The Ishpeming boys are used to winning Upper Peninsula track & field championships.

They came into Saturday’s U.P. Division 2 Finals as two-time reigning champs and had won five titles over six seasons prior to last year when all spring sports were cancelled due to COVID-19.

This time the Hematites and Norway shared the title with 95 points each. Third-place Iron Mountain had 85.

For Norway, this was its first championship since 2004.

“Not bad for us, especially with having just 10 boys,” said Norway coach Al Trudeau. “At the beginning of the year we weren’t expecting this. We had a great bunch of kids who worked hard. We had a great year.”

Ishpeming trackNorway junior Adam Cavaghetto, who returned midseason following a blood disorder, won the 800-meter run in two minutes, 5.06 seconds and the 1,600 (4:38.59).

Ishpeming’s David Liimatta took the 400 (54.16) and placed second in the 800 (2:07.57) and 1,600 (4:41.42), and Silas Broberg was first in the 3,200 (10:50.91).

The Hematites also won the 1,600 relay (3:47.52) and 3,200 relay (9:25.34).

“We had a good day,” said Ishpeming coach P.J. Pruett. “Overall, our kids did well.”

Iron Mountain enjoyed much of its success in the sprints with senior Dante Basanese taking the 200 (23.84) and sweeping the speed relays.

“Our handoffs felt pretty good,” said Basanese, who anchored the winning 800 relay. “We had four good sprinters who definitely ran real hard.

“Norway has a good team. We felt they were the team to beat.”

The Mountaineers were clocked at 1:35.1 in the 800 relay with Norway the runner-up (1:37.99). They also took the 400 relay (45.05).

Iron Mountain trackIron Mountain won the Regional at West Iron, and Norway was crowned champion at Ishpeming.

St. Ignace got firsts from Christian Koiveniemi in the 100 (11.79), who edged Gwinn’s Max Jayne by one hundredth of a second, and Trevor Visnaw in pole vault at nine feet. Basanese was third (11.82) in the 100.

Newberry’s lone champion was Eric Edwards in shot put (40-4½), and David Duvall provided Gwinn with its only first in the 110 hurdles (17.81), followed by Norway’s Wyatt Richter (17.9) and St. Ignace’s Jackson Ingalls (17.93).

L’Anse had a double winner in Nathan Hochstein, who took high jump at 5-9 and long jump at 18-9½. Eli Ostermeyer added a first in discus (114-11) and a second in shot put (37-9¼).

West Iron’s champion was Landon Sudelius in the 300 hurdles (43.58).

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: (Top) Norway's Adam Cavaghetto travels the final stretch in winning the 1,600. (Middle) Ishpeming's Jordan Longtine hands off to Hunter Smith during the 3,200 relay. (Below) Iron Mountain's Dante Basanese wins the 200 with Norway's Jeffrey VanHolla taking second. (Photos by Cara Kamps. Click to see more at RunMichigan.com.)

Moment: Fisher Runs into Record Books

April 27, 2020

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Grant Fisher had already established himself as one of the state's top high school distance runners of his era when he took the track for his last MHSAA Finals on May 30, 2015.

By the end of the day, he'd run into the record books as one of Michigan's fastest all-time.

Fisher added his fourth and fifth individual Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals championships that day, three-peating in the 3,200 meters (8:53.41) and repeating in the 1,600 (4:00.28). His time in the latter broke the previous all-MHSAA Finals record by more than seven seconds and at the time was the second-fastest time in NFHS history. It remains the third fastest nationally.

The previous all-MHSAA Finals record in the 1,600 had been set by fellow Grand Blanc graduate Omar Kaddurah (4:07.67) in 2010.

“I never raced against Omar,” Fisher said after his last Finals races. “I thought it was incredible he ran a 4:10. It’s nice to keep it in Grand Blanc. He was someone I looked up to.”

Fisher went on to star at Stanford, winning league and NCAA championships, earning 12 All-America honors and setting the U.S. collegiate record for the indoor 3,000 meters.

Click for coverage of his 2015 Division 1 Finals from Second Half and watch his 1,600 record run from the NFHS Network.