1st-Time Winners Shine at UP Girls Finals
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
October 21, 2017
MUNISING — Nobody could catch Negaunee sophomore Emily Paupore at Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Girls Cross Country Finals.
Paupore ran the day’s fastest time, covering the 3.1-mile course at Pictured Rocks Golf Club in 19 minutes, 22.3 seconds on this sunny, warm and breezy day. She was followed in the Division 1 race by Marquette sophomore Ericka Asmus (19:55.9) and Sault Ste. Marie senior Mackenzie Kalchik (20:22).
“I wanted to take off hard, but my first mile was slower than I wanted (5:49.2) and I had a 12:09 after my second mile,” said Paupore. “My pacing wasn’t good today. Although it feels great to win it. This shows if you work hard, positive things will come out of it. I’ll just work hard during the winter (for track in the spring) and summer.”
Marquette won the Division 1 team championship for the fourth time in five years with 47 points, followed by defending champion Sault Ste. Marie with 61 and Negaunee with 94.
“We did what we had to do,” said Marquette coach Kyle Detmers. “Ericka Asmus did a great job leading the team, and Allison Jette ran her best race of the year. Our second through fifth runners packed together. I couldn’t be happier.
"Hats off to Sault. Jim (Martin, the coach) does a great job with his program. Also, hats off to Mike Leanes for coming out of retirement to help us out. His knowledge of cross country is incredible.”
Click for full Division 1 results.
Division 2
St. Ignace earned its first Division 2 championship with 34 points, followed by three-time defending champion Ishpeming at 61 and Westwood with 77.
This marked the first U.P. title in five years for the Saints, the previous coming when they were competing in Division 3.
“Our girls have a strong work ethic,” said Saints coach Mary Cullen. “They work hard together and never complain. A couple of our girls stepped up today. I set the bar kind of high, and they excelled. We had a very good year. We’re hoping this will help our program take off.”
Westwood sophomore Tessa Leece won the race in 20:54.2, followed by St. Ignace junior Elizabeth Becker (21:09.7) and freshman Emmalee Hart (21:15.2).
“I think it went real good,” said Leece. “It was fun. I just wanted to go out hard and keep pushing. I think the wind helped, especially when it was on our back. I also think it was the perfect temperature for running. It wasn’t too hot or cold.
“We did a lot of hard workouts in the sand and on hills, which I think helped our mental toughness. Running with the Negaunee girls (Paupore and Clara Johnson) also helped me a lot. There were plenty of girls who were more experienced then me, which helped me develop some competitive spirit.”
Becker said she was happy with her runner-up finish.
“I was really surprised,” she added. “I just wanted to run hard. This is a big accomplishment for our team. I came out halfway through the season. Our coached wanted to add a runner, and she felt I could help the team. I wanted to do it for the team and not for myself.
“The girl from Westwood was very good. There was a point I tried to go after her, but she got too far ahead.”
Click for full Division 2 results.
Division 3
Chassell won Division 3 for the third time in four years with 40 points, followed by Rock Mid Peninsula with 72, Munising 74 and defending champion Cedarville with 87.
Freshman Daisy Englund became Mid Pen’s first MHSAA Finals champion in 21 years in 20:31.3.
“This feels awesome,” said Englund, who also is the first Mid Pen girls runner to be crowned U.P. champion since her mother (the former Faye Peterson) won in 1996. “I didn’t know I could do it. My ankle had been sore, but I iced it down (Friday) night and it felt good today.
“As a team, I think we did pretty well.”
Munising junior Madeleine Peramaki, who led going into the final turn, placed second (20:37.4), and Chassell junior Lela Rautiola was third (20:42.5).
“I started real hard,” Peramaki said. “I just went after it. I’m proud of the way I ran. I didn’t give up at all. When she went by me, I had nothing left. There’s nothing wrong with being runner-up when you give it everything you have. I’m happy with how much I improved all year. I didn’t expect to have as much success as I did. I’m really thankful for the strength God gave me all year.”
Rautiola said her goal was to stay with Peramaki.
“We definitely had a fast start,” she said. “The Mid Pen girl really surprised me. She never gave up, and I’ll give her credit for that. She and Maddy definitely pushed me.
“It was exciting to win as a team. We weren’t expecting Cedarville to win it last year. We were ranked No. 1 all year, but it didn’t work out for us in the Finals.”
Click for full Division 3 results.
PHOTOS: (Top) Negaunee’s Emily Paupore (245) ran the day’s fastest time and here leads a pack that includes Marquette’s Ericka Asmus. (Middle) Division 2 runners rush forward led by Ishpeming Westwood’s Tessa Leece (154). (Below) Rock Mid Peninsula’s Daisy Englund (345), Munising’s Madeleine Peramaki (230) and Chassell’s Lela Rautiola (37) push toward the finish line. (Photos by Cara Kamps; click for more at RunMichigan.com.)
Central Montcalm's Hoffman Pulls Away, Lansing Catholic Claims Close Race
November 2, 2024
BROOKLYN — Kyah Hoffman was winning cross country races for the first four weeks of the season, but wasn’t satisfied with her performances.
As much as coaches stress that it’s place, not time, that matters in cross country, kids are still motivated by lowering their personal records.
Through six meets, Hoffman won five times — taking sixth in the Spartan Elite race against mostly Division 1 runners — but her times were nowhere near where she finished her junior year at Central Montcalm.
Her breakthrough moment came Sept. 28 in Shepherd where she took third against another loaded field in 17 minutes, 40.4 seconds, shaving 0.4 seconds off her fastest time from last season.
Hoffman’s confidence was restored.
She would break 18 minutes four more times this season, the last being a 17:31.6 performance which was good for first place in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Hoffman won 11 of 13 races this season, her fastest time being 17:25.3 on Oct. 19 in the Northern Michigan Meet of Champions.
“It’s been ups and downs,” Hoffman said. “At first, I was super scared because I was like, ‘I haven’t PR’d. I’ve barely reached the 17s. I don’t know if I’m going to PR this year.’ I was so nervous until I ran at Shepherd and broke my record by .4, which is better than nothing, for sure.
“At Cadillac, I bumped that all the way down to 17:25. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I am improving. It’s not just a fluke. I’m doing well.’ I knew I could do it. I just had to tell myself I could do it and it was going to happen.”
Hoffman made it happen by putting in a surge in the second mile after her and Emmry Ross of Onsted reached the mile mark in 5:38.8. At the two-mile mark, Hoffman’s lead increased to 9.1 seconds over Ross.
From there, it was just a matter of holding it together over the final 1.1 miles. Hoffman wouldn’t let herself feel comfortable, even if spectators near the finish could see she had a large lead.
“To be honest, I thought there was someone behind me the whole time,” said Hoffman, a four-time all-stater who was third in Division 3 last year. “I was like, ‘I didn’t go this far just to get second.’ I wanted it really badly, so after I passed her at the mile I had to get a gap.
“I can always hear someone being like, ‘Woo, woo! Go so-and-so!’ But they could be a couple ways away from me or they could be screaming early because they see them coming. It’s just a mystery. Somebody at the very end said, ‘You have 60 meters.’ I knew I’ve got this. I might as well just keep dying.”
The team race was about as close as it gets, with four teams in the hunt heading into the final mile.
Only 23 points separated the top four, with Lansing Catholic emerging from the fray with its second Finals championship by a 136-147 margin over Pewamo-Westphalia. The Cougars were Division 2 champions in 2017.
Central Montcalm was third with 157 points, and Traverse City St. Francis was fourth with 159.
Lansing Catholic became champion after a seventh-place finish last year, despite graduating sixth-place individual Tessa Roe. The Cougars returned four runners from that team and benefited from an infusion of three freshmen who made the varsity lineup.
One of those ninth-graders, Josie Bishop, led the Cougars by placing 20th in 19:01.8. She was the team’s only all-state finisher, but Lansing Catholic got its five scoring runners across the line among the first 38 places in the team race and first 60 overall.
Sophomore Grace Wonch was 32nd in 19:21.0, missing all-state by two places. Junior Frances Melinn was 42nd in 19:43.6, freshman Isabelle Currie 58th in 20:05.3 and sophomore Avery Miller 60th in 20:10.5.
Pewamo-Westphalia had an 11th-place finisher in senior Whitney Werner (18:17.3) and 14th-place finisher in sophomore Alyssa Kramer (18:39.3), but Lansing Catholic had five runners across before the Pirates had four.
PHOTOS (Top) Central Montcalm’s Kyah Hoffman finishes her Division 3 championship run Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Lansing Catholic holds up its team title trophy. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com; top photo by Dave McCauley and team photo by Carter Sherline.)