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UP Girls Finals Stacked with Champions
October 23, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
All three individual champions from 2014 will run at Saturday’s MHSAA Upper Peninsula Cross Country Finals, sponsored by Michigan National Guard, and two team champions from last season are favored to repeat.
Marquette in Division 1 and Chassell in Division 3 are ranked No. 1 in the final coaches association Upper Peninsula polls after also winning last season. But this time, Marquette will have to compete as well with Ishpeming Westwood, which moved up from Division 2 and features the reigning individual champion from that race. And Chassell won’t get the push from last season’s runner-up St. Ignace, which moved up into Division 2.
Here's a look at some of the teams and individuals expected to contend in all three races at Beauchamp Grove in Gladstone. Click for Saturday's race schedule and a list of all qualifiers.
DIVISION 1
Reigning champion: Marquette
2014 runner-up: Sault Ste. Marie
2015 top three: 1. Marquette, 2. Sault Ste. Marie, 3. Negaunee.
The Redettes are running for their third straight championship and fourth in five seasons with a lineup led by Michigan State University recruit Lindsey Rudden. She’s seeking her first cross country championship to go with five MHSAA Finals records in track and field, and finished runner-up as a sophomore. Even with Rudden missing a flag and finishing well back in 2014, Marquette still placed five among the top 10 – including runner-up Amber Huebner and eighth-place Becci McNamee, both juniors – while senior Holly Blowers has the second-fastest time in UPD1 this season. Three of Sault Ste. Marie’s top six from last season’s runner-up finish also are back, led by fourth-place junior Courtney Arbic and fifth-place sophomore Mackenzie Kalchik. Negaunee sophomore Clara Johnson finished sixth last season as her team came in ninth; the Miners are expected to follow her up the standings.
Individuals: Eight of the top 15 from last season will run again Saturday, led by reigning champion Leigha Woelfer of Gladstone, a junior. She finished fifth at the Great Northern Conference meet behind four Marquette runners. Calumet seniors Alexa Anderson and Leah Kiilunen also should be in the hunt again after finishing 13th and 12th, respectively, in 2014. There will be another reigning champion in the field as well – Ishpeming Westwood senior Kathryn Etelamaki finished first in Division 2 last year but her team is in Division 1 this weekend. She’ll be joined by teammate Amber Gransinger, also a senior, who was 15th in Division 2 in 2014.
DIVISION 2
Reigning champion: Ishpeming
2014 runner-up: Hancock
2015 top three: 1. Gogebic, 2. Ishpeming, 3. Hancock.
Only four full teams ran in the Division 2 Final last season, and one of them wasn’t the Bessemer/Wakefield-Marenisco co-op commonly known in the U.P. as Gogebic – those schools ran solo in Division 3. However, the top finishers from both schools are back for the new team this fall, 10th-place junior Lily Wieringa and 30th-place sophomore Melissa Wanink. They hope to finish ahead of an Ishpeming team that brings back its top five from last season – third-place junior Khora Swanson, fourth-place sophomore Kayla Kaukola, sixth-place sophomore Desirae Fernandes, eighth-place sophomore Chloe Sjoholm and 11th-place sophomore Mariah Bertucci. Hancock senior Madisyn Wright finished fifth last season, and senior Ashley Aho was 12th as the team attempted to defend its 2013 title.
Individuals: In addition to the numerous Ishpeming and Hancock runners back from last season’s top 15, senior Kyra Johnson finished fourth for Norway and is the highest returning finisher to this division. Junior Callie Kammers and sophomore Mia Singleton were 12th and 15th last season in Division 3 for St. Ignace, which was team runner-up in that race.
DIVISION 3
Reigning champion: Chassell
2014 runner-up: St. Ignace
2015 top three: 1. Chassell, 2. Dollar Bay, 3. Munising.
Reigning champion Chassell is the favorite with all six runners from last season’s team back in the lineup, including three who finished back-to-back-to-back among the top 10 – fifth-place freshman Lela Rautiola, sixth-place senior Shitaye Sam and seventh-place senior Shumete Sam. Junior Cami and senior Carli Daavettila are back for Dollar Bay after finishing eighth and 14th, respectively, last season as the team placed third behind St. Ignace, now in Division 2. Munising was seventh in 2014, but sophomore Alyssa Webber was individual runner-up and leads a team made up almost entirely of underclassmen.
Individuals: Three of the top five from last season are back, led by champion Natalie Beaulieu of Newberry, now a senior, and third-place junior Emma Bohn of Cedarville. Rounding out the total of 10 top-15 finishers returning are ninth-place senior Bridget Stoetzer, also of Newberry, and 13th-place Caitlyn Havelka, a senior at Stephenson.
PHOTO: A pack of Ishpeming runners, plus Norway’s Kyra Johnson (white long-sleeve shirt) emerge from the start during last season’s U.P. Division 2 Final.
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Preview: UP Contenders Back for Firsts
October 18, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The first MHSAA Finals of cross country season will be run Saturday at Gentz Homestead Golf Course in Munising, and there will be more than a few familiar faces in the field.
Of 30 runners who posted top-10 finishes during last season’s three championship races, 20 are back this weekend – even as none of the reigning champion teams are picked by Upper Peninsula rankers to repeat Saturday.
Here's a look at some of the teams and individuals expected to cross the finish line first. Click for Saturday's race schedule and links to all qualifiers.
DIVISION 1
Reigning champion: Calumet
2012 runner-up: Escanaba
2013 top three: 1. Marquette, 2. Calumet, 3. Houghton.
Calumet has won the Division 1 title three of the last four seasons (following Marquette’s string of nine straight; Marquette also won in 2011), and those two stand to battle at the front again. Calumet sophomore Leah Kiilunen finished second to her now-graduated sister Tara last season, and is joined in this weekend’s lineup by last season’s sixth-place finisher, sophomore Abbey Helppi. Marquette has one top-10 finisher from last season returning, junior Calla Martysz, who placed fifth. But sophomore Lindsey Rudden was a major star during the spring’s Track & Field Finals and led the Cross Country Final until late in the race. She is considered the top runner in the entire Upper Peninsula.
Individuals: Three more top-10 finishers from last season will run again this weekend. Menominee senior Kameron Burmeister finished third, just three seconds out of second place, and Escanaba junior Aimee Giese will try to improve on last fall’s fourth place. Negaunee senior Wyleen Kniola will finish her career hoping to add to last season’s seventh place.
DIVISION 2
Reigning champion: Newberry
2012 runner-up: Ironwood
2013 top three: 1. Hancock, 2. St. Ignace, 3. Ishpeming Westwood.
Favorite Hancock is led by a pair of seniors who finished among the top 10 last season when the team finished third overall: Erin McKenzie, who ran seventh, and Anna Meese, who placed eighth. St. Ignace is back in Division 2 after winning the Division 3 Final last season, with junior Lilly Calcaterra leading the pack after she finished second individually in that division. Westwood returns senior Gabrielle French and sophomore Anastasia Bjork, top-16 finishers. Newberry isn’t ranked this week but brings to Munising its top three finishers from last season’s championship team: sophomore Natalie Beaulieu, (fourth in 2012), sophomore Bridget Stoetzer (fifth) and junior Gabrielle Young (ninth).
Individuals: Ironwood's reigning individual champion Jessica Gering won as a junior with a time of 20:40.9, 47 seconds ahead of the pack. Iron River West Iron County junior Tori Harris-Hoogenboom is back after finishing sixth, and Manistique sophomore Holly Blowers also returns to the Finals after placing 10th.
DIVISION 3
Reigning champion: St. Ignace
2012 runner-up: Dollar Bay
2013 top three: 1. Munising, T-2. Cedarville, T-2. Pickford.
With St. Ignace back in Division 2, the field appears a little more open as four Saints finished among the top 15 in 2012. Munising is seeking its first MHSAA championship and enters Saturday ranked No. 1 in Division 3. Senior Alyssa St. Amour is the team’s top returning finisher from last season’s Final, when she placed 17th but only 20 seconds outside the top 10. Seniors Taylor Perkins and Alexis Barr both finished among the top 18 for Cedarville last season, and Pickford is led by sophomore Heidi Hagen, who was sixth at the 2012 Final.
Individuals: Dollar Bay, last season’s runner-up, is led by sophomore Carli and freshman Cami Daavettila, who finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in 2012. Rudyard junior Kaylee Hoolsema could be the overall favorite – she finished fourth last season behind two St. Ignace runners and a graduated teammate. Brimley junior Emily Chartrand finished only six seconds back of Hoolsema, in fifth.
PHOTO: Ironwood’s Jessica Gering surges ahead of the field at last season’s Division 2 Final, which she won by 47 seconds in 20:40.9. (Photo courtesy of RunMichigan.com/Paul Gerard.)