Performance: Negaunee's Emily Paupore
October 3, 2019
Emily Paupore
Negaunee senior – Cross Country
After an illness forced Paupore to miss a week of school and training – and threatened the rest of her season – the two-time reigning Upper Peninsula Division 1 champion returned to competition and set a Tracy Strom Invitational record of 19:29.2 at Al Quaal Recreation Area, earning the MHSAA “Performance of the Week.”
Paupore cleared the field by 2:04 and cut seven seconds off her winning time from 2018 at the hilly Ishpeming-area course. She has won all but two races over the last two seasons – her only non-victories were in the “Elite” race at the Spartan Invitational at Michigan State University, where she finished 23rd this fall and 30th a year ago running against many of the Lower Peninsula’s best. Paupore will test herself against downstate competition again this weekend at the prestigious Portage Invitational as she seeks to push toward a personal record in the mid-18s. She has dropped her PR nearly nine seconds already this season, to an 18:48.8 she ran at the Marquette County Meet on Sept. 5. Paupore also dominates on the track – she’s won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the Upper Peninsula Division 1 Finals the last two seasons after finishing second in all three races as a freshman, with her 3,200 time in 2018 (11:25.52) the meet record.
Running certainly runs in her family. Paupore’s mother Vickie (Leathers) Paupore ran collegiately at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and is Negaunee’s girls track & field coach, and Emily’s father Mark Paupore has run half and full marathons. Emily Paupore also played basketball her first three years of high school but instead will run indoor track this winter. She’s unsure where she’ll continue after graduation in the spring – but she’ll have options. Paupore also carries a 4.222 grade-point average and is interested in studying elementary education or pediatrics.
Coach Lisa Bigalk said: “She's one in a million, one in a career. I’m very honored to be her coach. She is very dedicated, very enthusiastic and positive, and I think she really loves running and wants to become the best runner she can be. At times, it's pretty amazing, I've had to hold her back. That doesn't happen real often with high school athletics. ... Besides being a great role model and leader for our team, she's really looked up to by other high school and middle school runners in the whole U.P. I’ve heard coaches, parents other athletes say she’s very respected and is a great role model.”
Performance Point: “I was really sick, so I really wasn't sure what was going to happen that day. And it's a really challenging course, so I knew it was going to be a hard day for me,” Paupore said. “So I just went out and did what I could. … We weren't sure what sickness I had. We kinda thought I had mono(nucleosis) for a while, so they didn't want me running on it. It was a challenge, and just having that thought go through my mind that I wasn't going to be able to run the rest of the season and I wasn't going to be able to finish my senior year – I guess I take it for granted sometimes. But it made me realize how lucky I am to be able to run and use my gifts.”
It’s been a great high school run: “I just think every year, (I’ve been) trying to get better and faster, just to improve. And on improving myself instead of focusing on who I'm racing against, my competition – I think every year I've gotten better at that. And I'm a more confident runner, so I think I'm proud of that. … I've had a lot of fun running in the U.P. A lot of times it's a different kind of challenge because you don't always have that constant competition as you would downstate, but just getting to run -- I know everyone I'm racing against, and they're like my family.”
Road trip: “This past summer I met a lot of girls who run downstate and who are really good downstate. So I got to run with them, and just getting to compete against them a little bit … and run against better competition, girls who are going to be in front of me and much faster and having girls all around you all the time, it really pushes you harder. I can get pushed up here, but it's really fun getting to run downstate. I love it. … I think (downstate) they're kinda like, 'Who are you?' And I tell them I'm from the U.P., and they’re like, 'Oh, really?'”
Cheering us on: “I know a bunch of people who have run in the U.P., and we just get so much support from all of our communities. I think that's one cool thing about running in the U.P.: The whole community is always behind you and always supporting you. It's really everywhere we go. It doesn't matter if it’s your rival school or anything; they’re always supporting us, and I think it's a really special thing.”
Those before me, and after: “Obviously a runner in the U.P. like Lindsey Rudden (Marquette grad 2016/now runs at Michigan State), she did a lot of cool things up here. So I definitely respect her, and Colton (Yesney, Negaunee grad 2018/now runs at University of Michigan). Past runners in the U.P. have done well for themselves, I think. I'm hoping I can show (younger runners) that you can still be a good runner in the U.P. and show people what U.P. kids are made of. You can still do it just as well, and we have a little bit of extra fight.”
– Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Past honorees
Sept. 26: Josh Mason, South Lyon soccer - Report
Sept. 19: Ariel Chang, Utica Eisenhower golf - Report
Sept. 12: Jordyn Shipps, DeWitt swimming - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Negaunee's Emily Paupore leads the pack at the Tracy Strom Invitational on Saturday. (Middle) Paupore pushes uphill at the Ishepming-area course. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)
Potential Realized, Otsego Runs for More
September 22, 2015
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
OTSEGO – Megan Aalberts was in middle school when she first realized the potential of her classmates and what their future running days could look like.
“Going into sixth grade and middle school, I could already see that the girls in my grade and a year behind me were really talented and super hard-working,” said Aalberts, a junior on Otsego High School’s girls cross country team. “We had a pretty good season in middle school, and then coming into high school and making it to state our first year was an incredible experience. We wanted to keep it going, and I’m hoping this year is really awesome.”
The Bulldogs have experienced unbridled success at the state level the past two seasons under coach Steve Long, a teacher at the school.
Otsego placed third in Lower Peninsula Division 2 at the MHSAA Finals in 2013 and was runner-up a year ago to Grand Rapids Christian.
Those were the top two Finals finishes in program history – and seem to have set the tone as an experienced group has begun its pursuit of the program's first MHSAA title.
The Bulldogs have shown consistency over the past decade, qualifying seven times for the LP Finals and recording five top-10 finishes. But last season’s accomplishment was built on youth, as there were no seniors among the top seven. All but one of that top seven returned this fall.
“We have a lot of experience, and most of the girls have quite a bit of state meet experience,” Long said. “It’s a huge advantage that these girls know what to expect and how to perform well on the big stage. We’re mixing in a few young runners and they’re feeding off the underclassmen. We’re excited to see what they can do.”
This year’s group remains young with Madison Secord as the lone senior.
She joins a talented collection of juniors and sophomores, spearheaded by Aalberts, a junior who placed third overall at last year’s MHSAA championship meet.
“It was a really exciting feeling to know that everyone was coming back,” Aalberts said. “We just know that every day we’re going to try our hardest and push each other. Expectations are pretty high for our team, and our goal is to compete the best we can every day.”
The Bulldogs, ranked No. 2 in LP Division 2 this week behind Grand Rapids Christian, have achieved early success and gone unbeaten in the Wolverine Conference.
They also won the 16-team St. Joseph Invitational and followed that with a victory at the Paw Paw Invitational.
The squad also features juniors Erica Drobny, Sophia Hirzel and Katie Theis. The sophomores include Maddie Marciniak and Gracie VerHage. Freshman Sydney Kubiak also is in the mix.
“I’m very happy with where we’re at, and we’re trying to stay focused on improving and getting better,” Long said. “The challenge this year is to not think we need to be perfect. We just have to focus on ourselves and what we can do.
“Go out there and try to do the best we can and run the way we always run. And that’s by having fun and loving what we do. I think they’re doing a really good job of that.”
Drobny, who was 27th at last year’s MHSAA Final, said there is some pressure to add to the program’s prior successes.
“There is a little bit of pressure, but now we can count on each other to work hard and not let each other down,” she said. “Having everyone back is helpful because we all have the same energy as last year and the same motivation and dedication. The state meet is our main focus, and that’s what we’re striving for.”
A couple key components of the Bulldogs are their competitive nature and close bond.
“How the girls get along has a huge impact on how we end up at the end of the season,” Long said. “The girls are a bunch of sisters and they love each other, but they are willing to go out and compete against each other when they are racing. It’s a good atmosphere.”
Aalberts said she and her teammates don’t go their separate ways at the end of the season. Instead, they stay connected through different events.
“We’re definitely like a family,” she said. “We’re super supportive of each other, and we’re really close. We had a Christmas party and Valentine’s Day party, so we are just in contact with each other after the season ends.”
Added Drobny: “We’re super close, and we spend so much time together at morning and afternoon practices. We run together in the offseason and in the summer, and that helps because we motivate each other to run faster and to beat each other.”
Although the Otsego is one of the smaller schools in Division 2, it still showcases depth. All 10 of the girls on the team clock times under 21 minutes.
“We’re pretty deep for a small school,” Long said. “And the goal continues to get better. We were second last year, but if we’re not better, then we’re still not going to be at the top of the podium.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Otsego's Megan Aalberts rounds the final curve at Michigan International Speedway on her way to a third-place finish at last season's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final. (Middle) Erica Drobny, middle, runs with a pack on the way to finishing 27th. (Below) The Bulldogs pose with last season's MHSAA runner-up trophy; six of the top seven runners are back this fall. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)