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.)

Cheerleader Support Helps Mendon Return to Cross Country Finals

By Wes Morgan
Special for MHSAA.com

November 2, 2021

Art Stephenson’s family knows not to make any big plans in early November.

Each season of his 18-year tenure has ended the same way, with the Mendon cross country coach roaming Michigan International Speedway and motivating his runners in green.

The Mendon girls team’s appearance this weekend at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals in Brooklyn marks the seventh since Stephenson took over. Previously, the boys team made 17 consecutive trips to the championship race.

Even with fourth-seeded freshman Presley Allen leading the way in an unbelievable debut season, the Hornets were on the verge of seeing that team-qualifying streak snapped. For most of the year, Stephenson’s squad didn’t have enough runners to register team points. In fact, it took until Oct. 16 at the Sturgis Kiwanis Invitational for Mendon to put together five times for a team score.

Like most small schools, Mendon struggles yearly to fill out its athletic rosters. And considering the storied histories of the Hornets’ volleyball and football programs, getting kids to choose cross country — despite its own record of consistent success — isn’t always easy. So, numbers were low this year, and with Allen missing four of the first six meets due to COVID, a team trip to MIS didn’t appear to be in the cards.

But Allen, who had nine individual victories and a school-record time of 18:37 in a runner-up performance against top-ranked Abby VanderKooi (of Muskegon Western Michigan Christian) at the Portage Invite this fall, eventually returned to full strength. And she and teammates Amber Hostetler (senior), Lauren Schabes (junior) and Chloe Behrends (senior) spent their free time recruiting anyone who would listen.

Cheerleaders Alivia Stuart (senior) and Gracey Loker (junior) answered the call as first-time runners.

Mendon cross country“We didn’t have enough to score as a team for either boys or girls for most of the year,” Stephenson said. “We were wondering if we were ever going to with this girls team, to be honest with you. We had Alivia, who ran her heart out last Saturday (at Regionals), she came out, and so did Gracey Loker — they both came out and they have obviously been great additions to the team. They allowed us to get to this point where we’re going to the state meet.

“It is a hard thing to do and a hard thing to convince a kid to do. The least amount you’re going to do on any given day of practice is four miles. It’s a hard sell. But we do a lot of things outside of practice. We used to do more before the pandemic. We do team dinners, which is always a fun thing to do. With the smaller teams, we still have just as much fun. It’s a good thing.”

Mendon finished fourth at the Division 4 Regional at Portage Central with 92 points, trailing Kalamazoo Christian (26) and Battle Creek St. Philip (72). Allen was medalist by over a minute with a time of 19:02.09. But a 13th-place finish by Hostetler, a 23rd-place effort by Schabes, Stuart’s 34th-place run and Behrends’ 45th-place finish helped secure the Finals berth.

Allen’s rise to the top of the program’s record list required besting her cousin Kasey Culp’s time of 18:43 from 1997.

“She was cheering me on the whole time,” Allen said of Culp. “She lives in Kentucky and she was texting me and asking me … she was almost as nervous as I was.”

Having competed against most of the top-seeded runners in D4 already this season, Allen is excited to be a part of a lead pack Saturday in Brooklyn that includes VanderKooi, Buckley sophomore Aiden Harrand, Maple City Glen Lake senior Makenna Scott and Western Michigan Christian freshman Grace VanderKooi.

“It really makes me think about how they were running in each meet and what they do,” Allen said. “It has helped me know what to do when I go to state.”

“She has had a lot of success this year,” Stephenson said of Allen. “She had COVID early on in the year and we’re lucky it was early on in the year. It took her a while to get back. I think she’s back to form now and doing well. She is definitely there in that top five (at state). She is probably the most driven runner I’ve ever had. She’s amazing, and she loves to do what she’s doing — and it shows. She has a workout regimen that I defy any high schooler to do.

“Getting out clean isn’t a worry because she gets out fast. That’s always been her thing. She has only been behind a couple times this season. She’ll keep chasing if that happens. This week is going to be an awesome race because of who you have there. That’s quite a top five for a D4 Final. It is going to be a fun race to experience.”

Stephenson and Allen both agreed it will be a whole lot more fun having that experience as a team, made a whole lot sweeter after the adversity they faced in 2021.

“It doesn’t matter when we get them, as long as we get them,” Stephenson said. “Everyone is out here doing the same thing for the same cause.”

Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Mendon’s Presley Allen leads the pack during her team’s Division 4 Regional at Portage Central. (Middle) The Hornets advanced to the Finals as a team with a third-place Regional finish. (Photos by Nicci Plummer/JoeInsider.com.)