![Ishpeming Westwood's Faith Spiroff competes on the way to winning the high jump at the Mid-Peninsula Conference championship meet May 22.](/sites/default/files/2024-05/240531_UPg_2H.png)
Preview: Historic Collection of Contenders Setting Bar High for UP Girls Finals
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 31, 2024
Lineups filled with past champions and emerging stars in all three divisions could make Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Girls Track & Field Finals an event we recall for years to come.
Headlining the day, Lake Linden-Hubbell junior Emily Jokela will attempt to win four individual events for the second straight season and bring her career Finals title total to 11, while fans will watch one last time as nine-time individual event winners Danica Shamion from West Iron County and Lola Korpi from Ishpeming complete their careers.
All three divisions will again be contested at Kingsford High School, with preliminaries leading off the day at 9 a.m. local (Central) time. Tickets cost $11 and are available digitally only via GoFan.
MHSAA.tv will live-stream the meets beginning at 9 a.m. (CDT)/10 a.m. (EDT), viewable with subscription. Check out the Girls Track & Field page for meet information and lists of all qualifiers. Those described as "seeded" below have received those seeds based on Regional performances.
Following is a glance at team contenders and individuals to watch in all three divisions:
Division 1
Team forecast: After Marquette dominated most of the last decade, the Sentinels and Negaunee have taken turns winning Division 1 and finishing runner-up most of the last six seasons. Marquette was first last year by 34 points ahead of the Miners. But Gladstone and Sault Ste. Marie have several high seeds heading into Saturday – and a team title won by either would be the first not claimed by Marquette or Negaunee since Escanaba shared the 2007 championship.
Ella Fure, Marquette sophomore: She made her Finals debut last season by winning the 3,200 and finishing third in the 800, and she’ll run those two races and also is seeded first in the 1,600 (5:37.84).
Danielle Lund, Manistique senior: She’s seeded first in both discus (101-11) and shot put (35-8) and will run on two relays after winning shot put and finishing third in discus, and running on the winning 400 relay and runner-up 1,600 relay in Division 2 a year ago. She also won Division 2 shot put as a sophomore.
Lexi Olson, Ishpeming Westwood junior: The reigning champion in the pole vault will again compete in that event and the high jump, and also run on the 800 relay.
Madison Pekrul, Negaunee junior: After winning the 100 hurdles and finishing second in the 300 as a freshman, she flipped those results with a 300 title and 100 hurdles runner-up finish last spring. She’s seeded second in the 300 (49.43), third in the 100 hurdles (17:37) and will run on the 1,600 relay.
Tessa Rautiola, Houghton sophomore: Her Finals debut in 2023 included championships in the 1,600 and 3,200 relay and a third place in the 3,200 run, and she’s slated to run all three events again with the top seed in the 3,200 (12:28.02) and second in the 1,600 (5:38.85).
Faith Spiroff, Ishpeming Westwood junior: She’s won the high jump the last two seasons and also won long jump and finished fifth in the 100 as a sophomore. She’s top-seeded in the long jump (17-1¾) and high jump (5-4) and will also run the 100 and 800 relay.
Jacie Tuljus, Gladstone junior: She’s seeded first in the 100 (12.73), 200 (27.06) and 400 (1:02.33) and as part of the 400 relay (51.50) after finishing third in the 100 and 200 as a sophomore.
Division 2
Team forecast: Bark River-Harris has won the last two championships, last year 13 points ahead of runner-up Ishpeming. The Broncos will again turn to a pair of standouts this weekend among several others. But the Hematites again feature a big points scorer in the distance races in Lola Korpi, and West Iron County boasts the same potential in the sprints with Danica Shamion – which could make for another tight race at the top.
Mya Hemmer, Ishpeming sophomore: Her Finals debut last season included a championship in the long jump and runner-up finish in the shot put, and she’ll compete in those two plus long jump and also run on the 800 relay.
Mckenzie Hoffmeyer, Bark River-Harris senior: After winning long jump as a freshman and sophomore, she finished second to Hemmer in that event last spring but was also third in the 100, second in the 200 and added a second relay championship to her career total. She’s seeded first this weekend in the 100 (13.19), 200 (26.83) and long jump (13.19) and will run on the top-seeded 800 relay (1:52.43).
Lola Korpi, Ishpeming senior: Regardless of what happens Saturday, she’ll graduate as one of the most accomplished distance runners in U.P. Finals history after already winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 her first three years and running on winning relays two of those seasons. She enters this time as the second seed in the 800 (2:33.18), top seed in the 1,600 (5:40.23) and 3,200 (12:28.98) and running on the top-seeded 3,200 relay (11:24.83).
Danica Shamion, West Iron County senior: Shamion is to sprints what Korpi is to distance, having won the 100, 200 and 400 all of her first three seasons and setting the UPD2 Finals records in the 200 and 400. She enters Saturday seeded fourth in the 100, fifth in the 200, but first in the 400 (59.95) and also fifth in the high jump after finishing runner-up in that field event a year ago.
Lauren Zawada, Bark River-Harris senior: Another major scorer for the reigning team champ, Zawada has been on winning relays the last two years – including two in 2023 when she also was second in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the high jump. She’s top-seeded in the high jump (4-10), 100 hurdles (17.61), 300 hurdles (50.76) and will run on the top-seeded 1,600 relay (4:25.07).
Division 3
Team forecast: Lake Linden-Hubbell and Stephenson shared the championship last season, breaking Ontonagon’s two-year hold on the title. Four-event winner Emily Jokela is back for Lake Linden-Hubbell after scoring 40 of her team’s 72 points a year ago, but the standings also could see some shifting with St. Ignace moving in from Division 2 and Newberry showing several high-seeded qualifiers across the meet.
Kaylen Clark, Newberry senior: After running to the 1,600 and 3,200 championships last season, and as part of second and fourth-place relays, she’s top-seeded in the 3,200 (12:53.95) and as part of the 3,200 relay (10:23.81), third-seeded in the 800 and fourth-seeded in the 1,600.
Abi Codere, Lake Linden-Hubbell senior: She won the 100 hurdles for the third time last season, and also was part of the winning 400 relay and runner-up in pole vault. She’ll run on 400 and 800 relays Saturday and is top-seeded in the pole vault (9-8).
Emily Jokela, Lake Linden-Hubbell junior: After winning the 100, 200, 400 and 300 hurdles last season – and the 200, 400 and 300 hurdles as a freshman in 2022 – Jokela is top-seeded in the 100 (13.35), 400 (1:00.75) and 300 hurdles (48.81) and third-seeded in the 200 (27.29).
Nora Keranen, Dollar Bay junior: Last year’s long jump champion will compete in that event plus high jump, pole vault and as part of the 400 relay.
Mariska Laurila, Carney-Nadeau junior: She won discus, was second in shot put and seventh in long jump as a sophomore, and returns as the top seed in the shot put (33-7) and competing in the shot put, long jump and this time as part of the 400 relay as well.
Avery Visnaw, St. Ignace sophomore: She made her Finals debut last season with the pole vault championship, a runner-up finish in the 100 hurdles, fifth place in the 300 and as part of the runner-up 400 relay in Division 2. This weekend she’s third-seeded in pole vault, fourth-seeded in 300 hurdles and fifth-seeded in 100 hurdles, and running on the top-seeded 400 relay (54.56).
PHOTO Ishpeming Westwood's Faith Spiroff competes on the way to winning the high jump at the Mid-Peninsula Conference championship meet May 22. (Photo by Cara Kamps.)
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Ontonagon Girls Win 1st Title Since 1974
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
June 5, 2016
KINGSFORD — Ontonagon High School senior Paige Blake had just enough leg strength to finish the 400-meter dash at Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Division 3 Girls Track & Field Finals.
That was also just enough for Blake to retain her title as she fell across the finish line and edged Munising sophomore Kelsea Ackerman by one hundredth of a second.
Blake was clocked in 1 minute, 3.26 seconds. Lake Linden-Hubbell’s Laura Lyons placed third (1:03.62).
“I ran until I couldn’t run anymore,” said Blake. “My legs just couldn’t go anymore. I was going after the school record, but came up short. I’m glad I won, but I don’t really want to run a full 400 again.”
Blake’s effort was also an example of what the Gladiators needed to secure their first U.P. team title since 1974, when they were competing in Class C.
They scored 72 points, followed by defending champion Newberry with 65 and Munising 62.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our girls,” said Ontonagon coach Brian Amos. “Paige and Lori (Wardynski) have been doing a lot of heavy lifting for the past three years. We finally got some field events and relays and everything came together for us this year. I’m happy for Paige and Lori that they got to experience this. I’m also happy the other girls got to experience this. This is something they can build on.”
Wardynski set a U.P. meet record in the 300 hurdles in 47.27 seconds, topping the previous best (48.07) by Brooke Granquist of Powers North Central in 2009.
Wardynski also won the 300 hurdles as a sophomore two years ago and added titles in the 100-meter dash title (13.4) and high jump (4-10) this time.
“I got off to a pretty strong start in the 300s,” said Wardynski. “I knew I had a good chance to place, but I was surprised to get the U.P. record. I just told myself to go as hard as I could.”
Blake was runner-up in the 200 (28.09) and third in long jump (14-9).
Newberry senior Natalie Beaulieu repeated as champion in the 1,600 (5:24.54) and set the U.P. meet record in the 3,200, erasing the old mark (11:49.16) by Cedarville’s Emma Bohn a year ago. Beaulieu also took fourth in the 800 (2:30.22) and helped the Indians place fourth in the 3,200 relay (10:50.64).
“I didn’t want to start too fast in the 3,200,” said Beaulieu. “I also didn’t want to start too slow. I was able to find a happy medium and my rhythm. I knew I wanted to do it before I went to college (Central Michigan University). This means a lot to me. It’s kind of a relief to get this done, in a way.”
Bohn was runner-up in the 1,600 (5:33.52) and 3,200 (12:03.82) this time.
Junior teammate Taylor Bryant and Brimley senior Kerri Chartrand tied for first in the 100 hurdles (16.73). Bryant was runner-up in the 300s (48.64) and fourth in the 100 dash (13.58).
“I was a little nervous at first,” said Bryant. “The track was slippery in warm-ups. I tried to adjust my steps and do the best I could. My start in the 100-meter dash was better than I thought it would be. I knew the fast heat was behind us and just went for time.”
The Indians added a first in the 400 relay (54.4) and fourth in the 3,200 relay (10:50.04).
“Karley (Honeyssette) got us off to a good start, and our handoffs went real good,” said junior Megan Grigg. “That very important in the 400 relay. If your handoffs aren’t on, you’re not going to place.
Munising won the 1,600 (4:24.02) and 3,200 relays (10:22.9).
Lake Linden Hubbell’s Stephanie Harry took pole vault (7-6) and Lyons captured long jump (15-3).
Pickford senior Heidi Hagen took first in the 800 (2:28.05) and helped the winning 800 relay (1:55.37).
“We were ranked first by a half-second, which is a good motivator,” said Hagen. “This is so exciting. Our handoffs were real smooth. The track was slippery (due to the rain), although it’s not that bad with spikes.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ontonagon's Paige Blake rounds a curve during her winning 400 run Saturday. (Middle) Newberry's Natalie Beaulieu repeated and set a meet record in the 3,200. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)