W-M boys, Ontonagon girls win postponed Bracket

BESSEMER — On the boys side, Wakefield-Marenisco won its first Marcy Bracket Invitational since 2002 and Ontonagon edged Bessemer 98 points to 95.5 in the girls division.

Even though temperatures hovered in the low 40s, three new meet records were set. Bethany Engel of W-M set the high jump record (5-2), while Cole Stevens of Ironwood jumped 12-6 in the pole vault and Tony Soumis of Ontonagon blazed to 23.56 in the 200 meters and both boys were new record-holders.

Boys

1. Wakefield-Marenisco 95.0, 2. Bessemer 89.5, 3. Ontonagon 60.5, 3 (tie) Ironwood 60.5, 5. Watersmeet 29.5

Cardinal coach Jim Engel was elated with the win.

"I'm surprised and thrilled," Engel said. "I'm really happy for the seniors because they got a track win. I knew our relay teams and individuals were capable of scoring a good number of points. It's nice to get the firsts, but you have to get those thirds and fifths in these kind of meets. I think every one of our boys scored a point. The cards fell into the right place for us to win."

Jacob Pikka won the shot put for the W-M (43-7) and Eric Lane took the the discus with a throw (121' 08.5") that was over 13 feet farther than the second place competitor.

Engel was especially pleased that both the boys and girls relay teams won both the 4x100 and 4x200 sprint relays. Both boys relay teams were manned by Jacob Pikka, Eric Lane, Aaron Cook and Caleb Winkler. Freshman Collin Gagnon also picked up a surprise win in the 300 meter hurdles (51.5) as he edged out Mike McGrath of Watersmeet by a milli-second.

The longer the event, the better the Bessemer boys did. Sophomore Jess Mazzon won the tough 400 meter dash, Paul Buerger ran an excellent race and won the 800 meter run by almost seven minutes and Zack Mazurek left his competition behind by winning 3200 meter run by 27 seconds.

The Speedboys' 3200 meter relay team of Mazurek, Jimmy Jendrusina, Ashton Hocking and Zach Taivalmaa were also victorious.

Besides his record-setting performance in the 200, Soumis beat Winkler by .01 of a second in the 100 meters.

Ironwood picked up wins by Noah Terzano in the long jump (5-5) and excellent long distance runner Jeremy Joki took the 1600 meter in 4:52.91. Stevens jumped to 12-6, breaking the old pole vault meet record of 12-0.

"I felt good today once I started jumping," Stevens said. "It feels good and I've been working real hard. It was a solid jump. I would have liked to have gone higher, but I was a little tired after about 15 jumps. Coach (Pete) Auvinen knows his stuff and is a huge help. I give him all the credit."

Watersmeet got wins from McGrath in the 110 meter hurdles and Marcus Bain in the long jump.

Girls

1. Ontonagon 98.0, 2.Bessemer 95.5, 3. Wakefield-Marenisco 69.5, 4. Ironwood 49.0, 5. Watersmeet 13.0.

Ontonagon's six-place first place finishes led to a win and made coach Brian Amos a happy coach.

"I was happy with all the kids," Amos said. "All the hard work paid off. We got some nice surprises on some of our places such as Brooke Turin coming in second after running the 800 meters for the first time. The girls did very well. We don't have many of them, but the ones that are here are good."

The Gladiators were led by all-around performer Lori Wardynski. She easily won the long jump and then raced to wins in the 100 dash, and the 100 and 300 hurdles.

"It was just pretty good," Wardynski said. "Today was a little rough because I was feeling sick. But you can't make excuses and a win is a win."

Paige Blake and Molly Domitrovich ran to wins in the 200 dash and 400 dash respectively.

Brenna Bogaczyk of Bessemer was a double-winner in the shot put (31'05") and discus (93'09"). Valerie Rowe had her best day in track and field as she competed in four events and won the pole vault with a leap of eight feet, which was a personal best. Molly Wieringa was the 3200 run winner.

Bessemer coach Mark Mazzon was happy to get the Marcy Bracket in.

"It was a good meet between the regional and the U.P. Finals," Mazzon said. "It gets the kids ready to go. All the kids did a very good job. It was a little cool, but the sun was out. We had a lot of personal records for the boys and the girls."

Wakefield-Marenisco's relay team of Darleen Freistein, Kailey and Darienne Korpi and Paxton Wanink were dual winners in the 400 and 800 meters. Freistein, Wanink, Darienne Korpi and Engel on the anchor leg took the 1600 relay.

Bethany Engel was confident she could jump over five feet and break the high jump record.

"I knew I could do it," Engel said. "I wanted to jump 5'3" and I will get to 5'3" by the end of the season. I'm hoping for a top 3 finish in the U.P. Finals."

Ironwood always seems to have very good distance runners and Jessica Gering ran to a win in the 1600 and Hannah Palmeter won the 800 in 2:46.55. Palmeter ran very well as a junior but has had to deal with leg injuries this year.

"I'm struggling a little bit," Palmeter said. "It set me back in my training. Our two-mile relay with Jessica Gering Neva Bentley and Sarah Johnson was pretty good and I'll be running the 800 meter and 1600 meter relay at the U.P. Finals."