Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
CHASSELL — Aubrey Smith has been the one runner preventing Division 1 Houghton from sweeping the top four individual finishes at most of Ironwood’s cross country meets this year.
It’s been pretty much the same for the Ewen-Trout Creek girls except the Panthers have been finishing behind both Houghton and Hancock in their first season with a full team.
Smith scanned the field at the starting line at Thursday’s BlueBolts Panther Invite and didn’t see any of the Houghton runners.
Smith and the Panthers both took advantage at Chassell’s ski trails Thursday.
Smith, who had finished as high as second twice, won her first race of the season, solidifying her status as the top runner in the Copper Mountain Conference. The Panthers won their second, but it was their first locally, and it was their first time beating Hancock, which has won the last three U.P. titles in Division 2 and is favored to win their fourth.
Smith held off Gogebic’s Alyssa Shirkey by 8.7 seconds and the Panthers beat the Bulldogs by two points.
A cooling rain came in time for the girls race to help dampen the effects of the heat and humidity that would have made a hilly course even harder.
Ironwood coach Ben Schmandt said Smith has been running well all year.
“I’ve been having a good season this year, a nice change from previous years that I’ve been all right, but this year I’m finally getting in it,” Smith said. “My goal is to win the conference title and I think I’m on track to do it.”
Like Smith, the Panther girls have been finishing ahead of the league competition all season. E-TC won a smaller meet at Superior Central against different teams, and now they were able to finish ahead of Hancock at this meet for a much bigger win.
The Panthers didn’t field a full team in their first six seasons.
Their first full team is pretty good.
“It’s pretty satisfying after coming here with a one-man team with Elise (Besonen) a couple different years and never having enough to race,” E-TC coach Brad Besonen said. “The first year we actually have enough to run as a team and we’re winning some races and we have a chance to be competitive at the U.P. Finals as a team, it’s pretty sweet.”
Bree Besonen led the Panthers in fifth place with Emma Besonen eighth and Leona Schutz ninth.
Schmandt said he was ready to predict a lot of hardware won by conference runners and teams at next month’s U.P. Finals.
That’s not going out that far on a limb. The Jeffers boys have won the last two U.P. D-2 titles, the Dollar Bay boys won D-3 last year and Jeffers’ Landon Larson was U.P. champion in D-2 and Kalvin Kytta was in D-3, last year.
The Panther girls should be in the mix in D-3 and so should Smith, in D-2.
“I think you look across the board in the U.P., I think we are in one of the most competitive conferences in all the U.P. in cross country,” Schmandt said.
He was thrilled that Ironwood’s Zach Smith finished in second place Thursday. That was behind the winner Kytta, but ahead of Larson, the one he’ll have to contend with at U.P.’s. (Ironwood and Jeffers are both in D-2; Chassell is D-3)
“He’s been our solid, consistent No. 1 guy this year and today he showed me another level,” Schmandt said.
He was ahead of Jeffers’ top two runners after the first mile. He usually finishes behind both of them.
“But this time he went out and attacked it,” Schmandt said. “And he was able to hold onto that. It was really amazing to see. It was a great sign because I think that’s just going to boost his confidence up that I can beat — Kalvin is Kalvin — but I can not only compete but I can beat these Jeffers guys.”
He was about happy the boys as a team were just three points behind the Blue Bolts, who he figures to be a contender again in D-3, the closest they’ve been to them all year.
Ironwood, though, competes in D-2 where he said Jeffers is the favorite once again with Hancock favored to take the girls title for the fourth straight year.
He said Joey Lauzon ran a nice race for the Devils.
“It’s been a tough season for him as far as results have been. I thought for sure he ran a great first half of the race and I’m hopeful to keep him working and getting better and better and getting back to where I know he can be, that solid guy on top of the standings as well as Zach,” Schmandt said.
All of the Panther girls finished in the top 20. Alyssa DeCremer took 15th and exchange student Enrara Moreno was 19th. Hannah Ferguson will join the team soon. Emma Besonen and Moreno have been battling sickness and ran strong anyway.
Besonen, Besonen, DeCremer and Schutz combined to set the school record and take third in the 3,200 relay at the U.P. track-and-field finals in the spring.
“The four of them just get after it and they’re so positive with it,” coach Besonen said. “If we can add someone like Enora who’s a hard worker, we have a shot.”
Bree Besonen has been leading them this year. She’s been a bit frustrated when she ran slower than last year at a couple of meets.
“But she’s working really hard,” coach Besonen said. “She’s carrying a different frame than she did last year. She’s done a lot of working out for basketball, so she’s got a lot more mass that she’s carrying around. Today was good for her, she popped a pretty darn good time on a tough course today.”
It was a good day for Gogebic’s Shirkey as well, who challenged Aubrey Smith for the top spot.
“She’s improved greatly,” Schmandt said. “She gave Aubrey everything she could. Hat’s off to Shirkey on the race she ran, she ran excellently well as did Aubrey.”
The U.P. Finals are scheduled for Oct. 19 at Pictured Rocks Golf Course in Munising.
Results
Boys
Team: 1. Jeffers 26, 2. Dollar Bay 67, 3. Ironwood 70, 4. Calumet 80, 5. Hancock 116.
Top 5: 1. Kalvin Kytta, Chassell, 17:27.1; 2. Zach Smith, Ironwood, 18:08.2; 3. Landon Larson, Jeffers, 18:18.3; 4. Cameron Anderson, Jeffers, 18:23.4; 5. Joshua Gaunt, Dollar Bay, 19:08.6.
Other local finishers: 12. Izaiah Adams, Gogebic, 20:34.5; 14. Joey Lauzon, Ironwood, 20:39.1; 18. Drew Johnson, Gogebic, 21:13.3; 19. Daniel Tibaldo, Ironwood, 21:18.4; 21. Logan Holm, Ironwood, 21:35.6; 23. Ayden Rau, Gogebic, 21:44.8; 25. Cameron Logghe, E-TC, 22:13; 30. Mikael Delacruz, Gogebic, 22:55.7; 31. Gage Hacker, Watersmeet, 23:08.4; 32. Mark Jaunzems, Ironwood, 23:08.8; 34. Nathan Jaunzems, Ironwood, 23:57.5; 39. Talon Hughes, Ironwood, 28:40.7; 41. Xavier Barajas, Watersmeet, 31:33.9.
Girls
Team: 1. Ewen-Trout Creek 49, 2. Hancock 51, 3. Calumet 81, 4. Chassell 97, 5. Gogebic 99, 6. Ironwood 99.
Top 5: 1. Aubrey Smith, Ironwood, 21:13; 2. Alyssa Shirkey, Gogebic, 21:21.9; 3. Ella Keranen, Hancock, 22:03.8; 4. Sylvia Aho, Chassell, 22:26; 5. Bree Besonen, E-TC, 22:27.9.
Other local finishers: 8. Emma Besonen, E-TC, 23:10; 9. Leona Schutz, E-TC, 23:10.3; 15. Alyssa DeCremer, E-TC, 25:28.9; 18. Aida Kessler, Gogebic, 26:07.7; 19. Enara Moreno, E-TC, 26:12.6; 24. Madelyn Smith, Ironwood, 26:37.4; 25. Aubrey Balduc, Ironwood, 26:38.4; 26. Keira Graham, Gogebic, 26:51.4; 32. Iyla Lagalo, Ironwood, 27:56.2; 34. Anneli Meyer, Gogebic, 28:15.4; 35. Ryan Routheaux, Ironwood, 28:28.2; 38. Aubrey Miller, Gogebic, 30:24.8; 39. Emily Dums, Gogebic, 32:11.7; 42. Ashlen Kangas, Ironwood, 35:47.5; 43. Alexandreya Schiiller, Ironwood, 36:53.6.
