Area D-3 athletes advance to UP Finals

By JASON JUNO

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LAKE LINDEN --- The Bessemer Speedboys 4x100 relay team already broke its school record this season and it got an unexpected one here Monday - the best time ever at Lake Linden's Werner Field (45.79 seconds).

Bessemer continued their strong performance in the event at Monday's MHSAA Division 3 regional track-and-field meet where the top four finishers in the individual events and the top two relay teams qualified for the U.P. Finals, set for June 1 in Kingsford.

The relay team of Tommy Trudgeon, Vinnie Triggiano, Landon Peterson and Alvin Holst-Larsen is seeded first at the D-3 finals. They have their sights on a U.P. title, and the U.P. record of 45.34 seconds, set by North Central two years ago.

"That's their goal, they've been working hard. Handoffs were good. They're in practice every day, in the weight room, working hard," Bessemer assistant coach Tracy Rowe said.

The relay team for the big meets is made up of three seniors and exchange student Holst-Larsen. They have a passion for the event, and for getting the U.P. record.

"I think that's what just drives them, wanting to get that," Rowe said.

Like the Speedboys' relay team, LL-H's Emily Jokela doesn't lose very many races. She won all four of her sprint events at U.P. Finals last year. Ontonagon sophomore Violet Amos finished ahead of her for the second time this season with a first-place finish over Jokela in the 200-meter dash.

"It's always a back and forth between those two, especially in the 200. They make everything fun to watch," Ontonagon coach Brian Amos said. "They push each other and they make each other better, so it's always enjoyable to watch."

Amos has been winning her fair share of sprints this season herself, only falling to top competition like Jokela and West Iron County's Danica Shamion, a Division I signee at Central Michigan University.

"She's a stubborn Finlander," Violet's coach and father said. "She's figuring some more things out, just being third year of varsity track there, you get better, you get more refined."

Violet's good in the 200 for a simple reason.

"She's fast," Brian said. "The 200 is the strength and then the speed. Violet, she's very strong, she does a lot of farm work, that helps."

Ewen-Trout Creek's Bree Besonen hadn't been able to cut much off her 800 time despite working hard all season. On Monday, she cut off about six seconds, won the event and is seeded second at U.P. Finals. She finished just ahead of her sister Emma in the event Monday.

Coaches kept Bree out of the 1,600 run to focus on an event they thought she could medal in at the U.P. Finals, the 800.

"We were nervous about that, but it worked out very well," E-TC coach Brad Besonen said. "She ran like she needed that race and that was the best run she's had all year, so really happy for her. And Em, right on her tail the whole time in the second spot, it's pretty satisfying to see the go 1-2 in that race (800)."

Being fresher probably helped, and so did the importance of the meet for a competitor like Bree, coach Besonen said. She also advanced in the 3,200 run with Emma also going in the throws (she's seeded third in the discus).

Also Monday, Trudgeon won the 100-meter dash, while the Lakes' Matthew Jokela took first in the 200 .03 second ahead of Trudgeon.

Trudgeon is seeded second at U.P. Finals, .01 second behind Newberry's Kennedy Depew. Jokela and Trudgeon are 1-2 in the 200.

The Gladiator girls 4x400 relay team won and is seeded first at U.P. Finals.

All of the seeds for area athletes are on page 15.

W-M's Jordan Libertoski won the long jump and teammate Tanner LaMaide was first in the high jump.

Host Lake Linden-Hubbell won both the boys and girls team events. The Bessemer boys were runner-up, 64-45. The Dollar Bay girls were second.

The Lakes are tough, Rowe said.

"They have what we have, they have sprinters and they have throwers," she said.

Results

Top 4 in each individual event, top 2 in each relay qualify for U.P. Finals

Boys

Team: 1. Lake Linden-Hubbell 64, 2. Bessemer 45, 3. Wakefield-Marenisco 16, 3. Dollar Bay 16, 5. Chassell 15, 6. L'Anse 10, 7. Ontonagon 8, 8. Baraga 7, 9. Watersmeet 5.

100 dash: 1. Tommy Trudgeon, Bessemer, 11.64; 2. Matthew Jokela, LL-H, 11.70; 3. Thomas Caron, Watersmeet, 12.05; 4. Landon Peterson, Bessemer, 12.21.

200 dash: 1. Matthew Jokela, LL-H, 23.85; 2. Tommy Trudgeon, Bessemer, 23.88; 3. Abi Pestka, Ontonagon, 25.32; 4. Jordan Libertoski, W-M, 25.41.

400 dash: 1. Matthew Jokela, LL-H, 52.17; 2. Thomas Caron, Watersmeet, 53.26; 3. Abi Pestka, Ontonagon, 55.52; 4. Tommy Trudgeon, Bessemer, 56.05.

800 run: 1. Kalvin Kytta, Chassell, 2:08.80; 2. Joshua Gaunt, Dollar Bay, 2:09.40; 3. Brady Axford, LL-H, 2:10.48; 4. Josh Luukkonen, Dollar Bay, 2:18.59.

1,600 run: 1. Kalvin Kytta, Chassell, 4:45.47; 2. Noah Verbos, Bessemer, 5:06.02; 3. Jack Nelson, Ontonagon, 5:16.64; 4. Joshua Gaunt, Dollar Bay, 5:31.16.

3,200 run: 1. Kalvin Kytta, Chassell, 11:00.34; 2. Noah Verbos, Bessemer, 11:19.39; 3. Jace Symons, W-M, 11:55.54; 4. Cole Griffin, LL-H, 11:59.67.

110 hurdles: 1. Gabe Popko, LL-H, 17.88; 2. Connor Kemppainen, L'Anse, 18.05; 3. Achilles Suri, Bessemer, 18.20; 4. Lukas Axford, LL-H, 19.11.

300 hurdles: 1. Connor Kemppainen, L'Anse, 45.38; 2. Lukas Axford, LL-H, 46.26; 3. Vinnie Triggiano, Bessemer, 46.62; 4. Kaden Gariepy, LL-H, 46.64.

4x100 relay: 1. Bessemer 45.79, 2. LL-H 49.61.

4x200 relay: 1. LL-H 1:38.52, 2. Bessemer 1:38.84.

4x400 relay: 1. LL-H 3:53.86, 2. Bessemer 3:57.07.

4x800 relay: 1. Dollar Bay 9:14.12, 2. LL-H 9:17.21.

Shot put: 1. Gabe Popko, LL-H, 42-11.5; 2. Ben Kaurala, Bessemer, 42-8; 3. Neal Rand, Bessemer, 39-9.5; 4. Taven Lewis, Baraga, 38-6.

Discus: 1. Gabe Popko, LL-H, 146-0; 2. Neal Rand, Bessemer, 136-2; 3. Nate Sterbenz, Baraga, 130-6.5; 4. Alex Drew, LL-H, 123-8.

High jump: 1. Tanner LaMaide, W-M, 5-8; 2. Nolan Hendrickson, Baraga, 5-8; 3. Josh Daavettila, LL-H, 5-8; 4. Kaden Gariepy, LL-H, 5-2.

Pole vault: 1. Sam Roberts, LL-H, 10-6; 2. Leland Hollenbeck, Bessemer, 10-0; 3. Nathan St. Onge, LL-H, 10-0; 4. Liam Tourtillot, Dollar Bay, 9-6.

Long jump: 1. Jordan Libertoski, W-M, 17-6; 2. Landon Peterson, Bessemer, 17-5; 3. Liam Tourtillot, Dollar Bay, 17-2.5; 4. Josh Daavettila, LL-H, 17-1.

Girls

Team: 1. Lake Linden-Hubbell 59, 2. Dollar Bay 46, 3. Ontonagon 23, 3. Ewen-Trout Creek 23, 5. Baraga 15, 6. Bessemer 13, 7. Chassell 5, 8. Wakefield-Marenisco 2.

100 dash: 1. Emily Jokela, LL-H, 13.35; 2. Violet Amos, Ontonagon, 13.54; 3. Alli Bobula, Ontonagon, 13.83; 4. Payton Goldsworthy, LL-H, 14.10.

100 adaptive: 1. Trinity Pelon, L'Anse, 27.51.

200 dash: 1. Violet Amos, Ontonagon, 27.10; 2. Emily Jokela, LL-H, 27.29; 3. Alli Bobula, Ontonagon, 29.05; 4. Isabella Tampas, LL-H, 29.35.

200 adaptive: 1. Trinity Pelon, L'Anse, 53.34.

400 dash: 1. Emily Jokela, LL-H, 1:00.75; 2. Violet Amos, Ontonagon, 1:01.26; 3. Alyssa Shirkey, W-M, 1:06.32; 4. Ella Schneiderhan, LL-H, 1:08.24.

400 adaptive: 1. Trinity Pelon, L'Anse, 1:54.85.

800 run: 1. Bree Besonen, E-TC, 2:38.28; 2. Emma Besonen, E-TC, 2:40.30; 3. Sylvia Aho, Chassell, 2:41.05; 4. Sophie DesRochers, Baraga, 2:41.53.

1,600 run: 1. Taryn Maki, Dollar Bay, 5:59.55; 2. Sophie DeRochers, Baraga, 6:02.62; 3. Leona Schutz, E-TC, 6:15.58; 4. Sylvia Aho, Chassell, 6:22.72.

3,200 run: 1. Taryn Maki, Dollar Bay, 13:34.88; 2. Bree Besonen, E-TC, 13:38.91; 3. Leona Schutz, E-TC, 14:24.90; 4. Lily Etelamaki, Chassell, 15:08.62.

100 hurdles: 1. Aubrey Karpinen, Dollar Bay, 18.86; 2. Cleo Milkey, LL-H, 19.43; 3. Ellie Delene, Baraga, 19.70; 4. Elisa Delene, Baraga, 19.76.

300 hurdles: 1. Emily Jokela, LL-H, 48.81; 2. Laila Bell, Dollar Bay, 52.11; 3. Aubrey Karpinen, Dollar Bay, 53.91; 4. Jordan Holombo, Chassell, 54.45.

4x100 relay: 1. LL-H 55.28, 2. Dollar Bay 56.36.

4x200 relay: 1. LL-H 1:56.81, 2. Ontonagon 1:58.34.

4x400 relay: 1. Ontonagon 4:31.87, 2. Dollar Bay 4:32.56.

4x800 relay: 1. Dollar Bay 10:52.02, E-TC 11:08.59.

Shot put: 1. Maddy Dudenas, LL-H, 30-0; 2. Bella Gaiser, Bessemer, 28-2; 3. Emma Besonen, E-TC, 26-9; 4. Megan Sutherland, LL-H, 24-11.

Discus: 1. Reese Holley, Baraga, 98-7.5; 2. Emma Besonen, E-TC, 97-6.5; 3. Cleo Milkey, LL-H, 83-10.5; 4. Andy Anderson, Dollar Bay, 74-5.

High jump: 1. Kiera Isaacson, Dollar Bay, 5-0; 2. Emily Johnston, Bessemer, 4-8; 3. Kaedyn Hendrickson, Bessemer, 4-8; 4. Nora Keranen, Dollar Bay, 4-6.

Pole vault: 1. Abi Codere, LL-H, 9-8; 2. Elisa Delene, Baraga, 8-0; 2. Nora Keranen, Dollar Bay, 8-0; 2. Laila Bell, Dollar Bay, 8-0.

Long jump: 1. Cleo Milkey, LL-H, 13-10; 2. Rebecca Lyons, LL-H, 13-5; 3. Ava Nye, Dollar Bay, 13-1; 4. Nora Keranen, Dollar Bay, 12-7.