NEGAUNEE - Vickie Paupore was elated, and not because her Negaunee High School girls track team won the Upper Peninsula Division 1 regional track and field meet.
"I'm extremely pleased with how the meet turned out," she said. "One of the telltale things was that we had a girl qualify for the U.P. finals in every event.
"In all my years of coaching, we've never done that before."
She added that this is "either my 17th or 18th year of coaching here" at Negaunee.
The Miners scored 63 points for a nine-point margin over runner-up Calumet with 54. Houghton was third with 44, followed by Kingsford with 16, Iron Mountain 9 and Gwinn 1.
Despite winning just five of the 17 events, Negaunee had 20 girls who were part of 23 qualifying spots for the U.P. finals, including four each by Ashley Veale and Jocelyn Clickner.
Fact Box
Summary: 1. Negaunee, 63; 2. Calumet, 54; 3. Houghton, 44; 4. Kingsford, 16; 5. Iron Mountain, 9; 6. Gwinn, 1.
3200-meter relay - Calumet (Gina Helminen, Julia Lean, Rachel Poyhonen, Tara Kiilunen), 10:21.42; Houghton; Negaunee; Kingsford
100 hurdles - Ashley Veale (N), 16.62; Girard (IM); Fowler (H); Erkkila (C)
100 dash - Chelsea Jacques (C), 12.46; Veale (N); Benzie (K); Williams (K)
800 relay - Houghton (Natalie Datto, Angela Becia, Kelsie Richards, Adeline Grier-Welch), 1:54.04; Negaunee; Kingsford; Iron Mountain
1600 run - Lean (C), 5:40.59; Abbott (H); Poyhonen (C); Kniola (N)
400 relay - Calumet (Lexie Rowe, Katherine Orr, Terra Erkkila, Jacques), 53.42; Negaunee; Houghton; Kingsford
400 dash - Jocelyn Clickner (N), 1:05.25; Lafleur (IM); Richards (H); Roell (K)
300 low hurdles - Veale (N), 47.96; Datto (H); Girard (IM); Jennings (K)
800 run - Kiilunen (C), 2:29.39; Churchill (N); Laux (H); Alexander (N)
200 dash - Jacques (C), 26.32; Veale (N); Clickner (N); Benzie (K)
3200 run - Kiilunen (C), 12:04.04; Lean (C); Delong (C); Savolainen (N)
1600 relay - Negaunee (Emilee Lokken, Clara Churchill, Clickner, Jayne Alexander), 4:23.35; Houghton; Kingsford; Calumet
Discus - Elisa Jurmu (H), 108-4; Molnar (N); Symons (N); Roush (N)
Shot put - Savannah Roush (N), 33-1; Anderson (C); Symons (N); Hietala (H)
Pole vault - Valerie Clevenger (C), 8-0; Johnson (N); Nyman (N); Jennings (K)
High jump - Grier-Welch (H), 5-3; Jurmu (H); Pavolich (C); Paquette (N)
Long jump - Grier-Welch (H), 16-4; Benzie (K); Clickner (N); Asplund (G)
Those qualifiers included wins by Veale in the 100 intermediate and 300 low hurdles and by Clickner in the 400 and as part of the 1,600 relay.
"This is one of those times when you say it's the team that did it, but this time, you really mean it," Paupore said.
The star of the girls meet had to be Calumet freshman Chelsea Jacques and junior Tara Kiilunen, each three-time winners, including two individual events each.
Jacques won the 100, 200 and ran on the Copper Kings' victorious 400 relay team, while Kiilunen took the 800, 3,200 and ran with the 3,200 winners.
"Last year, I watched my brother (Brendan) run at the U.P. Finals," said Jacques, who broke the Calumet record in the 100 in 12.46 seconds that she had set earlier in the season.
"This is really one I wanted to do well in. Our coaches have been pointing at three meets now - this one, the WestPAC meet (Tuesday in Calumet) and the U.P.'s."
Jacques won the 100 by more than three-quarters of a second, an eternity in that short of a race, and won the 200 by more than a second.
The Copper Kings qualified 15 entries for the finals.
Houghton won four events, three that included Adeline Grier-Welch in the high jump, long jump and as a member of the 800 relay. Fourteen Gremlin entries will take part in the Finals.