Daily Mining Gazette/Bryce Derouin Houghton’s Quentin Stachowiak hands off to Clayton Sayen in the 1600 relay Friday at the Houghton County Invite in Lake Linden.

By Bryce Derouin

bderouin@mininggazette.com

LAKE LINDEN — Coming down the final 100 meters in the 800, Houghton’s Clayton Sayen was well ahead of the pack but running on fumes. His coaches were screaming for him to push it, while his teammates attempted to rally him towards the finish in a race that was against the clock Friday at Lake Linden-Hubbell.

The final kick fueled by those cheers was enough for Sayen to break a school record, and Houghton County Invite record, with a final time of 1 minute, 59.44 seconds, beating Chris Lett’s previous school record of 1:59.60 from 1991, and the 1995 meet record of Houghton’s Tom Miller (2:05.79).

“This is the best feeling I’ve had with any event,” Sayen said. “Chris Lett is like a legend at Houghton, and taking down one of his records feels nice.

“Coming along for the home stretch and having my teammates screaming for me is an awesome feeling. I know I wouldn’t have gotten the (record) if they weren’t there cheering me on, giving me an extra push.”

In addition to the 800, Sayen was a member of the winning 1600 relay team (3:44.13) and 3200 relay (9:11.63) teams to help the Houghton boys take first with 165 points. The Calumet Copper Kings were second with 108.

On the girls side, the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes won their fourth meet of the season with 182 points to edge Houghton’s 130.

Sayen’s inspiration to break the record came in the 3200 relay at last year’s U.P. Finals, where he ran a 1:58.70 split. On Wednesday, he made it known to his coaches that he wanted to go for the 800 record on Friday, so he began Wednesday’s practice with pace training in preparation for the race.

For Friday, Sayen had a coach at the starting line and the 200 mark to let him know where he was at in terms of time. Sayen managed to run his first lap in 57 seconds, which was his goal going into the race.

“I was coming around the 600 mark and I was gassed,” Sayen said. “Coach was screaming at me, so I figured I must have been on pace.”

Sayen is just one of the many runners who make up the loaded Gremlins squad. In the distance races, Seth Helman swept, winning the 1600 (4:43.19) and 3200 (10:36.80).

The Gremlins also earned sweeps in the hurdles, with Casey Lentowich winning the 110 hurdles (18.25), and Dante Cyrus taking first in the 300 hurdles (41.98).

“We’re really, really happy,” Houghton head coach Dan Junttila said. “With our running events, we couldn’t have asked for more.”

Junttila is also optimistic about his team’s recent success in the field events to match his team’s running prowess. Bruce Scott won the high jump (5-8), and Kameron Simpkin (12-0), Tyler Ryynanen (11-06), David Daavettila (10-06) and Dan Groeneveld (10-00.10) took the top four spots in pole vault.

“The real highlight was Bruce Scott winning the high jump. That’s an area of concern for us,” Junttila said. “We’ve improved on field events.”

The Calumet Copper Kings swept the weight events, as Cooper Twardzik and Jesse Helminen finished 1-2 in the shot put and disc. It was Twardzik winning in discus (128-05), while Helminen took first in the shot (42-07).

Calumet’s Victor Avillaneda also won the long jump (18-08.50).

LL-H’s Brendan Middleton was victorious in the 100 (11.25), finishing just .05 off the school record. Middleton also chased down Avillaneda in the final leg of the 400 relay (48.05) to win by .04. But after suffering a tweaked hamstring, Middleton sat out the 200 as a precautionary measure.

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The LL-H girls continued their overwhelming dominance by winning nine of 17 events. Laura Lyons led the Lakes with wins in the 400 (1:05.97), long jump (15:03.50) and 200 (28.78). Lyons finished as runner-up to Houghton’s Kendra Monette in the 100 (13.32).

LL-H was also victorious in three relays, winning the 800 (1:58.86), 400 (55.93) and 1600 (4:42.74), while Sienna Anderson won the 100 hurdles (17.94), and Mariah Wilmer took first in the 800 (2:31.75).

“The kids got better in a lot of events and the times were better,” LL-H girls head coach Gary Gusfredi said. “The relays and individual events were ran really well.

“But our field events have been coming through. The field events pick up big points for us.”

In high jump, LL-H’s Jamie Hendrickson tied with Calumet’s Hailey Wickstrom for first at 5-0, while LL-H’s Mackenzie LePage (8-00-01) and Lily Kumpula (8-00-00) took second and third behind Houghton’s Becca Stone (8-06) in pole vault.

In addition to her victory in the 100, Monette managed to break the meet record in the shot put with a toss of 38-03 to break Jill Lewis’ record of 37-02 from 1987.

Houghton’s Anabel Needham took first in both distance races, finishing the 1600 in 5:53.45 and the 3200 in 13:21.65.

Besides Wickstrom and the discus, where Dollar Bay’s Vivca Nelson took first with a throw of 102-05.00, it was either a Lake or Gremlin finishing first on the girls side.

The teams will now prepare for Monday’s Copper Country Invite before getting ready for Thursday’s regionals. Calumet and Houghton will be in Westwood for regionals, while Hancock goes to Ishpeming. The small schools head to Wakefield for their regional meet.

“We’re happy with where we’re at,” Gusfredi said. “Sometimes you get into the meets with larger amount of teams and different combinations of things and anything can happen. We have to keep getting better and working hard.

“We have one more meet to tune up for (regionals), so we’re going to have to rely on our consistency and depth. That’s going to be the key.”

Houghton County Invite results

Boys

1. Houghton 165; 2. Calumet 108; 3. Lake Linden-Hubbell 90; 4. Hancock 63; 5. Chassell 62; 6. Dollar Bay 33; 7. Jeffers 4.

3200 relay — 1. Houghton (Helman, Donnelly, Odegard, Sayen) 9:11.63; 2. Calumet 9:37.68; 3. LL-H 9:54.25; 4. Hancock 9:59.29; 5. Chassell 11:14.33.

110 hurdles — 1. Lentowich, Houghton, 18.25; 2. Holmes, Chassell, 18.72; 3. Dudenas, LL-H, 19.38; 4. Klein, LL-H, 19.58; 5. Wilson, LL-H, 20.36; 6. Steffensen, Houghton, 20.46.

100 — 1. Middleton, LL-H, 11.25; 2. Dewald, Hancock, 11.28; 3. Iacono, Dollar Bay, 11.61; 4. Avillaneda, Calumet, 11.68; 5. Hainault, LL-H, 11.71; 6. Stuber, Hancock, 11.93.

800 relay — 1. Houghton (Cyrus, Rajala, Scott, Stachowiak) 1:40.76; 2. Hancock 1:41.97; 3. LL-H 1:44.06; 4. Calumet 1:49.51; 5. Dollar Bay 2:09.91.

1600 — 1. Helman, Houghton, 4:43.19; 2. LeClaire, Dollar Bay, 4:51.91; 3. Donnelly, Houghton, 4:59.08; 4. Mallow, Hancock, 5:20.55; 5. Larson, Jeffers, 5:26.42; 6. Onder, Calumet, 5:31.40.

400 relay — 1. LL-H (Hainault, Chopp, Crouch, Middleton) 48.05; 2. Calumet 48.09; 3. Hancock 48.64; 4. Houghton 49.24; 5. Chassell 49.42; 6. Dollar Bay 58.43.

400 — 1. Hokenson, Chassell, 54.72; 2. Stachowiak, Houghton, 55.96; 3. Lehto, Calumet, 56.33; 4. Wagner, LL-H, 57.62; 5. Kytta, Chassell, 58.08; 6. Beaudoin, LL-H, 58.80.

300 hurdles — 1. Cyrus, Houghton, 41.98; 2. Lentowich, Houghton, 47.12; 3. Holmes, Chassell, 47.92; 4. Steffensen, Houghton, 48.09; 5. Gregorie, LL-H, 48.64; 6. Klein, LL-H, 49.46.

800 — 1. Sayen, Houghton, 1:59.44; 2. M. Ojala, Calumet, 2:15.00; 3. Mallow, Hancock, 2:21.22; 4. Holzeberger, LL-H, 2:21.87; 5. Kytta, Chassell, 2:23.37; 6. Larson, Jeffers, 2:28.78.

200 — 1. Dewald, Hancock, 23.90; 2. Stuber, Hancock, 24.23; 3. Cyrus, Houghton, 24.33; 4. Avillaneda, Calumet, 24.48; 5. Iacono, Dollar Bay, 24.55; 6. Hainault, LL-H, 24.69.

3200 — 1. Helman, Houghton, 10:36.80; 2. LeClaire, Dollar Bay, 11:05.26; 3. Tuomi, Chassell, 11:09.45; 4. Poyhonen, Calumet, 11:30.52; 5. Carter, Houghton, 11:49.01; 6. Loukus, Calumet, 11:51.75.

1600 relay — 1. Houghton (Cyrus, Stachowiak, Donnelly, Sayen) 3:44.13; 2. Calumet 3:56.44; 3. LL-H 4:05.52; 4. Chassell 4:06.56; 5. Hancock 4:18.92; 6. Jeffers 4:44.12.

Discus — 1. Twardzik, Calumet, 128-05; 2. Helminen, Calumet, 124-06.5; 3. Wilson, Chassell, 111-03; 4. Chaney, Houghton, 110-05; 5. Kinnunen, Chassell, 109-10; 6. Vandenburg, Calumet ,107-00.

Shot put — 1. Helminen, Calumet, 42-07; 2. Twardzik, Calumet, 40-06.5; 3. Kinnunen, Chassell, 37-05; 4. Studebaker, Calumet, 35-10-.5; 5. Dudenas, LL-H, 35-02; 6. Vandenburg, Calumet, 34-11.

High jump — 1. Scott, Houghton, 5-08; 2. Gregorie, LL-H, 5-06.01; 3. Soumis, Chassell, 5-06; 4. . Lang, Hancock, 5-04; 4. Donnelly, Houghton, 5-04; 6. Wickstrom, LL-H, 5-02.

Pole vault — 1. Simpkin, Houghton, 12-00; 2. Ryynanen, Houghton, 11-06; 3. Daavettila, Houghton, 10-06; 4. Groeneveld, Houghton, 10-00.10; 4. Touvila, LLH, 10-00-01; 6. Lang, Hancock, 10-00.

Long jump — 1. Avillaneda, Calumet, 18-08.5; 2. Middleton, LL-H, 18-07; 3. Iacono, Dollar Bay, 17-05; 4. Gregorie, LL-H, 17-04; 5. Lang, Hancock, 17-01.5; 6. Scott, Houghton, 16-04.

Girls

1. Lake Linden-Hubbell 182; 2. Houghton 130; 3. Hancock 74; 4. Calumet 47; 5. Chassell 42; 6. Dollar Bay 36; 7. Jeffers 9.

3200 relay — 1. Houghton (Olson, Ryynanen, Lehman, Needham) 11:10.16; 2. Chassell 11:25.33; 3. Hancock 11:46.09; 4. LL-H 12:14.81.

100 hurdles — 1. Anderson, LL-H, 17.94; 2. Allen, Chassell, 17.95; 3. Peters, Calumet, 17.98; 4. Laux, Hancock, 18.32; 5. Kariniemi, Calumet, 18.73; 6. Cyrus, Houghton, 19.00

100 — 1. Monette, Houghton, 13.32; 2. Lyons, LL-H, 13.83; 3. Perala, LL-H, 13.98; 4. Kumpula, LL-H, 13.99; 5. Baccus, LL-H, 14.20; 6. Kinnunen, Jeffers, 14.22.

800 relay — 1. LL-H (Seppala, Baccus, Wilmer, Perala) 1:58.86; 2. Houghton 1:59.06; 3. Calumet 2:00.69; 4. Hancock 2:03.41; 5. Chassell 2:09.20; 6. Dollar Bay 2:10.43.

1600 — 1. Needham, Houghton, 5:53.45; 2. Sturos, Hancock, 5:56.95; 3. Rautiola, Chassell, 5:57.31; 4. Nuttall, Hancock, 6:08.42; 5. Kangas, Chassell, 6:09.10; 6. Berg, Calumet, 6:42.31.

400 relay — 1. LL-H (Kumpula, Hendrickson, Baccus, Perala) 55.93; 2. Houghton 57.02; 3. Calumet 57.34; 4. Hancock 58.36; 5. Chassell 1:01.38; 6. Dollar Bay 1:03.71.

400 — 1. Lyons, LL-H, 1:05.57; 2. Lehman, Houghton, 1:09.04; 3. Kinnunen, Jeffers, 1:09.19; 4. Hokenson, Chassell, 1:11.34; 5. Corrigan, LL-H, 1:11.73; 6. Brubaker, Houghton, 1:14.02.

300 hurdles — 1. Stone, Houghton, 55.83; 2. Hendrickson, LL-H, 57.39; 3. Seppala, LLH, 57.40; 4. Wittwer, Chassell, 57.51; 5. Anderson, LL-H, 58.02; 6. Cyrus, Houghton, 58.12.

800 — 1. Wilmer, LL-H, 2:31.75; 2. Daavettila, Dollar Bay, 2:36.46; 3. Larson, Calumet, 2:38.34; 4. Ryynanen, Houghton, 2:40.46; 5. Sturos, Hancock, 2:42.47.

200 — 1. Lyons, LL-H, 28.78; 2. Holmstrom, Hancock, 29.23; 3. Ronis, Houghton, 29.28; 4. Perala, LL-H, 29.58; 5. Kinnunen, Jeffers, 29.92; 6. Seppala, LL-H, 30.46.

3200 — 1. Needham, Houghton, 13:21.65; 2. Daavettila, Dollar Bay, 13:33.56; 3. Nuttall, Hancock, 13:50.69; 4. Destrampe, LL-H, 14:17.87; 5. A. Berg, Calumet, 14:23.41; 6. G. Berg, Hancock, 15:53.34.

1600 relay — 1. LL-H (WIlmer, Corrigan, Seppala, Hendrickson) 4:42.74; 2. Hancock 4:43.95; 3. Houghton 4:47.91; 4. Calumet 5:23.99.

Discus — 1. Nelson, Dollar Bay, 102-05; 2. Jo Caskey, Dollar Bay, 96-05; 3. Codere, LL-H, 94-07; 4. Jarvis, Hancock, 91-06.50; 5. Fenton, Hancock, 80-06; 6. Svoke, Houghton, 80-00.

Shot put — 1. Monette, Houghton, 38-03; 2. Jarvis, Hancock, 35-05; 3. Destrampe, LL-H, 31-05.50; 4. Codere, LL-H, 31-04; 5. Cote, Houghton, 28-01.5; 6. Kruse, Houghton, 28-00.

High jump — 1. Wickstrom, Calumet, 5-00.01; 1. Hendrickson, LL-H, 5-00.01; 3. Hokenson, Chassell, 5-00; 4. LePage, LL-H, 4-10; 5. Stone, Houghton, 4-08; 6. Pertile, Hancock, 4-06.

Pole vault — 1. Stone, Houghton, 8-06; 2. LePage, LL-H, 8-00.01; 3. Kumpula, LL-H, 8-00; 4. Fenton, Hancock 7-06; 5. Baker, Houghton, 7-00; 5. Shaw, Houghton, 7-00.

Long jump — 1. Lyons, LL-H, 15-03.5; 2. Needham, Houghton, 14-04.50; 3. LePage, LL-H, 14-00; 4. Sturos, Calumet, 13-10; 5. Wilmer, LL-H, 13-06; 6. Peters, Calumet, 13-00.5.