MARQUETTE — It’s been four years, but the Marquette girls swimming and diving team is back on top in the Upper Peninsula in a big way.

In a dominant performance, the Redettes scored 352 points at the MHSAA UP Finals on Saturday, finishing a whopping 135 ahead of second-place Kingsford.

Redettes head coach Nathan McFarren struggled to find words to describe how well his team performed.

“It’s been way too long,” he said. “You don’t want to jinx yourself, but I was hoping this was the year because easily, by far, this is the most talented team that Marquette has seen in 12 or 13 years.

“It shows. Three team records and a U.P. (Finals) record in relays. It was a pretty special day.

“We didn’t win every event, but there were many events where we had three participants in the top six. It’s our depth. We did win a lot of events, but that’s not what it was about.

“The one thing we’ve been talking about all year to make this successful is that you have to love and trust yourself, the team and the coach. It all came together today.”

Marquette won the 200-yard medley relay and set a U.P. Finals record in the 400 freestyle relay, along with having three individual champions. Taryn Aho won the 200 free and Erin Vanderschaaf finished on top in the 500 free. Kali McDonough also won the diving competition on Friday.

“In eight years, this is the most special by far,” McFarren said. “When you look at the record board in some of those relay records that we broke ’07, ’05, ’06. We’re looking at 14, 13 and 12 years. It’s pretty special.”

The day may have belonged to the Redettes, but the runner-up Flivvers also had a solid day. Kingsford set a UP Finals record in winning the 200 free relay and Peyton Johnson broke the finals record in the 100 backstroke (56.71) by more than six seconds.

“That’s the highest they’ve ever finished, so that’s like a win for us,” Kingsford head coach Jim Lindstrom said. “Setting records while we did that, it’s amazing.

“One of the big factors is that we had some good girls come from the YMCA and then we had Peyton come back and help set records. So she was a big part of that along with our senior girls.

“It’s drive. It’s totally drive. Those girls challenge each other every day. They work hard and push hard and it got them all the way up there.”

Johnson teamed up with Emily Bruns, Scott and Ailie Schoenborn in breaking the 200 free relay record (1:43.51).

The Flivvers added runner-up honors from Johnson in 200 IM and Schoenborn in 100 free. The 400 free relay with Sydney Scott, Samantha Scott, Schoenborn and Johnson also took second.

Flivvers’ Raiche wins 500 free

MARQUETTE — It’s not easy to repeat as Upper Peninsula champions, but the Houghton boys swimming and diving team sure made it look that way.

The Gremlins finished as UP Finals champs for the second year in a row with 313 points, 110 points ahead of second-place Marquette and Gladstone.

Houghton won the 200-yard medley relay and Kevin Beaghan took home two individual titles in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.

Sault Ste. Marie’s Andrew Innerebner was the biggest individual star of the day as he set U.P. Finals records in both the 100 free and 200 free.

Kolbe Raiche was Kingsford’s lone champion as he took first in the 500 free (5:32.83), followed by teammate Luke Sturm.

The fourth-place Flivvers had three other seconds — Sturm, 200 free; Raiche, 200 IM; and John Lundholm, 100 butterfly.