Kingsford's Luke Terrian participates in the receiver challenge during the U.P. All Star Football skills challenge day at the Superior Dome on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Marquette. (Trinity Carey/The Mining Journal)

MARQUETTE — The main event may be a couple days away, but the U.P. Football All-Star Game players got a chance to strut their stuff during the Skills Challenge in the Superior Dome.

Two Northern Michigan University recruits won their events, the first Ishpeming defensive lineman Logan Kruhlik, last fall’s All-Upper Peninsula Small School Defensive Player of the Year. He won the Strongest Man challenge by performing 22 repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench press. Gwinn tight end and Michigan Tech recruit Tucker Taylor won the non-lineman event by completing 10 reps.

“That’s not even my PR,” Kruhlik said with a laugh, referring to his personal record. “Since I had the (Michigan High School Football Coaches Association) all-star game last week (in the Saginaw area), I haven’t lifted in about two weeks. That’s the first time I’ve touched a weight in two weeks, so I wasn’t mad about it, that’s for sure. That was definitely a good number.

“After about 10 reps, you start to feel it. You get so tired that you start to black out. You’ve just got to keep going. All your friends are there hyping you up, so you’re basically doing it for them.”

Another incoming Wildcat was West Iron County’s Caden Pellizzer. A wide receiver for the Wykons, he won the Quarterback Challenge for longest pass of all things, a 57-yard throw, third-longest in the history of the game.

After playing in the Superior Dome on Saturday, Pellizzer will spend at least the next four years there when he plays on the other side of the ball as a defensive back. When asked what Northern’s biggest selling point was for him, it was the field he was playing on.

“The dome and not playing in the cold all the time,” he said. “I’ve always played here in middle school and then we made it here my junior year for the (MHSAA Division 8) state semifinals. I’ve had a lot of games here, but it’s definitely special.”

In regard to his final game with high school players — now graduates — this weekend, Pellizzer said he’s just looking forward to having one more time on the field with guys he’s never competed with before.

“It’s really just about having fun with everyone in the UP that you don’t get to play with or get to play against,” he said. “It’s just about coming together and having fun.”

In the 40-yard dash competition, at least a dozen players attempted the event, but in the end, Newberry’s Brandon Christensen took the title, edging out Marquette wide receiver and Tech commit Ethan Martysz. The fastest lineman was Collin Broemer of Gogebic with a time of 4.81 seconds.

“I had high hopes, but I didn’t think I was going to win,” Christensen said. “I ran track at Newberry for three years and there was a lot of competition in the UP. But then I moved downstate my senior year after football season took over and I went down there for track at Litchfield High School.

“I learned a lot from them being down there. It was a lot of practice and a lot of hard work and dedication and them pushing me to my limits. I was running 4.9 over a month ago, but with the will and the power that I have that they gave me and pushed me to my limits, I pulled out a 4.54 here.”

An All-UP Small School running back, Christensen said he’ll play downstate at Alma College before he plans to transfer to Michigan State, where he hopes to walk-on with the Spartans.

Other winners included Menominee’s Shawn Sandahl in the Kicking Challenge (50 yards), Sault Ste. Marie’s Tate Kay in the Punting Challenge (67 yards) and Rapid River’s Nathan Olson in the non-lineman Receiver Challenge.

Kruhlik took home his second title of the day by winning the lineman Receiver Challenge.