MARQUETTE — The Marquette Senior High School cross country teams dominated the standings, especially in the boys meet, to sweep to championships against a dozen other teams mostly from the Upper Peninsula at the season-opening Queen City Invitational on Friday.

Running a five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course at Presque Isle Park near the Lake Superior shore in Marquette, MSHS not only swept the top five places that count toward team points in the boys meet, the home team actually had the first nine finishers and 11 of the first 13.

But only the top seven runners can be used to affect total scoring in the meet, with other finishers counting as an “exhibition.”

Nevertheless, Marquette rolled up a perfect 15 points in the boys meet as race winner Seppi Camilli beat out teammate Peter Argeropoulos by not quite 11 seconds for the individual victory, clocking 17 minutes, 9.6 seconds to 17:20.5 for Argeropoulos.

“Our long-term goals are races in late September and the (MHSAA Upper Peninsula) state championships in late October, so right now we’re really happy with what we’re doing,” MSHS head coach Derek Marr said. “But we just got to keep on doing it and hopefully … we see our times improve…. We have the potential to be a really special team this year.”

Houghton was a distant second in the boys meet with 77 points, led by the first non-Marquette runner, Birk Seagren in 10th place overall in 18:45.5. But he was more than a minute and a half behind Camilli as Argeropoulos and four other Marquette teammates stayed within a minute of the winner.

Negaunee was third with 102 and Westwood sixth with 162 with the only non-U.P. team in attendance, Lake Leelanau St. Mary, seventh with 170. Ishpeming, Gwinn and Manistique were among four schools that didn’t field full teams and didn’t have a team score.

Marquette won a decidedly closer girls meet with 32 points as Houghton was runner-up with 56, Hancock with 112 and Negaunee fourth with 125. Westwood was sixth with 134.

Despite Ishpeming’s Lola Korpi winning by almost exactly 30 seconds in 20:13.5, the Hematites couldn’t post a team score without the four runners required to do that. Gwinn and Manistique also didn’t have team scores.

MSHS’ Ella Fure was second to Korpi in 20:43.6 while teammate Abby Harma was third in 20:55.9.

“(The) girls did awesome, really nice to see Ella and Abby take that step forward and be up there contending at the front of the race,” Marr said. “Overall just from top to bottom, I think that everybody put forth a great effort. We saw many people get overall personal bests or course records because this is a very challenging course here.”

Here are more details from each meet:

BOYS MEET

Staying within a minute of Camilli at the finish line were teammates Argeropoulos, third-place Chase Thomsen in 17:20.7, fourth-place Evan Balko in 17:33.6, fifth-place James Kraeg in 17:58.1 and sixth-place Cullen Papin in 18:04.2.

Marquette’s top-nine sweep by rounded out by Ben Kuhl in seventh, Mathew Tripp eighth and Lucas Ballard ninth. In addition, MSHS’ Jack Parent was 12th and Marlow Quigley 13th, all of them within two minutes of Camilli’s time.

Right after Houghton’s Seagren in 10th was Ironwood’s Joey Lauzon 11th in 19:00.5, while Manistique’s Ben Gilroy was 14th in 19:20.2, Gwinn’s Thomas Jenkins 19th in 20:00.9 and Ishpeming’s Levi Nicholls 21st in 20:09.1.

Negaunee’s top finisher was Simon Jacklin, 22nd in 20:10.5, though for point-scoring purposes he counted as 14th. Next for the Miners was Michael Slawinski, 26th in 20:27.8, while Alex Ossenheimer was 35th, Blayne LaCosse 37th and Blake Holmgren 42nd.

“The boys team got third and the girls team was fourth out of 13,” Negaunee coach Vicky Paupore said. “I was really pleased with that result….

“I had 10 kids graduate and that’s a really big chunk of your team. I’m really impressed with how these underclassmen stepped up, so it was a good performance for our first meet.”

Leading Westwood was Jared Waterman, 43rd in 22:25.0, with Patrick Klumpp 45th, Isak Ruspakka 47th, Breckin Jensen 48th and Reid Frustaglio 56th.

GIRLS MEET

Marquette’s depth showed again, though not as obviously, in the girls meet as MSHS’ top five all finished among the first 13.

After Fure and Harma for MSHS came Claire Maskart in ninth in 22:17.5, Eryn Veverka in 12th in 23:16.8 and Tessa Bruns in 13th in 23:20.7.

Negaunee was paced by Marlee Plaxco in fourth in 21:48.3, while teammate Isabelle Prusi was 25th in 24:34.3. The Miners’ Riley Conklin was 31st, Amara Rasmussen 36th and Cheyanne Larson 65th.

“She had a great performance,” Paupore said about Plaxco. “She’s such a strong runner, she works really hard and so you just love to see that hard work pay off and she’s just a really nice kid, too.”

Westwood was paced by Retta Boburka in 16th in 23:35.8, while Addy Hallum was close behind in 19th in 24:08.6. The Patriots’ Sierra Rodda was 28th, Shayla Ogle-Nap 54th and Oni Heinzel 68th.

Korpi’s sister and Ishpeming teammate Laynie Korpi was 26th in 24:47.0, while Manistique was paced by Calista Watchhorn in 44th in 27:06.6, and Gwinn by Shawna Sundholm in 75th and Adeline Derwin 76th.

Houghton’s runner-up finish was led by Tessa Rautiola finishing fifth in 21:50.0 and Lily Ross sixth in 21:59.2.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Alexandria Bournonville and Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. Email Bournonville at abournonville@miningjournal.net and Brownlee at sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

BOX SCORE (From Superior Timing)

Prep cross country

Queen City Invitationa

Friday at Presque Isle Park, Marquette

BOYS

Team standings — 1. Marquette 15, 2. Houghton 77, 3. Negaunee 102, 4. Kingsford 111, 5. Ironwood 135, 6. Westwood 162, 7. Lake Leelanau St. Mary 170, 8. Hancock 193, 9. Stephenson 198; Ishpeming, Gwinn, Manistique and Menominee did not score

Top 10 finishers — 1. Seppi Camilli (MQT) 17:09.6, 2. Peter Argeropoulos (MQT) 17:20.5; 3. Chase Thomsen (MQT) 17:20.7, 4. Evan Balko (MQT) 17:33.6, 5. James Kraeg (MQT) 17:58.1; 6. Cullen Papin (MQT) 18:04.2, 7. Ben Kuhl (MQT) 18:33.2, 8. Mathew Tripp (MQT) 18:42.3, 9. Lucas Ballard (MQT) 18:45.5, 10. Birk Seagren (HTN) 18:45.5

GIRLS

Team standings — 1. Marquette 32, 2. Houghton 56, 3. Hancock 112, 4. Negaunee 125, 5. Stephenson 128, 6. Westwood 134, 7. Ironwood 156, 8. Lake Leenalau St. Mary 164; Ishpeming, Gwinn, Manistique, Kingsford and Menominee did not score

Top finishers — 1. Lola Korpi (ISH) 20:13.5, 2. Ella Fure (MQT) 20:43.6, 3. Abby Harma (MQT) 20:55.9, 4. Marlee Palxco (NEG) 21:48.3, 5. Tessa Rautiola (HTN) 21:50.0, 6. Lily Ross (HTN) 21:59.2, 7. Ella Keranen (HAN) 22:05.7, 8. Aubrey Smith (IWD) 22:08.9, 9. Claire Maskart (MQT) 22:17.5, 10. Rayna Towles (HAN) 22:29.6