Record-Setter Leads Bessemer Repeat
June 1, 2019
By Adam Niemi
Special for Second Half
KINGSFORD - Bessemer earned its name.
How could the aptly named Speedboys, whose logo is a winged shoe, not win a track & field meet?
They did just that Saturday at Kingsford High School's Flivver Field.
Bessemer's 136 points were enough to comfortably win its second straight UP Division 3 Finals after taking second place in 2017.
Lake Linden-Hubbell was second this time with 67 points, edging Brimley by a point for the runner-up spot.
"They've done excellent. We have done well for the past few years," Bessemer coach Tracy Rowe said. "We took first place last year, lost by four points the year before. They're a really dedicated group of boys.
“A lot of it starts with these kids in cross country, basketball, football. They're just really good athletes. It's just not one person. You can have one student or one athlete and you're not going to win. Of the 13 who made it, all of them except two or three were doing four events. That's phenomenal. They're multi-talented."
Rapid River took fourth with 60 points, and Powers North Central was fifth with 42.
Bessemer's Uriah Aili set Division 3 UP Finals records in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
Aili's 800 was timed at 1:59.93, beating his own record (2:01.08) from 2018.
He set the 1,600 record with a time of 4:28.68, five seconds faster than Cedarville's Thomas Bohn ran in setting the previous record in 2018.
Aili's 3,200 time was 10:08.51. Wakefield's Ryan Holm had set the record in 2001 at 10:10.06. Aili’s 3,200 time may have been even better had he not run the 800 shortly beforehand.
"The 800 took some of the wind out of me," Aili said. "This is my last day of high school running. It's definitely a good way to end. This means the world to me. We have such a small school, and the younger kids look up to me. Now they know what's possible."
Jamie Jett gave the Speedboys wins in the 110 and 300 hurdles. He also took fourth in the 200 and fifth in long jump.
Bessemer won the 1,600 and 3,200 relays.
"Have fun. We told them have fun, do your best," Rowe said. "If you do your best, things will fall where they should fall. You can kind of look at where the seeds are. We've had years where everything has gone wrong. A few years ago a person trips on the hurdles, and someone else sprains an ankle the week of. Keep healthy, do your best, work as a team and support each other."
Lake Linden-Hubbell won the 200 and 400 relays. Stephenson's Montell Glover won the 100 dash. Powers North Central's Leo Gorzinski won the 200. Ontonagon's Noah Lukkari won the 400 with a 52.56.
Lake Linden-Hubbell's Cole Gregorie won the high jump at 6 feet. He also won the long jump at 19 feet, 9 inches.
Bessemer's Zach Baross won the pole vault, and teammate Tyler Busch won the shot put at 47-5.50. Rapid River's Gunner Larson won the discus at 141-4.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bessemer's Uriah Aili wins the 800 on Saturday, one of three individual victories for the Speedboys standout. (Middle) Lake Linden-Hubbell's Kellen Klein carries the baton for one of his team's two relay winners. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)
Lake Linden-Hubbell Boys End Title Wait with 1st Finals Championship
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2026
KINGSFORD — They say there’s a first time for everything.
The Lake Linden-Hubbell boys proved that beyond any shadow of a doubt here Saturday, earning their first Upper Peninsula Division 3 track & field championship with 64 points.
Rapid River was runner-up with 55 and St. Ignace placed third at 46.
“We’ve been waiting for this for four months,” LL-H coach Brett Gervais said. “Back in March we started asking a lot of the boys. I couldn’t be happier for the kids. I’m super happy for the boys. Having coach (Gary Guisfredi) here really helps. He has coached the girls team for many years. I’ve watched the way they did things and learned a lot from that.”
The Lakes won just two individual events, but had enough depth to carry them through.
Junior Lukas Axford won the 400-meter dash in a personal-best 53.48 seconds and sophomore Tobin Baril took pole vault at 11 feet on this sunny and warm day at Flivver Field.
“I was almost in disbelief with all the work the boys had done,” Gervais said. “The weather sometimes made it tough to prepare. There’s roughly 30 teams in our division. They’re working just as hard as we are. There’s a high level of competition in our region, which helps us so much. Dollar Bay and Baraga pushed us all year. It’s such a great feeling to be part of this.”
Baraga senior Matt Rinkinen won the 100-meter dash in 11.66 seconds, just 0.2 of a second ahead of LL-H junior Josh Daavettila.
Superior Central junior Will Spranger took the 200 (23.31), followed by Rinkinen (23.71) and Dollar Bay junior Baron Colbert (23.96).
“I thought my start was a little weak, but I was able to accelerate,” Spranger said. “I need to work on my blocks in the offseason. Our 4x2 (800 relay) went well. Our handoffs were good.”
Cedarville/DeTour junior Ethan Snyder set the meet record in the 1,600 (4:25.8), shaving 0.11 of a second off the previous best by Dollar Bay’s Nik Thomas from four years ago, then added firsts in the 800 (2:02.18) and 3,200 (10:24.21).
St. Ignace senior Kollin Bird captured both throws with a personal-best heave of 45-6 in shot and a toss of 138-11 in disc. L’Anse junior Taven Lewis placed second in shot (41-9) and disc (137-9).
In the hurdles, it was Brimley junior Brady Leblanc winning the 110 event (16.43) and 300 (41.66), both with personal-best times. Connor Kemppainen, also a junior from L’Anse, was runner-up in both races at 16.54 and a person-best 42.68, respectively.
Also winning individual events were Rock Mid Peninsula sophomore Lewis Holmes with a personal-best leap of 6-3 in high jump and Bessemer junior Henry Jenkins taking long jump (19-2), also with a personal best.
PHOTOS (Top) Lake Linden-Hubbell's Lukas Axford, center, crosses the finish line first in the 400 meters Saturday. (Middle) Brimley's Brady Leblanc, second from left, and L'Anse's Connor Kemppainen, just to his right, jump over the last hurdle in the 100 hurdles. (Click for more from Cara Kamps/RunMichigan.com.)