KINGSFORD — The Kingsford Flivvers threw a party here Saturday, and 784 athletes from 53 schools arrived in a rainbow of team colors.
Munising’s Mustangs and Superior Central’s Cougars showed up — and so did the Gremlins and Purple Hornets, the Hematites and Copper Kings, the Eskymos and Wykons. A few Nimrods even made the trip.
The festival of sport known officially as the Upper Peninsula Track and Field Finals featured record-setting performances, repeat team champions in all three boys divisions and the annual assortment of grit, guts and glory.
For Munising, head coach Matt Mattson said the meet went as well as he could have hoped, with the Mustang boys repeating as runners-up in Division 2 and the girls finishing in third.
Pickford’s boys earned points in 14 of the 17 events to retain their title, outpacing Munising 127.5 to 77.5. Rudyard took third with 63 points.
“That’s about as good as we were going to get,” Mattson said. “Pickford is just really, really good in Division 2. We weren’t going to catch them.”
Pickford also captured the girls championship in the division. The Panthers scored 74 points to finish ahead of West Iron County (71) and Munising (66).
“I was hoping the girls would be in the top four,” Mattson said. “We were third and only eight points from first. We had a lot of things go our way. I’m happy with third, but you only get hardware for first or second — but I’m proud of both teams today.”
Goss and Nolan lead the way Munising senior Danny Goss — already a U.P. champion this year in cross country and tennis (No. 2 singles) — added to his medal haul on the track.
Goss raced to victory in all three distance events, earning 30 total points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters.
Senior Trevor Nolan contributed 20 points of his own in those races by finishing second in the 800 and 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200.
Goss and Nolan were also members of the winning 4×800 relay team (along with Nolan Connaughton and Blake Lakosky) that kicked off the meet.
“The nerves going into finals, it’s just intense,” Goss said. “The best thing I can do really is take deep breaths, try to take my mind off it and think of something else. … And honestly, throughout the week, I just go to the guitar and that helps clear my mind.”
In their three individual races and the relay, Goss and Nolan each completed 16 laps on the 400-meter track for a total of 6,400 meters (about 3.98 miles).
This is the longest distance possible for any competitor in the meet, but Goss said he gave no thought to trying to save energy for later races.
“In smaller meets, when there’s less time between events, I’ll sometimes try to conserve energy,” he said. “But here, in every race, it’s like, ‘This is what I’ve got.’” Nolan adopted a similar mindset: “Most importantly, it’s being prepared mentally. You can’t think about the entire day. As my coach told me, ‘Just focus on one race at a time.’” Mattson added, “They’re the best two distance runners in Division 2. And Trevor is such a great team player. He knows he’s taking second because he knows Danny’s probably going to win those races — but he keeps working just as hard.”
The distance events and 4×800 relay accounted for 60 of Munising’s 77.5 points.
The rest came from Dylan Adkinson’s second-place finish in the 200-meter dash; a second- place performance from the 4×400 relay team (Connaughton, Jack Dusseault, Adkinson and Zach Lindquist); and a fifth in the high jump by Dusseault.
Wing’s senior surprise
Entering the U.P. Finals, Munising senior Elizabeth Wing ranked third in discus and fifth in shot put among Division 2 qualifiers.
On the day of the big event, however, she surprised her coaches — and herself — by capturing first place in discus and second in shot.
“I didn’t think I was taking first place,” she said. “I was very surprised.”
Based on her performance this season, she had reason to be. After setting a personal record in the discus at the 2024 U.P. Finals with a throw of 96 feet 10 inches, she hadn’t come close to that mark this spring.
“I actually haven’t seen 90 feet at all since last year’s U.P. Finals,” she said, adding that she began working with field events coach Matt Peramaki a few weeks ago. “I should have reached out to Mr. Peramaki a lot sooner.”
The result of Wing’s extra work: a throw of 96 feet, good for a U.P. individual title.
“I haven’t won a single meet since my first year in track,” she said. “I won my first meet in shot put and haven’t won anything since. U.P. champion is a really rewarding way to finish my season. It was just absolutely insane.”
The hurdle events were also lucrative for the Mustangs. In the 100 hurdles, senior Dayne Behning and freshman Addie Bowerman finished 2-3. In the 300 hurdles, Bowerman was second and Behning fourth.
Munising earned 17 points in three relays. Leading the way was the first-place 4×400 team of Kate Mattson, Bowerman, Ava Eubanks and Olivia Cotey. That same quartet took third in the 4×200. And the 4×800 team of Kaylen Kienitz, Callie Britton, Mattson and Cotey finished in sixth.
To round out the Mustangs’ scoring, Behning placed fifth in the long jump and Mattson was fifth in the pole vault.
High school sports fans often look at the U.P. Track and Field Finals as the unofficial beginning of summer (even if the weather doesn’t always play along).
Of course, U.P. Finals is also an ending. For most schools, this is the last athletic event on the calendar. And hundreds of the day’s participants will never again wear their schools’ colors in competition.
This is not lost on Munising’s seniors.
Wing, looking ahead to her enrollment at Vanderbilt University this fall, said the finality of this event added to the pressure: “I didn’t sleep at all last night because I knew there were no doovers after today, whatever I did. I’m not throwing in college, so I knew I’d have to live with it.”
Goss said his sole focus since the U.P. Tennis Finals on Wednesday has been this meet — but reality hit him at the starting line of his final event.
“It really settled in on this last 3,200, that this is my last race,” he said. “I’m so grateful. … I’m just so happy to have encountered all of the people I’ve met.”
He mentioned teammates, coaches, teachers — and even distance runners from other schools.
“Honestly, if anything, I don’t think about them as competition,” he said. “It makes me think of them as a little family. I know all these guys so well, and I’ve run with them and we all experience the torture of practices and workouts and you name it. Just being able to run with them, I’m grateful.”
Nolan’s athletic career is not over — he will play basketball at Bay College — but he was struck by the realization that his time as a Mustang athlete has come to an end.
“I’ve been so focused on preparing for U.P. Finals,” he said. “But now that it’s over, it’s starting to kind of set in a little bit. I’m so grateful for my time in Munising. It’s been an honor and a blessing.”
