KINGSFORD — Gold medals were a scarce commodity for area track athletes as their respective teams finished well behind the leaders in the Upper Peninsula Division 1 Finals here Saturday.

The Negaunee girls earned their first title in four years with 119 1/2 points, followed by two-time defending champion Marquette 98, Sault Ste. Marie 86 and Escanaba 78.

Marquette’s boys retained their title with 138 points, one better than Kingsford. Houghton placed third at 56.

Esky senior Ciara Ostrenga won the 400-meter dash in a personal-best 60.22 seconds, helped the winning 1600 relay (4:16.27) and was runner-up in the 800 (2:32.04).

The Eskymos began their day with a fourth-place finish in the 3200 relay (10:41.18).

“After we got fourth in the 3200 relay, I just wanted to work hard and try to leave here with an individual medal,” said Ostrenga. “I think our relay did pretty good. All the girls worked and tried hard.”

Gladstone senior Emily Siebert won pole vault at nine feet, six inches. Esky sophomore Sophia Wagner and Westwood’s Lexi Olson shared runner-up honors at 8-0.

Esky sophomore Adrianna Getzloff placed second in high jump (5-2). Junior Mari Bink took third in long jump (15-1 3/4) and ran the second leg in the 800 relay.

Bink was fresh from winning long jump (15-11) in the Great Northern Conference meet at Marquette in which the Eskymos won by 10 points.

“We had a lot of girls step up this year,” she said. “It was a relief to win the GNC. That gave us more confidence coming into the Finals. We’ve been working for that all year. The hard practices definitely paid off.”

Esky senior Bailey Barron placed third in the 300 hurdles (51.27), and Gladstone senior Jamisyn Bergeron took third in the 400 (1:03.46).

“We had some real good performances,” said Esky coach Dan DeLong. “It was nice to see Ciara get her first individual victory at the Finals. Adrianna going 5-2 in high jump was a nice performance, and Bailey had a real good day. The field events went extremely well for us, and our relays placed about where they were seeded.”

Gladstone’s Luke Bracket was the highest area boys’ finisher in D-1, taking second in the 110 hurdles at 16.88.