SAULT STE. MARIE — My, how this track and field meet has grown in a few years.

After drawing eight schools in each of the first two years, 17 were on hand for the Third Annual Yooper Invitational here Friday.

The Bark River-Harris girls placed third, edging host Sault Ste. Marie 53.5-52 inside Lake Superior State University’s Norris Center.

Gaylord was crowned champion with 77 points and runner-up Petoskey scored 71½.

BR-H senior McKenzie Hoffmeyer became a double-winner, taking the 55 meter dash in 7.63 seconds and 200 at 27.61.

“My starts felt good for the first meet,” she said. “Hopefully, this will set the tone for the rest of the season. I’m hoping to get under 27 this year. I need to keep my arms under control. That will help my breathing, especially at the end of the race. I just tried to have fun today.”

The Charlevoix and Alpena boys were co-champions with 64 points apiece. Third-place Gaylord had 60.5.

BR-H senior and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point commit Julia Olson added a first in the 400 meter run (1:05.41) and helped the Broncos win the 1600 meter relay. Joining her were senior Lauren Zawada, junior Jillian Koch and sophomore Julia Knault.

“I’ll take it,” Olson said. “It’s nice having competition from downstate to push you a little. I tried to have an open mind, have fun and enjoy the competition. It’s exciting. They had quite the turnout here. I wasn’t expecting this many people. My goal is to get under 60 (second) in the 400 (meter relay).”

Manistique senior Danielle Lund captured the shot put for the first time with a personal-best throw of 36 feet, 7 inches and helped the Emeralds take third in the 1600 meter relay.

“I felt more confident this time,” Lund said. “I have more stability and my speed in the circle has improved. I’ve got my technique down to a science. I think this is a confidence builder. In the 400, I felt pretty good in the first lap and got tired in the second. I need to work on my stamina.

Lund, however, injured her hamstring in the relay.

BR-H junior Hope Varoni placed third in the 800 meter run (2:47.69) and classmate Marissa Ives shared fourth with Petoskey senior Lucy Tracahas (7.81) and took sixth in the 200 meter dash (29.46).

Manistique freshman Aaliyah Sears took sixth in the 55 meter run (8.09).

Junior Cristian Spear provided the BR-H boys with a third in the 200 meter dash (24.4) and the Broncos’ 3200 meter relay settled for seventh, but was clocked at a school-record 9:45.39.

“This feels real good,” junior Cam Adams said. “We haven’t had much time to practice. We weren’t expecting to get a school record this soon.”

Joining him were junior Wes Knauf, sophomore Remington Steele and freshman Ben Knauf.

“It’s tiring,” Wes said. “We had only two serious practices. Lot of our practices were indoors and the colder weather made it difficult to get any serious training. We’re certainly more confident than when we got here.”

Friday’s opener was a learning experience for Steele and Ben Knauf.

“This is a big difference from what we’re used to,” Steele said. “Right after I was done, I was gassed. I could feel my throat getting dry in the second lap.”

This was also a change for Ben Knauf, who was used to finishing higher in junior high track.

“Last year I was always third or better,” he said. “This is definitely a big step up. It’s also much different from running outdoors.”

Breathing can also be different indoors.

“You tend to go into oxygen debt at some point,” Adams said.

Coach Katie Depuydt says the future looks bright for the Broncos.

“We’re very young, but our numbers are real good this year,” she added. “We have a lot of good freshmen. I figured the guys would break the record in the 3200 (meter) relay, only I didn’t expect it to happen this soon. I think we’ll be good this year.”

Senior Wyatt Demers provided the Emeralds with a fifth in the 55 meter dash and junior Ben Gilroy took sixth in the 800 meter run.

“We did okay,” Emeralds’ coach Cody Kangas said. “This was our first meet and we have new kids on the team. We’ll learn from this meet and go forward. We have some good senior leadership. We’ll just go from here.”

Manistique is idle until April 19 when it hosts the annual Kiwanis Invitational. BR-H resumes April 25 when it hosts the Delta County Invitational for the first time.

“I think this will be good,” Hoffmeyer said. “This will give us more time to get out on the track.”