Here are all the track and field state qualifiers from Gaylord, St. Mary and JoBurg

SHEPHERD ― It's officially onto state for area track and field athletes.

Athletes from Gaylord, Gaylord St. Mary and Johannesburg-Lewiston traveled to their respective MHSAA regional championship meets this past weekend (Division 4 on Friday, May 17 in Pellston and Division 2 on Saturday, May 18 in Shepherd) and, while a large number of area athletes saw their season end just shy of a state finals qualification, the list of those who did qualify for the state finals from GHS, GSM and JLHS is pretty long.

Find out who made their way to the state finals here:

Eight JoBurg athletes qualify for Division 4 state finals

Another year, another long list of state-qualified Johannesburg-Lewiston athletes to sort through.

Eight total Cardinals will make their way to Hudsonville for the Division 4 state finals on Saturday, June 1 as they dominated the distance events at the Division 4 regionals in Pellston on Friday, May 17.

Senior Madalyn Agren and junior Allie Nowak led the girls team, each qualifying in three events; Agren individually qualified for the 3200-meter state finals after finishing second with a time of 12 minutes, 0.64 seconds while Nowak won the regional 800-meter finals with a time of 2 minutes, 24.12 seconds, qualifying her for states in the 800-meter for the first time.

Column: Softball is the next womens sport to take off, and teams like Gaylord will be why

District preview: Gaylord soccer hopes to get past familiar foes in MHSAA D2 districts

Meanwhile, both Agren and Nowak were a part of the 4x400-meter and 4x800-meter teams that qualified as a team of Agren, Nowak, Harlie Fox and Yolanda Gascho ran a 4:26.94 in the 4x400 while a team of Agren, Nowak, Fox and Danielle Agren won the 4x800-meter with a time of 10:15.43.

Three more Cardinals also qualified on the boys side; senior Blake Fox, junior Jeremiah Witt and junior Nate Hummel.

Fox ran his best 800-meter of the season, winning the event at Pellston with a time of 2:02.40. Witt, meanwhile, also ran his best 1600-meter of the season, with his time of 4:50.16 good for second place and a qualifying bid. FInally, Hummell wrapped up JoBurg's qualifiers by clearing 11 feet in the pole vault, his personal best.

Murrell, Matelski qualifying for final state meet for GSM

The top two track and field athletes for GSM will give it one final go at the Division 4 state finals on June 1.

Seniors Miriam Murrell and Rylan Matelski, leaders of the GSM girls and boys track teams, both qualified for their final MHSAA Division 4 state finals this past weekend, with Murrell qualifying in the 1600-meter and 3200-meter races while Matelski qualified in the long jump.

Murrell ran a 5:43.48 in the 1600-meter and a 12:26.79 in the 3200-meter, good for second and third place respectively. This will be Murrell's fourth straight appearance at the D4 state finals, officially qualifying each and every year she was in high school.

Matelski, meanwhile, qualified for his second-straight state finals appearance in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 2.5 inches, about an inch and a half off of his personal best and good for third place overall.

Gaylord led by Berkshire, Roberts

Athletes were welcome to one of the year's hottest days (so far) on Saturday, May 18 as Division 2 runners from around mid and upper Michigan descended on Shepherd, Mich. for this year's D2 regionals, with Gaylord joining Petoskey, Cheboygan and other Northern Lower Peninsula teams in attendance.

As usual, Gaylord led was led by their star sophomore distance runner, Katie Berkshire. She will be making her second straight appearance at the D2 state finals after sweeping the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs in Shepherd, setting a new personal best in the 1600m with a time of 5 minutes, 2.65 seconds. Her 3200m time of 10:47.65 was just over five seconds slower than her personal best time, but still gave her a healthy 40-second cushion over the second place finisher.

Berkshire is a legitimate state title contender, especially in the 3200m, where her PR of 10:41.81 set at the Sehpherd Bluejay Invite back on May 9 was the second-best time in all of MHSAA Division 2 this season, just three seconds behind Grand Rapids Catholic's Emily Tomes's 10:38 set at the same meet.

Meanwhile, Berkshire was not alone in bringing home a regional finals trophy; fellow sophomore Ivy Roberts found her way atop the podium in girls long jump after tying for first place with a leap of 5 feet, 3 inches.

Roberts is also not far from state title contention; her PR jump of 5 feet, 4 inches back on April 13 is tied for the third-highest mark this season in D2. If she can replicate that performance on June 1, she very well could find herself on the podium again.

Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Here are all the Gaylord-area high school track and field state finals qualifiers