Ghiggia wins shot put at Bessemer meet for West Iron County

Alex Ghiggia gave West Iron County a measurable boost at Bessemer, winning the shot put with a throw of 47 feet, 4 inches and putting the Wykons on the board in a meet that was captured in a brief photo recap rather than a full score sheet.

For West Iron County, the throw mattered because it showed the program had a reliable points source in the field events as May meets tightened into the postseason stretch. In the Upper Peninsula, where teams travel long distances and every placed effort can swing a team total, a first-place finish in the shot put is the kind of result that can carry real weight once regional scoring starts to decide titles.

That became even clearer a week later in Gwinn, where West Iron County’s boys and girls both won Division 2 Regional 43 championships. The girls scored 55.5 points to beat Ewen-Trout Creek’s 46.5, while the boys finished with 58 points and edged Gwinn’s 54. Boys shot put was one of the first field events in the regional order, a detail that underscored how quickly a throw like Ghiggia’s can shape the tone of a meet.

The regional field also showed the level of competition West Iron had to beat to keep moving: Ewen-Trout Creek, Gwinn, Hancock, Ironwood, Painesdale-Jeffers and West Iron County all took part at Gwinn High School. With the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s regional tournament window running May 14-16 and the Finals scheduled for May 30, the Wykons were working in a short, decisive stretch where field-event points could matter as much as track times.

Ghiggia’s win also fit a pattern. A previous West Iron track result had Ghiggia and Tanner Nordstrom finishing first and second in the shot put, suggesting the Wykons have had more than one dependable thrower in the circle. A boys preview earlier in the season listed an 18-athlete roster, including Nordstrom and Seth Oberlin, showing the program had enough depth to score in multiple places instead of relying on one standout performance.

For West Iron, the takeaway from Bessemer is not just that Ghiggia won once. It is that the Wykons had a field-event scorer in place before the championship meets arrived, and that kind of consistency helped set up the regional sweep in Gwinn.