Gilman’s top girls keep winning in outdoor opener

GILMAN TRACK & FIELD

The Gilman Pirates competed in the great outdoors Tuesday for the first time with not much changing from what’s been happening indoors for the girls, who got wins from Gracie Tallier, Bailey Angell and Claire Drier while taking fourth out of 13 teams at the Eleva-Strum Cardinal Invitational.

Tallier extended her school record in the long jump with a winning leap of 16 feet, 6 inches and won the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Angell swept the shot put and discus and Drier won her first high school 300-meter low hurdles race.

The Pirates scored 68 points, which didn’t come close to challenging meet champion Fall Creek (159), but it did come close to the next three teams. Eau Claire Regis won a tight competition for second with 75 points, followed by Eleva-Strum (71) and Gilman. The Pirates were four points ahead of Elk Mound (64), while Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran was sixth with 54 points.

Tallier and Drier were the top two finishers in the long jump with Drier finishing 15 inches behind her teammate at 15 feet, 3 inches. She beat Immanuel’s Audrey Arndt for that spot by 2.5 inches. In the throws, Angell, a sophomore, easily won the shot put with a toss of 36- 8. Eleva-Strum junior Jaden Bautch was a distant second at 31-2.25. Angell’s first discus competition of the spring resulted in a throw of 108-10, the second-best of her prep career and a winner by almost 18 feet over Fall Creek’s JaneyAnne Grossinger (90-11).

Drier, a freshman, posted a time of 53.0 seconds to win the 300-meter low hurdles by 0.35 seconds over Sydney Marx of Regis and 1.53 seconds over Fall Creek’s Megan Johnston.

Tallier, a junior, won the 100-meter dash in 12.98 seconds, 0.56 seconds ahead of Arndt, while Drier took 10th in 14.4 seconds and Gilman junior Ellie Drier was 18th at 15.2 seconds. Tallier finished her day with a winning time of 26.85 seconds in the 200, 0.25 seconds ahead of Arndt, a freshman. Ellie Drier was 22nd in 32.57 seconds.

Gilman’s boys scored 19 points to place ninth out of 13 teams. The Pirates beat Osseo-Fairchild (9), Alma Center Lincoln (7), the Chippewa Valley Lightning Bolts (6) and Granton (1). Fall Creek scored 174 points to outscore Augusta (122) and Regis (112) and win the meet. Elk Mound had 94 points.

Senior Dominic Franzen was the highest individual finisher, taking fourth in the 100-meter dash at 11.92 seconds, not far behind Tait Carson (11.61), Ian Andrews (11.89) and Gus Theisen (11.9) of Regis. Branden Ustianowski returned to action for Gilman after missing some early-season time and took 10th in 12.65 seconds, while Troy Duellman was 14th in 13.04 seconds. Ustianowski missed scoring by one spot in the 200-meter dash, where he was ninth in 25.62 seconds, 0.15 seconds behind eighth-place finisher Will Aberle of the Lightning Bolts.

Caleb Marion was sixth in the discus with a throw of 93-4, while Zack Marion was right behind him at 91-7 and Bryce Chovan was ninth at 88-3. Zack Marion led that trio in the shot put by earning three sixth-place points at 35-1.75. Caleb Marion and Chovan were 14th and 15th at 30-6.25 and 28-7.75.

The rest of the Pirates’ points came in sprint relays.

The 800-meter team of Duellman, Quintin Franzen, Branden Ustianowski and Dominic Franzen was fourth out of seven teams at 1:41.87, beating Altoona (1:44.72), Elk Mound (1:45.7) and Chippewa Valley (1:56.94). Augusta won in 1:36.89 over Regis (1:37.71) and Fall Creek (1:39.52).

Gilman’s 400-meter team of Brady McAlpine, Duellman, Quintin Franzen and Max Ustianowski got the eighthplace point at 53.55 seconds, ahead of Elk Mound (57.96). Regis won in 45.46 seconds.

Gabe Brunner was 14th in the 400-meter dash at 1:04.55 and 14th in the 800-meter run at 2:44.77. Max Ustianowski was 21st in the 400 at 1:07.97. Quintin Franzen was 11th in the 110-meter high hurdles in a time of 21.51 seconds.

Gilman is at Stanley-Boyd Friday and at Medford Tuesday for its next two outdoor competitions.