Thursday meet goes indoors; Drier, Tallier and Angell win for Gilman

NEILLSVILLE MEURETT INVITE

With high winds and snow outside Thursday, the Meurett Invitational was moved inside at Neillsville High School where the Gilman Pirates got three wins in girls competition and one near win from the boys.

The girls scored 52 points to place fifth, while the boys scored 15 to place sixth in a meet that was dominated on both sides by the Fall Creek Crickets.

Fall Creek won the girls meet with 150 points, followed by Neillsville (65), Stanley-Boyd (61.5), Cadott (61), Gilman (52), Owen-Withee (25.5), Granton (11) and Thorp (7).

But the Pirates that did compete fared quite well, led by Gracie Tallier, Bailey Angell and Claire Drier.

Tallier won twice, first taking the long jump with a distance of 16 feet, 1 inch that was 6.5 inches better than Gilman’s first meet at Neillsville back on March 22. Drier took third at 15-4.75, 3.5 inches behind runner-up Alena Sanfelippo of Fall Creek and 3.75 inches ahead of fourth-place jumper Ava Miller of Neillsville.

Tallier added a win in the 45-meter dash at 6.35 seconds, 0.18 seconds ahead of Sanfelippo and 0.2 seconds better than her March 22 race. Drier, meanwhile, took fourth in the 45-meter hurdles at 8.56 seconds, 0.32 seconds behind winner Gracie Schoengarth of Neillsville. Drier was 0.46 seconds faster than she was here in March.

Bailey Angell, who was unable to throw in Neillsville back in March, dominated the shot put competition this time around, winning the event with a best throw of 33-8. She was nearly 4 feet ahead of runner-up Courtney Oldham of Neillsville (29-10), third-place finisher Issabella Green of Stanley-Boyd (29-9.5) and fourth-place thrower JaneyAnne Grossinger of Fall Creek (29-9). Gilman’s Emma Grunseth added three points with a sixth-place toss of 25-7.5, an improvement of 14.5 inches from the March meet at Neillsville.

Gilman placed second in the sprint medley with a time of 2:17.5, just 1.1 seconds behind Fall Creek.

Dominic Franzen led the boys with a second-place time of 5.73 seconds in the 45-meter dash, just 0.01 seconds behind winner Cooper Nichols of Stanley-Boyd. His time was 0.26 seconds faster than it was here in March.

Zack Marion got the sixth-place points in the shot put with a toss of 37-3.5 that was easily a personal-best. Gilman’s 12-lap relay team placed sixth out of eight teams with a time of 3:46. Fall Creek A won it in 3:31.6. The Pirates added one more point by taking eighth in the sprint medley with a time of 2:06.5. Fall Creek’s A team won the race in 1:55.8.

The Crickets scored 120.5 points to take the boys meet over Neillsville (95), Owen-Withee (85.5), Stanley-Boyd (70.5), Cadott (34.5), Gilman (15) and Thorp (7).