A four-win night for Tallier as Gilman girls finish fourth

EASTERN CLOVERBELT TRACK & FIELD

You won’t find a much better first conference track and field meet than the one Gilman’s Gracie Tallier put together during Tuesday’s Eastern Cloverbelt championships in Colby.

The Pirate sophomore won three individual championships and helped Gilman’s 1,600-meter relay team win another during the team’s fourth-place finish out of nine schools. Freshman Bailey Angell added 16 points to Gilman’s team total by taking second in both the shot put and discus with personalbest throws. Those high finishes, plus scoring finishes by Ava Gunderson and Sophia Drier in the 400-meter dash, allowed the Pirates to compile 65 points and finish ahead of Columbus Catholic (52), Spencer (44), Granton (33), Greenwood (27) and Owen-Withee (4).

Colby won the conference championship by outscoring Loyal 192.5-166.5 for the top spot. Neillsville, the 2019 champion, took third, 10 points ahead of the Pirates.

Tallier’s big night included setting a new school record in the 200-meter dash for the third time this season. After clocking in at 26.95 seconds June 1 in Altoona, Tallier lowered the mark to 26.72 seconds in Tuesday’s final and held a 0.86-second margin over runner-up Mira Torbey of Columbus Catholic and a 1.01-second margin over third-place finisher Aubre Robida of Loyal. Tallier had the only sub-28 second preliminary time out of 16 entrants at 27.69 seconds.

In the 100-meter dash, Tallier registered her fastest time since setting the school record of 12.56 seconds at Medford in the season’s first meet. After posting the top preliminary time of 13.65 seconds, Tallier won the championship race with a time of 13.0 seconds, beating Robida and Torbey, who tied for second, by 0.43 seconds.

The third individual win came in the long jump, where Tallier set a season-best mark of 15 feet, 10 inches in the preliminaries. That mark stood as the leader through the finals and was 10 inches better than her previous best of the year. She outdistanced a pair of Columbus Catholic jumpers, Emmalee Jicinsky (15-3.25) and Torbey (15-0.25) to claim that title.

Drier, Gunderson, Aubrey Syryczuk and Tallier closed out Tuesday’s meet by easily posting Gilman’s best time of the spring in the 1,600-meter relay at 4:28.97. That gave Gilman a convincing victory over Loyal (4:54.01), Colby (5:04.62) and Neillsville (5:19.15).

Angell extended her personal-best distance in the discus by 19 inches, reaching 103-5 in the finals. She was the leader after the preliminaries at 102-9, but Colby’s Malayna Rieck, whose best preliminary throw was 99-1, uncorked a throw of 112-6 in the finals to win it. Gilman’s Brooke Fryza just missed the finals, taking 10th at 65-9 and Emma Grunseth was 12th at 62-7.

In the shot put, Angell improved by 1.5 inches, reaching 34-2 in the finals. Rieck won that event as well at 35-0.5. After the prelims, Rieck held a 1.5-inch lead over Angell, who was at 33-8. Grunseth also made the finals with a ninth-place throw of 26-1 in the prelims. That remained her best throw of the night. Fryza was 11th at 24-6.5.

Gunderson ran the 400-meter dash in 1:10.21 and Drier was right behind her in a season-best 1:10.73 as they placed fourth and fifth in that race. Loyal’s senior standout Savannah Schley won it in 1:00.26, finishing comfortably ahead of Colby’s Trinity Severson (1:02.54) and Hayden Willner (1:03.27).

Abby Krug was Gilman’s only other entrant in the meet. The junior took 10th in the 1,600-meter run at 8:08.36.

In the boys meet, Gilman senior Andrew Hecker jumped to a pair of secondplace finishes and ran to a third-place finish in the 400-meter dash, while junior Dominic Franzen sprinted to a pair of thirds as the Pirates placed eighth with 40 points.

Hecker set a new personal-best distance in the long jump by going 19-10 on a preliminary jump. That put him 2.5 inches behind Colby’s Caden Healy after the prelims and that’s where both athletes stayed through the finals. Neillsville’s Teagen Dillenbeck was third at 19-3.

Hecker tied his personal-best height in the high jump by clearing the bar at 5-8. Greenwood’s Nathan Revier got a half-inch higher to win the championship.

In the 400, Hecker set a personal-best time of 56.04 seconds to finish third out of 12 entrants. Eden Jacobson won it in 54.82 seconds, while Revier was second in 55.81 seconds. Gilman freshman Troy Duellman added three points with a sixthplace time of 1:01.62, which was just 0.04 seconds off his season-best. Braeden Person added an eighth-place point at 1:03.07.

Franzen continued his late-season surge with a personal-best time of 23.67 seconds in the 200-meter dash and a near personal-best time of 11.88 seconds in the 100-meter dash. In the 100, Franzen was seeded fifth after the prelims, where he was timed at 12.26 seconds. He cut his time by 0.38 seconds in the final and passed Colby’s Brent Jeske (12.07) and Loyal’s Sully Hanson (12.23). Duellman was 11th in 13.17 seconds. Healy won at 11.44 seconds, 0.24 seconds ahead of Jacobson.

In the 200, Franzen qualified in the fourth spot with a preliminary time of 24.74 seconds and lowered that by over a second in the final to bump up a notch. Healy won at 23.46 seconds, while Jacobson (23.63) was second. Quinton Franzen was 14th for Gilman (27.35) and Person (27.45) was 15th.

Freshman Caleb Marion set a personal- best distance of 91 feet while taking eighth in the discus competition. That throw came in the prelims, where he qualified for the finals with the seventhbest throw. Zack Marion was 11th at 85-10 and Bryce Chovan was 12th at 80-3.

Zack Marion got the eighth-place point in the shot put with a toss of 32-10 in the finals. That was 2 inches better than his best preliminary throw. Chovan got off personal-best throw of 30-6, good for 10th, and Caleb Marion was 14th at 26-7.

Jeske (46-7) won the shot put, while Colby’s Mason Voss took the discus (1301).

Neillsville got past Colby 195-175 to win the team championship. Greenwood was a distant third with 64 points, followed by Columbus Catholic (54), Owen-Withee (47), Spencer (44), Loyal (42) and Gilman (40).

WIAA Division 3 post-season competition begins Monday with the regional meet, which was moved from Gilman to Cadott due to damage on Gilman’s track. The field events will start at 3 p.m., followed by track events at 4 p.m. The top four finishers in each event will advance to the sectional meet in Cameron on June 17.

Gilman’s Sophia Drier (l.) and Ava Gunderson sprint through the finish line and take fifth and fourth respectively in Tuesday’s 400-meter dash.