Angell clutch in discus, Tallier makes 200 final, relay is 14th

WIAA DIV. 3 STATE TRACK & FIELD

The shot put competition at Thursday’s WIAA Division 3 state track and field championships didn’t go well for Gilman freshman Bailey Angell, but apparently it served an important purpose.

With the nerves gone after an 18thplace finish, Angell threw like a veteran in the discus competition and brought home the fourth-place medal after three throws surpassed her previous personal record for the season.

The biggest throw came on the second of her three attempts in the finals. Immediately after Riverdale’s Kalayah Kaschub knocked Angell out of sixth place and a spot on the awards podium with a throw of 109 feet, Angell stepped into the circle and fired off a throw of 110 feet, 10 inches that not only got her back above Kaschub, it rocketed her into fourth place, where she stayed for the rest of the competition.

“She got that 109 and I knew it knocked me off the podium,” Angell said. “So I knew I had to give it everything. I had already PR’d once so I’m like, I might as well just go throw a big throw. I got a big throw out there and it secured me another spot.”

Angell’s discus finish was the highlight of Gilman’s five entries –– all involving the girls –– in the state championships on a warm and breezy day in La Crosse. Her fourth-place finish gave the Pirates five team points for the day, good for a 41st-place tie with Durand, Cuba City and Riverdale. Royall outscored Fennimore 50-47 as those two teams took home the gold and silver trophies.

The south wind blew right into the face of the D3 discus throwers and Angell said it became immediately obvious in warm-ups that the best throws would be low throws. Or, as head coach Mike Gingras put it, she had to just “grip it and rip it.”

“Warm-ups were rough, but then I figured out where I had to be especially with the wind,” Angell said. “The wind was bad. I couldn’t throw high. I had to rocket it out there, so that’s what I did.”

Any nerves that were left were calmed on Angell’s first throw, a personal-best 108-1 that quickly guaranteed a spot in the finals. She rounded out the prelims with throws of 101 feet and 103-10 and sat in sixth place to start the finals.

“Just getting out there, securing a spot up there, it felt good just being able to PR on my first throw at state,” Angell said. “That was a big throw.”

She fouled on her first finals throw but finished at 110-10 and 110 feet even. Her previous best coming into state was a sectional throw of 105-9 at the Cameron sectional on June 17.

Gillett senior Karissa Schaal won the championship. She had the title already clinched, but sealed with a last throw of 122-11 to finish with a margin of 6 feet, 5 inches over runner-up Brooke Neumann of Northland Lutheran. Coleman freshman Kiersten Jensen was third at 1135. Pittsville’s Savanna Frederick (110-6) and Algoma’s Bobbi Blahnik (110-0) also got on the podium.

A contender in the discus and shot put throughout her freshman season, Angell consistently improved in each event in the last month.

“Lots of work, lots of throws and just making sure that I stay healthy, stay active, running, lifting, all of that kind of stuff,” Angell said. “I started out the year only using my arms. No legs, no lower body, no nothing. Then I came into it and started using my legs, getting better technique and then came out here and did this.

“I knew it was going to be big competition,” she said of her first state meet. “I was just hoping to come in here, hit PRs, do good, get into the finals. Just being here as a freshman is a big accomplishment. Being on the podium and getting fourth place as a freshman, especially from a small town, it feels really good.”

Unfortunately, the shot put didn’t go as well with throws of 32-3.75, 31-5.25 and 32-4.75, well below her personal-best of 34-3.25 set at the sectional. But that will serve as a learning experience for next year.

“That was a rough one,” she said. “I’ve been practicing and my distances went up, but just being my first thing when I got here, I was nervous. I felt like I was going to puke. It was rough.”

Blahnik had the lead with a throw of 39-8 until the very last throw of the competition when Emily Fink of Three Lakes-Phelps uncorked a monster throw of 42-6 to win the shot put championship. Neumann (38-9) was third.

Tallier in two

Sophomore Gracie Tallier also was a double individual qualifier for Gilman, competing in the 100- and 200-meter dashes Thursday.

The same wind that affected the discus competitors also blew right down the straightaway and into sprinters’ faces, resulting in slower times for most sprinters than what they posted at sectionals.

Tallier qualified for Thursday’s 200-meter final with a preliminary time of 27.6 seconds. That got her the 10th and final spot in the championship race by 0.08 seconds over Ivory Balsewicz of Living Word Lutheran. She moved up a notch in the final, taking ninth in 27.8 seconds, 0.11 seconds ahead of Pittsville’s Julia Redmond.

Tallier didn’t get a good jump off the gun in the 100-meter preliminaries and finished 17th in 13.69 seconds, 0.27 seconds shy of advancing.

“I guess being in lane 10 didn’t really feel that good,” said Tallier who, like most state qualifiers, didn’t run in many outside lanes during her dominant season. “I didn’t feel like I had a good start. I wasn’t chasing anyone down. My 100 I had a bad block start. I kind of messed that up. I wasn’t used to the blocks.”

While Tallier fell short of her visions of reaching the podium, especially in the 200, it was quite a debut spring for the sophomore, who did not get a freshman season in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Tallier won Eastern Cloverbelt Conference and Cadott regional championships in both sprints, added a sectional title in the 100 and set school records in both.

“It was a good start,” she said.

Ozaukee senior Delanie McFadden won the 200-meter dash championship with the final’s only sub-27 second time, 26.98 seconds. Deerfield sophomore Steffi Siewert was second in 27.14 seconds, 0.03 seconds ahead of Necedah senior Anetha Vogele.

Relay finishes 14th

Gilman finished Thursday’s competition with a 14th-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay from junior Ava Gunderson, senior Sophia Drier, junior Aubrey Syryczuk and Tallier. Junior Abby Krug was the team’s alternate.

The Pirates finished in 4:23.92, a bit off their sectional time of 4:19.11. They were fourth out of seven teams in the first heat, which was won by Glenwood City in 4:20.11. Gilman was ahead of Dodgeland (4:25.52), Central Wisconsin Christian (4:26.57) and Random Lake (4:33.64).

Gunderson, Drier and Syryczuk returned to state after competing in the 3,200-meter relay in 2019.

“The nerves were not as bad as the first time,” Syryczuk said.

Generally, the Pirates said the handoffs were smooth and the race went well. The wind was just a big factor, they felt, in their time.

“It was probably not my best, but I know I got better over the season,” Gunderson said.

“It went by really fast, super fast,” Drier said. “I didn’t really hear anyone cheering. I was just going.”

“I was thinking this is the last race, I might as well give it my all,” Syryczuk said.

The Pirates said they were happy just to get to state as the fourth and final qualifier from the sectional. Tallier said before the conference meet, the Pirates weren’t sure if they had the speed to get there.

“We made a big PR (at conference) and then kept it going,” she said.

Fennimore was the top seed going into the race and the Golden Eagles didn’t disappoint, winning in 4:06.64. They held a 4.65-second margin over runner-up Prairie Farm in the second heat, while Cochrane-Fountain City was third in 4:11.51.