Angell’s throws keep flying farther; both teams 6th at Bloomer meet

GILMAN TRACK & FIELD

Gilman’s Bailey Angell set new personal bests while winning both throwing events, while Gracie Tallier tacked on two more sprint wins to her fine start to 2022 at Thursday’s Bloomer Invitational.

The Pirates, back in action after losing two meets due to weather, finished sixth out of seven teams in both boys and girls competition, most of which came from the Cloverbelt Conference.

The girls, led by the four event wins, scored 57 points to finish four points behind fifth-place Durand and well ahead of Thorp (14). Colby outscored Bloomer 165.5-143.5 to win the meet, while Stanley- Boyd (88) and Eau Claire Regis (70) were third and fourth.

Angell threw the discus 112 feet, 3 inches to easily win Thursday’s competition by more than 22 feet over Colby’s Malayna Rieck and surpass her previous best of 110-10 set at last spring’s WIAA Division 3 state meet. Pirate Emma Grunseth added a ninth-place throw of 69-8.

In the shot put, Angell got off a toss of 37-5 that again put her comfortably ahead of Rieck, who took second at 30-10.5. With that throw, Angell extended her personal best from a throw of 37-2.5 from last month’s indoor season. Grunseth again took ninth at 22-9.

Tallier took the 100-meter dash in 12.78 seconds, a time that put her 0.16 seconds ahead of Durand’s Kendall Hagness and 0.4 seconds ahead of Bloomer’s Alexa Post. Tallier then won the 200-meter dash in 27.08 seconds, comfortably beating Colby’s Kaylee Podevels by 2.57 seconds.

Junior Ellie Drier also ran in both races, taking seventh in the 200 at 32.05 seconds and 17th in the 100 at 15.01 seconds.

Freshman Claire Drier grabbed second place in the long jump with a leap of 15-4.5. She was 5.5 inches behind Post and 7.25 inches ahead of third-place jumper Danielle Latz of Bloomer. Tallier took fifth at 14-7.75. Drier added two seventhplace points in her first 100-meter high hurdles race. Her time was 21.12 seconds, 0.03 seconds behind Colby’s Veronica Mateer. Drier was eighth in the 400-meter dash at 1:08.98.

The boys got one win in the meet, taking the 800-meter relay. Troy Duellman, Branden Ustianowski, Max Ustianowski and Brady McAlpine finished in 1:48.91, which was 2.69 seconds ahead of Thorp, the only other team in the race. Gabe Brunner, Caleb Marion, Zack Marion and Max Ustianowski were third in the 400-meter relay at 54.86 seconds, trailing Bloomer (48.41) and Colby (51.34).

Sophomore Quintin Franzen scored eight points with fifth-place finishes in both hurdles events. He ran the 300-meter intermediates in 53.82 seconds to beat Colby’s Josiah Bridger by 1.49 seconds. He finished the 110-meter highs in 22.69 seconds. Greg Sokup of Regis won both races in 17.8 and 45.16 seconds.

Caleb Marion had a solid day in the throws. He got the eighth-place point in the discus with a personal-best throw of 98-7 and he led the Pirates with a 10thplace toss of 33-11 in the shot put, also a personal best. Branden Ustianowski threw the discus for the first time and took ninth at 96-2. Bryce Chovan was 12th at 91-4, Zack Marion was 17th at 83-4 and Brunner was 27th at 59-10.

In the shot put, Zack Marion was 14th at 32-5, Chovan was 22nd at 28-9 and Brunner was 27th at 26-1.25.

Max Ustianowski took 10th in the long jump at 13-9 and 25th in the 100-meter dash at 14.24 seconds, Braeden Person was 11th in the 800-meter run at 2:51.2 and 16th in the 400-meter dash at 1:04.71.

Team scores were: 1. Eau Claire Regis, 147; 2. Bloomer, 125; 3. Stanley-Boyd, 123; 4. Colby, 115; 5. Durand, 41; 6. Gilman, 25; 7. Thorp, 17.