NEILLSVILLE INDOOR INVITE - Gilman starts the season with five wins indoors at Neillsville

NEILLSVILLE INDOOR INVITE

Quickly transitioning from winter to spring, the Gilman Pirates got the 2024 track and field season started Friday with five wins and some solid efforts from those who were able to compete in the Neillsville Indoor Invitational.

Three of the wins came on the boys’ side of the meet. Brady McAlpine won the two-lap dash and joined Trevor Vick, Sawyer Winger and Wyatt Orth on the winning four-lap relay team. Freshman Taydyn Angell won the shot put.

Angell’s sister Bailey Angell got another shot put win to start her senior season, while freshman Addy Vick got the long jump championship in her first high school track meet.

The boys placed fourth and the girls finished fifth in a meet featuring seven Cloverbelt Conference schools.

“We had some very good performances from our kids Friday night and we are very proud of them,” Gilman head coach Mike Gingras said. “Trevor and Aubrey both did quite well in the high jump for only having one night of practice in the event. On a special note, it’s really cool to go to a varsity meet and have two freshmen take first place. Bailey threw well for her first meet this year and Brady ran quite well in the sprints. Overall, a great start to the season and we’re looking forward to what is posput sible when we are full strength at meets.”

The boys scored 61 points, falling one point behind third-place Bloomer. Neillsville won the meet with 141 points, while Owen-Withee (89) took second. Loyal (46), Greenwood (14) and Granton (7) rounded out the field.

Taydyn Angell’s best throw in the shot competition carried 39 feet, 4 inches, giving him a solid margin over runner-up Sullivan Poehler of Owen-Withee (36-8.5). Bloomer’s Johnathan Mullenberg was third (35-9).

McAlpine’s win in the two-lap dash came with a time of 33.78 seconds as he beat Neillsville’s Collin Knoff by 0.93 seconds. Senior Quintin Franzen added a fifth-place time of 35.71 seconds as he placed for the third time in the meet.

The four-lap relay team’s winning time was 1:11.35, well ahead of second-place Loyal (1:15.92) and third-place Neillsville (1:22.02).

Winger was one of three athletes to clear 5-8 in the high jump competition. He settled for second place in the tiebreaker process, while Owen-Withee’s Mason Gay was credited with first place and Neillsville’s Ashten Schultz took third. Winger’s height was a personal best. Vick cleared 5-2 and placed fifth.

Franzen was third in the 45-meter hurdles final at 7.9 seconds, trailing Schultz (6.8) and Neillsville’s Landon Kummer (7.6). Franzen was fourth in the preliminary race, also at 7.9 seconds. McAlpine placed fifth in the 45-meter dash final at 6.0 seconds, while Franzen was eighth at 6.1 seconds. McAlpine was even faster in the prelims, getting clocked at 5.8 seconds, while Franzen qualified for the fi- nals with a time of 6.2 seconds. Orth tied for 12th for Gilman in the prelims at 6.5 seconds.

Mitchell Moran gave Gilman four more points by placing fifth in the 1,600-meter run, which was held outside, in a time of 5:49.5.

The boys long and triple jumps were canceled after an athlete suffered a serious injury in the pit, as was the girls triple jump.

The girls long jump was held and that’s where Addy Vick got her season off to a fine start. Her best jump of 14 feet, 10 inches put her in first place, 6.75 inches ahead of runner-up Molly Zvolena of Loyal. Bloomer’s Isabel Rubenzer was third at 14-1.5. The Pirates also got a ninth-place jump from Kyra Rabuck (126.75) and a 12th-place jump from Kylee Copenhaver (11-5.25).

Vick wasn’t done there. She added five more points by placing fourth in the two-lap dash at 39.36 seconds, while Pirates Aubrey Steinbach was seventh at 41.24 seconds. Loyal’s Addysen Wolf won in 37.0 seconds, followed by Owen-Withee’s Kendall Weiler (38.31) and Kayla Rasmussen (39.0). Steinbach added a sixth-place time of 1:33 in the four-lap run, which Wolf won in 1:25.96 and she was part of a four-way tie for third place in the high jump by clearing 4-4. The thirdplace jumpers were 2 inches behind second-place Sophie Strand of Bloomer. Madi Davel of Neillsville won at 4-9. Gilman’s Jaylen Copenhaver and Vick tied for ninth at 3-10.

Bailey Angell’s winning throw in the shot put carried 37-3, easily beating runner-up Sarah Reiff of Greenwood (29-6.5). The Pirates also scored five points by placing fourth in the medley relay race. Kylee Copenhaver, Rilla Syryczuk, Aubrey Mann and Vick finished in 2:25.34 in a race won by Neillsville in 2:20.4. Owen-Withee (2:22.52) and Bloomer (2:24.24) were second and third.

Syryczuk was sixth in the 45-meter hurdle prelims at 8.9 seconds, one spot and 0.2 seconds from making the final. In the 45-meter dash prelims, Jaylen Copenhaver tied for 11th at 7.1 seconds, Kylee Copenhaver tied for 13th at 7.2 seconds, Mann tied for 19th at 7.4 seconds and Rabuck tied for 25th at 7.6 seconds.

Bloomer won the meet with 134.5 points, followed by Neillsville (97.5), Loyal (79), Owen-Withee (72), Gilman (39.5), Greenwood (29) and Granton (19.5).

Gilman will be at UW-Stout’s Northern Badger Small School meet Saturday. Competition starts at 9 a.m.