WIAA DIV. 3 TRACK & FIELD - Gilman keeps peaking at right time; Henderson, Lopez lead RL

WIAA DIV. 3 TRACK & FIELD

When the Gilman Pirates scored, they did it right during Monday’s WIAA Division 3 Gilman track and field regional, qualifying 20 of their 23 scoring performances for today’s sectional meet in Cameron.

Included in that list of performances were regional championships for Chad Konsella in the boys long jump, Trevor Vick in the boys triple jump and the second straight school-record performance by Claire Drier in the 100-meter high hurdles.

The Rib Lake Redmen had five sectional- qualifying performances in Monday’s meet, including two from senior Olivia Lopez, who took second in the 200-meter dash and triple jump, and a regional championship from Jed Henderson in the boys high jump. The Redmen also are sending the girls 400-meter and boys 3,200-meter relay teams to Cameron today.

Gilman placed fourth out of 12 teams in the boys standings with 75 points. The Pirates trailed McDonell Central (133), Owen-Withee (106) and Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (88), while outscoring Abbotsford (49), New Auburn (46), Lake Holcombe-Cornell (44), Cadott (44) and Athens (41). Rib Lake’s 29 points were good for 10th place ahead of Thorp (23) and Prentice (12).

The host Pirates were sixth in the girls meet with 62 points, while Rib Lake was 10th with 30. The Redmen outscored Lake Holcombe-Cornell (13) and Thorp (11). Cadott won the regional title with 105 points, followed by McDonell Central (91), Abbotsford (89), Athens (77) and Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (73). The Pirates finished ahead of Owen-Withee (61), New Auburn (38) and Prentice (32).

“With the younger team we have this year, I couldn’t be happier with the performances,” Gilman head coach Mike Gingras said. “The majority of our kids are moving on to sectionals in at least one event and many are going in several events. Some made it through in all four of their events.”

At today’s sectional meet, the top four finishers in each event will qualify for the WIAA Division 3 state championships May 31 and June 1 at UW-La Crosse.

13 local boys entries

In Monday’s boys competition, Gilman pushed 11 entries and Rib Lake sent two through to the sectional meet.

Henderson hit at least 6 feet for the fourth time in his last five meets and won that competition handily at 6 feet even. Gilman’s Sawyer Winger was his nearest competitor as he cleared 5 feet, 6 inches on his first try to tie for second with Abbbotsford’s Chase Boller. All three of those high jumpers are sophomores. Only one sectional jumper went higher than Henderson in Monday’s regionals. That was Drummond’s Clayton Bjork (6-2) at the Phillips regional.

That runner-up finish was just one piece of a big day for Winger, who also qualified for the sectional by taking third in the long jump at 18-7.25 and he was part of Gilman’s two qualifying relay teams. Konsella, a junior, won the long jump at 19-9, 1.5 inches better than Thorp’s Daniel Mathison. Winger was 4.75 inches ahead of fourth-place qualifier Dominic Sherwood of Owen-Withee. Konsella is seeded fifth, based on regional distances, at the sectional.

Vick was seeded fourth going into Monday’s triple jump competition, but he got off a personal-best jump of 39-1 that won it by a foot over McDonell Central’s Jordan Sikora. Vick, a junior and a firstyear jumper, now sits as the eighth seed at the sectional.

Also in the field, Gilman freshman Taydyn Angell’s new personal-best throw of 40 feet, 10 inches was good for fourth place and a spot in the sectional. He beat out Abbotsford’s Marcus VanLuven (39-3.5) for the last sectional spot in a competition won by New Auburn’s Andrew Gotham at 47-5.5. Angell added a 13th-place distance of 99-2 in the discus.

Several third-place finishes on the track put local runners in the sectional.

Rib Lake’s 3,200-meter relay team of Jack Regier, Henry Regier, Elijah Scott and Kaleb Scott got that started with a time of 9:02.37 that placed the Redmen ahead of fourth-place Cadott (9:20.59) and fifthplace Owen-Withee (10:26.97). McDonell won at 8:47.86, just ahead of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (8:51.3).

Gilman’s combination of Logan Halida, Konsella, Brady McAlpine and Winger qualified in the 1,600- and 800-meter relays. The Pirates were third in the final race of the night, the 1,600 relay in 3:50.54, beating fourth-place Cadott by 2.02 seconds. McDonell won in 3:35.24, just ahead of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (3:37.21). The Pirates were fourth in the 800-meter race at 1:38.48, beating Abbotsford by 2.16 seconds for the last sectional spot. Owen-Withee won in 1:33.76, followed by McDonell (1:35.04) and Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (1:36.8).

Konsella was third in the 100-meter dash final at 11.82 seconds, just ahead of Mathison (11.85). Lake Holcombe-Cornell’s Trent Nitek, the defending state champion, won in 11.35 seconds, while Owen-Withee freshman Brandon Geldernick (11.63) was second. Konsella was actually faster in the preliminaries at 11.76 seconds.

Gilman senior Quintin Franzen was third out of nine entrants in the 110-meter high hurdles, finishing in 18.95 seconds, 0.05 seconds ahead of Owen-Withee’s Keyton Degroot and behind McDonell’s Alex Tokarski (15.77) and Cadott’s Wyatt Engel (17.87). In the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Pirate junior Max Ustianowski advanced with his third-place and seasonbest time of 46.79 seconds, while Franzen was fourth, lowering his time to 47.38 seconds. Tokarski won at 41.02 seconds and his teammate Andy Bormann (44.59) was second.

The only scoring effort by Gilman’s boys that didn’t advance came from the sixth-place 400-meter relay team of Halida, Ustianowski, Vick and McAlpine that finished in 47.86 seconds, just ahead of Rib Lake’s team of Demetrio Garelli, Seamus Highfill, Jack Regier and Gus Zuleger (50.0).

Also scoring for Rib Lake were Kaleb Scott (10:50.8) and Jack Regier (10:51.88), who were sixth and seventh in the 3,200-meter run with Regier’s time being by far a season-best; Henry Regier, who took seventh in both the 1,600-meter (4:58.94) and 800-meter runs (2:20.19); Truman Smith who got the eighth-place point in the 800 at 2:24.88; and Elijah Scott, who was eighth in the 400-meter dash at 58.77 seconds.Elijah Scott also was 10th in the 800 at 2:26.75 and Smith (5:19.65) was ninth in the 1,600.

Other regional competitors for Gilman included James Wojcik, 11th in the 100-meter dash (12.69) and 20th in the 200-meter dash (26.52); Mitchell Moran, 15th in the 1,600-meter run (6:05.33), 16th in the 800-meter run (2:40.34) and 12th in the triple jump (31-10.5); Wyatt Orth, 16th in the 100-meter dash (13.04); Caleb Marion, 14th in the discus (98-4) and 15th in the shot put (31-2.5), and Elijah Madlon, 23rd in the shot put (26-7.5) and 27th in the discus (46-6).

Other regional competitors for Rib Lake included Connor Highfill, who was 10th in the 3,200-meter run (12:22.92) and 14th in the 400 (1:06.97); Zuleger, who was 11th in the long jump (16-2.25) and 17th in the 100 (13.12); Garelli, who was 12th in the 100 (12.83) and 13th in the 200 (25.7); Seamus Highfill, who was 13th in triple jump (30-10.5), 19th in the long jump (13-8) and 22nd in the 200 (26.79); Riley Johnson, who was 13th in the 400 (1:06.71), 25th in the 200 (27.64) and 25th in discus (61-9); Ryley Schatz, who was 14th in the triple jump (28-10) and 21st in the 100 (13.95); Henderson, who was 19th in the discus (85-2); Allan Head, who was 20th in the long jump (13-5.5); Isaiah Hubbard, who was 21st in discus (76-5) and 27th in the shot put (24-8) and Clinton Peterson, who was 28th in the shot put (24-0.5).

12 girls entries to sectional

With Gilman’s nine and Rib Lake’s three, 12 local entries were qualified for today’s sectional out of Monday’s meet. There were no local girls champions, but there were four second-place finishers.

Drier had one of them in the long jump, going 15-9 to finish 1.75 inches behind Cadott’s Iszy Sonnentag. Teammate Addy Vick was seventh at 15-2.75 and Lopez was 11th for Rib Lake at 14-0.5 in what, unfortunately wasn’t her best day in the event.

Drier followed up her 100-meter high hurdles time of 17.28 seconds that set a school record on May 14 by lowering that to 17.15 seconds in Monday’s final. That was good for third behind Sonnentag (15.55) and McDonell’s Elyse Bushman was second at 16.15 seconds, while Rib Lake’s Emma Tlusty took fifth at 17.81 seconds, 0.11 seconds behind Owen-Withee’s Cassidy Graski. Rib Lake’s Isabelle Gumz was ninth at 19.08 seconds after finishing sixth in the prelims at 18.37 seconds.

Drier added a third-place time of 48.83 seconds, 0.01 seconds off her season-best, in the 300-meter hurdles. She was behind Bushman (46.7) and Owen-Withee’s Kendall Weiler (48.16).

Lopez was near her peak the rest of the day for Rib Lake. Her quest to return to state in the 200-meter dash continued with a second-place time of 26.99 seconds that left her just 0.29 seconds behind Abbotsford freshman Oriah Harris. Gilman’s Jaylen Copenhaver advanced by taking fourth and lowering her time to 28.74 seconds.

Lopez went 33-5 to take second in the triple jump behind McDonell’s Anna Thaler (35-1) and a foot ahead of fourth-place jumper Celia Schindler of Abbotsford. Vick was two spots and 24.25 inches behind Schindler at 30-4.75.

Gumz, Tlusty, Kloey Paul and Lopez advanced with a third-place time of 53.8 seconds in the 400-meter relay. They were 0.2 seconds ahead of fourth-place Chetek-Weyerhaeuser and 0.97 seconds ahead of fifth-place Owen-Withee. McDonell (51.47) and Abbotsford (52.02) got the top two spots. Gilman’s team of Copenhaver, Drier, Patricia Kloss and Vick took third in the 800-meter relay at 1:52.98 to advance. McDonell (1:48.4) and Abbotsford (1:49.35) had the top two spots, while Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (1:53.45) got the fourth sectional berth.

The other local regional runner-up was Gilman senior Bailey Angell, who threw the discus 107-2. Only Margo Pogodzinski of Abbotsford was better at 118 feet. Angell was comfortably ahead of sectional qualifiers Sy’ Rih Hartwig of Athens (103-4) and Whittney Gotham of New Auburn (102-7). Gumz was 10th for Rib Lake at 86-9.

Angell is back in sectional shot put competition as well. She took fourth there at 32-1, 6 inches ahead of New Auburn’s Morgan Berg. Hartwig won at 36-3.5. Rib Lake’s Tessa Krause was 10th at a personal- best 29-6.75. Vick, a freshman, qualified for her first individual sectional event by taking fourth in the high jump. She cleared 4-8 and won the tiebreaker for that spot over Rib Lake’s Maddie Rademacher, another freshman.

Gilman’s last two points were scored by the 400-meter relay team of Kylee Copenhaver, Aubrey Mann, Kyra Rabuck and Rilla Syryczuk, who was seventh in 56.64 seconds.

The rest of the Pirates’ regional competitors included Kloss, 11th in the 200-meter dash (30.65) and 13th in the triple jump (28-1); Rabuck, 11th in the 100 (14.77) and 14th in the long jump (13-4); Syryczuk, 12th in the 100-meter hurdles (19.57) and 12th in the shot put (28-6.75); Kylee Copenhaver, 15th in the 100 (14.84) and 22nd in discus (63-5), and Mann, 16th in the triple jump (27-1), 27th in discus (555) and 28th in shot put (19-11.75).

The rest of Rib Lake’s regional entrants included Hadassah Nelson, ninth in the high jump (4-4) and 21st in the 100-meter dash (15.97); Paul, 10th in the 200 (30.51) and 12th in the 100 (14.78); Rademacher, 13th in long jump (13-6.25); Tlusty, 18th in long jump (12-3.5); Gumz, 20th in shot put (25-3); Camryn Glenzer, 22nd in shot put (24-2.5) and 28th in discus (54-5); Anna Martin, 22nd in the 100 (16.28) and 24th in the 200 (35.38), and Coralee Glenzer, 24th in discus (61-8).

Rib Lake’s Jed Henderson cleared 6 feet to win the boys high jump title at Monday’s regional meet in Gilman. NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD/TRIBUNE-PHONOGRAPH

Rib Lake’s Kaleb Scott takes his turn with the baton in the boys 3,200-meter relay during Monday’s regional meet in Gilman. Rib Lake took third in the race in 9:02.37 to advance to Thursday’s sectional in Cameron. NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD/TRIBUNE-PHONOGRAPH

For the second straight meet, Gilman’s Claire Drier has set a school-record in the 100-meter high hurdles. She placed third in Monday’s final in the regional meet at 17.15 seconds. NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD/TRIBUNE-PHONOGRAPH