Tallier nearly hits 17 feet in long jump; Ustianowski wins 300 hurdles

STANLEY-BOYD ORIOLE INVITE

Gracie Tallier won two events Friday and extended her school long jump record, Bailey Angell continued to win in the throws and Claire Drier added some high placements during Gilman’s thirdplace finish on the girls’ side of the Stanley- Boyd Oriole Invitational. The Pirates did just enough with their handful of athletes to score 71 points and finish two points ahead of fourth-place Cadott and six points ahead of the host Orioles. Fall Creek’s dominant squad ran away with the team trophy with 185 points, while Bloomer took second with 113.5.

Tallier’s new record jump of 16 feet, 11 inches surpassed her previous outdoor best from earlier this year by 5 inches. However, it wasn’t quite enough to win the event Friday. Bloomer’s Alexa Post was the winner with an impressive leap of 18-0.25. Drier got on the board as well with a sixth-place jump of 14-8.25.

Tallier did win her sprints, taking the 100-meter dash in 12.71 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 26.18 seconds. Drier was third in the 100 at 13.7 seconds, a season-best time for the freshman. Post was between the two Pirates at 13.06 seconds. Tallier beat Post by 0.59 seconds in the 200.

Angell won the shot put fairly handily in her sixth straight meet. The sophomore’s winning distance of 38-2 beat Flambeau’s Brooklyn Ludescher by almost 5 feet. Gilman’s Emma Grunseth set a season-best with her throw of 25-9 that tied Azari Weimer of Athens for 12th. Angell was pushed a bit in the discus by Flambeau’s Anna Crick, but Angell’s throw of 106-9 was still good enough to win by 3.5 feet.

Drier dropped about 1.5 seconds in the 300-meter low hurdles and finished second in 51.51 seconds. Again, Post was the girl to beat. She won in 49.58 seconds.

Grunseth, Ellie Drier, Claire Drier and Tallier teamed up to field a 400-meter relay team for the first time this spring. They took third in 56.78 seconds, trailing Fall Creek (53.34) and Neillsville (55.76).

Neillsville was sixth in the girls team standings with 56.5 points, followed by McDonell Central (55), Flambeau (45), Athens (14) and Thorp (5).

The boys finished eighth with 18 points with 10 of them coming on a bit of a surprise win from junior Branden Ustianowski in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. He’s just starting to work in that event but he came out a winner in it Friday with a time of 45.15 seconds, 0.25 seconds ahead of Neillsville’s Ashten Schultz. Pirate Quintin Franzen was ninth in 51.26 seconds, cutting over 2.5 seconds. Ustianowski also placed ninth in the 100-meter dash at a season-best 12.35 seconds.

Gilman scored in two relays. The 800-meter team of Max Ustianowski, Branden Ustianowski, Franzen and Brady McAlpine took fifth out of eight teams in a time of 1:47.42. Fall Creek won in 1:40.16, well ahead of runner-up Neillsville (1:44.64). Troy Duellman, McAlpine, Max Ustianowski and Caleb Marion took seventh in the 400-meter relay at 54.66 seconds. Athens won that race in 48.28 seconds.

Senior Bryce Chovan scored the Pirates’ last two points, leading a strong day for the team in the discus with a seventh-place throw of 106-1, easily his personal best. Caleb Marion was one spot from scoring, taking ninth at 103-9 and Zack Marion was 15th at 93-9. All three had personal-best throws. Zack Marion led the trio in the shot put by taking 18th at 30-5.5.

Also for Gilman, Gabe Brunner was 15th in the 100-meter dash at 12.73 seconds, and Braeden Person was 15th in the 200-meter dash at 27.57 seconds. Brunner (1:02.69) and Person (1:03.36) were 15th and 16th in the 400-meter dash as well.

Fall Creek completed a sweep of the team titles by scoring 187 points. Neillsville was a distant second with 114.5, followed by Stanley-Boyd (111), Bloomer (109.5), McDonell Central (48), Cadott (46), Athens (44.5), Gilman (18), Thorp (10.5) and Flambeau (1).