Individual titles for Pirates, Redmen at regional; sectional is today
WIAA DIV. 3 TRACK & FIELD
The Gilman Pirates got six top-two finishes Monday from their standout girls trio of Gracie Tallier, Bailey Angell and Claire Drier and a second-place hurdles race from Branden Ustianowski, while Rib Lake won two boys championships and got a big day from senior Tia Bube in her return during the WIAA Division 3 Flambeau track and field regional.
When all the results were compiled, Rib Lake wound up with 14 top-four finishes –– eight from the boys and six from the girls –– which qualified those Redmen for sectional competition today, Thursday, at Colfax. Gilman has eight sectional entries, seven from the girls.
The Pirates got by Rib Lake 62.5-56.5 for fifth place in the girls meet, while Rib Lake was a solid fifth on the boys’ side with 78 points. Gilman was eighth out of 11 teams with 23 points.
Sectional competition today begins with field events at 3 p.m. The track events get started at 3:45 p.m. The top four finishers in each event qualify for the June 3-4 WIAA Division 3 state championships at UW-La Crosse.
Ladies first
In the girls meet, Angell, a sophomore, and Bube, a senior did some damage in the two throwing events.
Angell’s quest for return trips to state in both events got off to a good start. She won the discus competition with a throw of 108 feet, 9 inches. The pleasant surprise was Bube’s second-place throw of 98-9. Out for over a month with an injury suffered outside of the sport, Bube got off a personal-best throw and extended her season by at least one more meet. Flambeau’s Anna Crick (95-9) and Cadott’s Lucy Lindeman (91-5) also advanced.
In the shot put, Angell came up short of a regional title, taking second with a throw of 36-2.5, while Bube was third at 31-7.5, another personal-best. Ladysmith’s Tori Thorpe won the competition at 39 feet and her teammate, Ellie Nisbit, got the fourth-place spot at 30-5. Rib Lake’s Lauren Pelnis wasn’t far behind, taking sixth at 29-11 and Hannah Schuh got the eighth-place point at 27-8.5. Gilman’s Emma Grunseth was 12th at 24-7.
Grunseth added a ninth-place throw of 74-5 in the discus, while Schuh was 11th at 72-6 and Rib Lake’s Ziarra Schrader was 20th at 50-9.
Based on regional throws, Angell holds the third seed in both events going into today’s meet. Bube ranks seventh in the discus and 11th in the shot put.
Tallier sprinted to wins in the 100-- and 200-meter dashes to start her bid to return to state in those races. She won the 100-meter preliminaries at 13.35 seconds and cut that down to 13.01 seconds in the final, beating Ladysmith’s Holly Rands by 0.24 seconds. Drier was third in the prelims at 13.82 seconds. She slid to fourth in 14.06 seconds in the final, 0.14 seconds behind Cornell-Lake Holcombe’s Brooke Sime, but that was still good enough to advance.
Rib Lake’s Amber Yanko was sixth in the final at 14.24 seconds.
Tallier was 0.01 seconds behind Rands at 27.77 seconds in the 200-meter preliminaries, but she took care of business in the final, winning in 26.85 seconds, 0.45 seconds ahead of Rands. Ladysmith’s Cora Gerber was third in 27.67 seconds and Owen-Withee freshman Kendall Weiler was fourth at 28.13 seconds.
Durand’s Kendall Hagness posted times of 12.72 and 26.45 seconds at her regional Monday and is the top seed in both races today. Mellen’s Makenah Stricker is second at 12.96 and 26.82 seconds.
Tallier added a second-place finish in the long jump at 15-3, while Rib Lake’s Olivia Lopez grabbed third at 15-0.25 to advance. Drier just missed, tying for fifth at 14-7, an inch behind Weiler. Tallier, who has gone as far as 16-11 this season, will likely need a similar jump today to qualify for state. Ladysmith’s Allison Clark won Monday’s regional at 16-1.
Drier earned another sectional spot by taking second in the 300-meter hurdles. She lowered her time to a personal-record 49.81 seconds and missed a regional championship by 0.38 seconds. Cornell-Lake Holcombe’s Emma Lechleitner won at 49.43 seconds. Drier easily beat the third- and fourth-place hurdlers, Cadott’s Jaycee Stephens (52.34) and Owen-Withee’s Cassidy Graski (52.72).
Lopez, a sophomore, is part of four sectional-qualifying events for Rib Lake. Along with the long jump, she took third in the triple jump at 31-10. Ladysmith’s Emerson Clark won at 33-0.5, followed by Allison Clark at 32-7.5. Flambeau’s Emily Dean got the fourth spot at 30-6.5.
Lopez, Pelnis, Megan Yanko and Amber Yanko moved on with a third-place time of 55.87 in the 400-meter relay. They were 0.57 seconds ahead of Owen-Withee and trailed Ladysmith (53.21) and Cornell- Lake Holcombe (54.4). Those same four runners took third in the 800-meter relay at 1:58.66, beating Cadott by 0.32 seconds and trailing Ladysmith (1:49.54) and Cornell-Lake Holcombe (1:56.07).
Rib Lake’s final qualifying event was the 1,600-meter relay team of Megan Yanko, Pelnis, Kylee Goodrich and Nadia Czahor. They were fourth at 4:58.67 in a four-team race that included Phillips (4:27.25), Cadott (4:30.65) and Ladysmith (4:40.02).
Goodrich tied Ladysmith’s Rachel Kostka for fifth place in the 800-meter run at 2:49.47, 11.1 seconds shy of advancing. Teammate Amy Espinoza was 14th at 3:09.65. Czahor scored two points in the 400-meter dash by taking seventh at 1:16.83, while Espinoza was ninth at 1:20.02 and Sofia Fraschi was 11th at 1:30.71. Megan Yanko was part of a threeway tie for seventh in the high jump by clearing the bar at 4-4.
Ellie Drier was 11th for Gilman in the 200-meter dash at 32.09 seconds and 12th in the 100-meter dash at 15.26 seconds.
Also competing for Rib Lake, Ryanna Schrader was 14th in the 100 (15.48) and 200 (33.8), Abigail Hebda was 18th in the 100 (16.26) and 22nd in the long jump (8-5.5) and Erin Bohmbach was 20th in the long jump (10-7.5).
Ladysmith ran away with the team title by scoring 167.5 points, well ahead of Cadott (93), Flambeau (84) and Phillips (83). Cornell-Lake Holcombe was seventh with 47.5 points, followed by Owen-Withee (41), Thorp (15) and Bruce (13).
Relays big for Rib Lake
Rib Lake qualified all three its relay teams for the sectional, including the 3,200-meter team of Ryan Buehler, Dominick Classen, Will Hartke and Donovan Sutherland, which won the regional championship in 8:51.7, by far the fastest time of the spring for the Redmen. They held off Ladysmith by a tenth of a second to win it. Prentice (9:29) and Phillips (9:51.7) also qualified, but they were well off the pace.
Rib Lake is seeded third at today’s sectional behind Unity (8:45.32) and Solon Springs-Northwood (8:49.39) based on Monday’s times.
Sophomore Ethan Keiser is Rib Lake’s other regional champion. After finishing the the 100-meter dash preliminaries second in 12.51 seconds, he turned it up in the final, posting a time of 12.35 seconds that beat preliminary winner Christian Benson of Phillips by 0.1 seconds. Rib Lake’s Noah Wiitala was third in 12.82 and advances along with Gavin Tegels of Cadott (12.85). Brady McAlpine led Gilman’s entrants by placing 10th in the prelims at 13.06 seconds.
Rib Lake’s 800-meter relay team of Hartke, Keiser, Wiitala and Classen advanced with a second-place time of 1:40.58. Only Owen-Withee was faster at 1:40.03. Phillips (1:45.88) and Thorp (1:47.46) also advanced. Classen, Hartke, Sutherland and Wiitala took third in the 1,600-meter relay at 3:49.08. They beat Prentice by 2.62 seconds and will head to Colfax along with Phillips (3:48.5) and Cornell-Lake Holcombe (3:48.98).
Sutherland advanced in two individual events as well to cap a four-for-four day. The sophomore was the runner-up in the 400-meter dash in 55.76 seconds, just 0.65 seconds behind winner Blake Anders of Cornell-Lake Holcombe and 0.1 seconds ahead of third-place Alex Nieto of Phillips. It was the first time he’d run the open 400 this spring. Gilman’s Braeden Person got a point by taking eighth at 59.34 seconds. Sutherland’s personal-best leap of 17-10 gave him fourth place in the long jump, an inch ahead of teammate Theo Robisch. Hartke was seventh at 17-7.5, his best jump of the season. Robisch, though, did advance in the triple jump, where he was third with a jump of 37-8, a half-inch behind runner-up Linus Maas of Owen-Withee. Blake Prince of Ladysmith won at 38-7. Rib Lake’s Damien Peterson (32-8) was 10th and Xavier Johnson (30-11.5) was 13th. Robisch lost out on a sectional spot in the missed-jumps tiebreaker in the high jump. He was one of four jumpers to clear 5-6, 2 inches behind winner Elias Mikunda of Ladysmith, but was credited with fifth place.
Ustianowski is Gilman’s lone sectional qualifier. He got it done in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles with a secondplace time of 43.06 seconds, just off his personal best. He was 0.64 seconds behind Owen-Withee’s Logan Amacher and 1.98 seconds ahead of third-place hurdler Kaleb Sonnentag of Cadott. Ustianowski is the fourth seed in today’s race. Pirate Quintin Franzen placed seventh in a personal- best 49.87 seconds and he was seventh in the 110-meter high hurdles final at 21.42 seconds.
Gilman senior Bryce Chovan had a solid finish in the throws, led by a fifthplace finish in the shot put. His personalrecord throw of 36-1.5 left him 17.5 inches shy of advancing. Chovan scored an eighth-place point in the discus at 90-6. Pirate Zack Marion was sixth in the shot put at 35-3, while Caleb Marion was 14th at 31 feet. Caleb Marion took ninth in the discus at 89-10, while Zack Marion was 15th at 81-11.
Rib Lake’s Brandon Heiser was the top local finisher in the discus with a seventh-place throw of 93-5, extending his best by 4 inches. Johnson was 22nd at 62-9 and Peter Walters was 25th at 58 feet. Walters was 24th in the shot put at 23-1.
Buehler earned a pair of sixths for Rib Lake. The first came in the 1,600-meter run with a new best time of 5:05.73. He was 1.93 seconds behind fourth-place runner Adam Granberg of Prentice. Elijah Scott was 10th at 5:29.19. Buehler then ran the 800-meter race in 2:18.81, almost a new personal best. Scott did set his best time of the year at 2:27.25. Buehler was 3.09 seconds behind Granberg, who again was fourth.
Person finished seventh for Gilman in the 200-meter dash final at 26.27 seconds, a new best for him. McAlpine was 15th in the prelims at 27.58 seconds and Dominic Franzen was 20th in 33.61 seconds. Peterson was 13th for Rib Lake in the 100, while Gilman’s Max Ustianowski (14.01) and Dominic Franzen (16.81) were 16th and 19th.
Gabe Brunner was 11th (1:00.58) and Mitchell Moran was 15th (1:07.55) for Gilman in the 400-meter dash. Wiitala was 14th in the high jump (5 feet), and Max Ustianowski was 17th (15 feet) and Moran was 20th (14-6.5) in the long jump.
The race for the team title was a close one with Phillips emerging as the winner with 110 points, followed by Owen-Withee (104), Cadott (102) and Ladysmith (96). After Rib Lake’s 78 points, Prentice was sixth with 67, followed by Cornell-Lake Holcombe (45), Gilman (23), Flambeau (21), Thorp (20) and Bruce (19).
