Tallier, Angell punch return tickets in their state events

Gilman sprinter Gracie Tallier and thrower Bailey Angell were nearly unbeatable in local track and field meets this spring. They didn’t quite reach that status at Thursday’s WIAA Division 3 Colfax sectional, but they were close enough.

Both will return to the Division 3 state championships at UW-La Crosse thanks to their top-four placements Thursday in both of their top events. Angell, coming off a fourth-place finish at state last year, is back in the state discus competition after placing third at the sectional. She’ll look to improve on last year’s 18th-place finish at the shot put after taking second in the sectional.

Tallier took second in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes behind Durand’s Kendall Hagness to earn two state entries. She was ninth in last year’s 200-meter final and 17th in the 100-meter preliminaries at La Crosse.

This year’s state competition is set for this Friday and Saturday at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium. Friday’s competition starts at 3 p.m. and will include Tallier’s preliminary runs and the shot put competition, once Division 2 is done. The dash finals will be held on Saturday, along with discus competition at 9:30 a.m.

For the rest of Thursday’s local competitors from Gilman and Rib Lake, their seasons ended at Colfax. The Rib Lake Redmen had a major highlight with sophomore Olivia Lopez setting a new school record in the triple jump and a major heartbreak with the boys 3,200-meter relay team missing state qualification by 0.48 seconds. The Redmen scored five points in the boys meet to tie Prentice for 29th place out of 35 scoring teams and scored three points in the girls meet to tie Washburn for 31st place out of 35 scoring teams.

Gilman added a near-miss from its only male competitor, junior Branden Ustianowski, in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. The Pirates were seventh in girls competition with 33 points and tied Spring Valley for 31st in the boys meet with four points.

Grantsburg won the boys team title with 81.5 points, just ahead of Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (77) as well as Glenwood City (65) and Shell Lake (47). Ladysmith was the girls sectional champion with 64 points, finishing ahead of Webster (47), Durand (45) and Eau Claire Regis (43).

Girls results

Coming into the meet as the sprint favorites, Hagness and Tallier did not disappoint.

In the 100-meter dash, Hagness and Tallier posted the top times in the preliminaries at 12.85 and 12.94 seconds, respectively. In the eight-sprinter final, they lowered those times with Hagness winning in 12.74 seconds, followed by Tallier in 12.93 seconds. Shell Lake’s Maddie Naglosky (13.1) and Jazzmine Jones of Frederic-Luck (13.12) also qualifi ed for state. Gilman freshman Claire Drier added a 15th-place time of 13.91 seconds in the preliminaries.

Based on sectional times, Hagness enters state competition as the third seed, while Tallier is the eighth seed. The state’s fastest sectional times were recorded by Steffi Siewert of Deerfield (12.56) and Miranda Firari of Dodgeland (12.69).

In the 200-meter dash, Hagness (26.28) and Tallier (26.72) again had the top preliminary times and were quicker in the final. Hagness won in 26.33 seconds, followed by Tallier (26.35), Kally Svoboda of Frederic-Luck (27.04) and Audrey Arndt (27.25), a freshman from Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran. Hagness and Tallier are the seventh and eighth seeds in the state field of 16 which, again, is led by Fiari (25.72) and Siewert (26.14).

Tallier also was part of Thursday’s long jump competition, but she didn’t get the jump she was looking for and placed ninth with a jump of 14 feet, 11.5 inches. Lopez added to her fine night for Rib Lake with a seventh-place jump of 15-4.75 that left her just 1.25 inches away from Arndt, who got the last qualifying spot at 15-6. Webster’s Ava Washburn won at 17-1.25.

After finishing nearly 3 feet behind Ladysmith’s Tori Thorpe at the Flambeau regional on May 23, Angell nearly got her Thursday. Her throw of 37-11 fell just 4 inches behind Thorpe’s best of 38-3. Those two easily topped the field of 16 throwers as Colfax’ Jeanette Hydukovich was third at 36-7.5 and Cumberland’s Amie West was fourth at 33-11.75. Rib Lake senior Tia Bube placed ninth at 31-2, 5.5 inches shy of what she had thrown at the regional.

In the discus, the top four separated themselves from the rest of the pack with Hydukovich winning at 118-1, followed by Drummond’s Nora Skoraczewski (113-8), Angell (112-3) and Shell Lake’s Caitlyn Skattebo (109-8). Bube came in ninth once again to complete her senior season, which was shortened by injury. Her top throw carried 95-9.

Based on sectional distances, Angell is seeded fifth for state in the shot put and 10th in the discus. Colby’s Malayna Rieck is the top-seeded discus thrower at 123-3, while Living Word Lutheran’s Ellie Juergensen leads the shot put field at 39-5.5.

Drier competed in one more event for Gilman, taking sixth in the 300-meter low hurdles at 50.04 seconds, a little off her season-best of 49.81 seconds set at the regional. She was 1.84 seconds shy of advancing to state. Washburn won the race in 46.48 seconds.

The school record for Lopez came with a distance of 32-6, which put her ninth in the triple jump competition, 11 inches away from fourth place, which was held by Ladysmith’s Emerson Clark. Washburn added another victory with her jump of 36-3.25. Lopez broke the record of 32 feet held by Pam Haider. Lopez, Lauren Pelnis, Amber Yanko and Megan Yanko scored Rib Lake’s third point by placing eighth in the 400-meter relay at 54.69 seconds, their second-best time of 2022. They were 2.35 seconds behind fourth-place Cameron (52.34). Fredric-Luck (51.54), Prairie Farm (52.05) and Ladysmith (52.27) were the other state qualifiers.

Those same four girls placed 11th in the 800-meter relay at 2:00.59. Frederic-Luck won in 1:48.55, followed by Cameron (1:48.74), Ladysmith (1:48.83) and Elmwood- Plum City (1:49.53). Megan Yanko, Pelnis, Kylee Goodrich and Nadia Czahor finished 12th in the 1,600-meter relay at 4:56.34, which was 2.34 seconds faster than their regional time. They beat Solon Springs-Northwood (4:57.83), Chequamegon (5:20.12) and Mercer (5:29.68). Glenwood City (4:14.77), Grantsburg (4:18.04), Prairie Farm (4:19.02) and Chetek- Weyerhaeuser (4:20.64) were the state qualifiers.

Boys results

Rib Lake’s team of junior Ryan Buehler, junior Dominick Classen, senior Will Hartke and sophomore Donovan Sutherland got the running portion of the meet off to a great start by lowering their time in the 3,200-meter relay by about seven seconds. But that time of 8:44.71 just came up short of qualifying for state behind the fourth-place time of 8:44.23 set by Unity. Glenwood City (8:35.87), Ladysmith (8:39.68) and Shell Lake (8:40.19) also advanced.

The near-miss for Gilman’s Ustianowski came by an even smaller margin. He ran the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 42.28 seconds, a new personalbest time, but he was 0.17 seconds behind fourth-place hurdler Luke Ashworth of Webster. Shell Lake’s Landon Deneen won in 39.64 seconds, followed by Washburn’s Soren Paterson (40.0) and Shell Lake’s Dominick Ricci (41.27).

Rib Lake’s last point came with an eighth-place finish from its 800-meter relay team of Hartke, Ethan Keiser, Noah Wiitala and Classen. They posted a time of 1:39.27, which was 1.31 seconds faster than their regional time. Chetek-Weyerhaeuser (1:29.91), Webster (1:32.86), Grantsburg (1:33.74) and Chequamegon (1:34.94) were the state qualifiers. Classen, Hartke, Sutherland and Wiitala missed adding a point by 0.59 seconds with their ninth-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay. They finished in 3:44.12, almost five seconds faster than they were at the regional. Glenwood City (3:27.16), Grantsburg (3:29.17), Washburn (3:29.38) and Shell Lake (3:33.76) got the state berths.

Also for Rib Lake, Keiser (12.17) and Wiitala (12.74) were 11th and 13th out of 14 sprinters who competed in the 100-meter dash preliminaries. Keiser, the regional champion at Flambeau, was 0.41 seconds shy of eighth place and a spot in the final. Theo Robisch was 13th for Rib Lake in the triple jump competition at 36-6, and Sutherland was 15th in the long jump at 16-5.5.

Gilman’s Bailey Angell, pictured above while competing at Edgar on May 9, and Gracie Tallier, pictured in right photo during the same meet, will represent the Pirates’ track and field program at the WIAA Division 3 state championships for the second straight year. Angell will compete in the discus and shot put, while Tallier qualified in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS