Pirates start with low numbers, but high quality

GILMAN TRACK & FIELD PREVIEW

Depth is always a factor when it comes to small-school track and field, and the Gilman Pirates are feeling it at the start of the 2023 season.

But the old adage quality over quantity also applies for Gilman, especially for the girls.

“We are small, but we have some real quality here and hope to build upon it,” head coach Mike Gingras said.

Gingras, who begins his 10th year as head coach, has a thin roster of just six girls and six boys two weeks into the spring season. That, of course, makes it tough to compete from a team standpoint.

But individually, senior Gracie Tallier and junior Bailey Angell have WIAA Division 3 state medals to their credit, Tallier holds multiple school records, Angell is pushing toward more records and sophomore Claire Drier wasn’t far from qualifying for state last year, especially in the 300-meter low hurdles.

Those three athletes are certainly the leaders on the girls team, which currently also features senior Kaylee O’Malley, sophomore Jaylen Copenhaver and freshman Myra Rabuck and started the year with a fourth-place finish at Friday’s eight-team Neillsville Indoor Invitational.

Tallier, a UW-River Falls volleyball recruit, has made a name for herself the past two springs as one of the area’s top sprinters. She finished last year on the state podium after a fourth-place finish in the Division 3 100-meter dash final with a time of 13.09 seconds and just missed in the 200-meter dash final, taking seventh at 26.83 seconds, 0.19 seconds away from a sixth-place medal.

While she hasn’t yet qualified for state in the long jump, she has reached distances that make her more than capable, as shown by her jump of 16-0.5 on Friday, a mark that would’ve qualified out of last year’s sectional meet.

Drier jumped 15-3.75 on Friday and got as far as 16-2.25 in her freshman season. She is a versatile athlete for Gilman who can jump, sprint and hurdle.

Drier was a sectional qualifier last year in the 100-meter dash and 300-meter low hurdles. In the hurdles, she was clocked at 50.04 seconds at the sectional meet in Colfax, good for sixth place and just 1.84 seconds away from a state berth.

Angell has been a dominant shot put and discus competitor in area small-school meets in her first two seasons, but she’s also shown a knack for coming through in the clutch in big meets as well. She made a key throw to place fourth at state in the discus as a freshman, got off a big throw of 38-6.25 to place second at state in the shot last year and added another medal by placing sixth in the discus at 112-11.

Her personal bests are 39-8 in the shot and 116-11 in the discus, both set last year. Angell got the new season off to a solid start with a winning throw of 3810.5 in Friday’s shot put competition at Neillsville.

Last year’s top throw in the state championship competition was 39-1.25.

O’Malley joins Angell as a shot and discus competitor for Gilman this year. She was part of the 2021 team and got as far as 26 feet in the shot put then. She started this year at 27-0.75 and tied for fourth in Friday’s meet.

Copenhaver is back after seeing some early action last year and adds another sprinter and jumper to the mix. She placed fifth in Friday’s high jump competition by clearing the bar at 4-2.

Gingras said Rabuck figures to be a contributor on the track as a sprinter and had a decent first showing in the long jump as well Friday.

The boys’ strengths could be in the sprints, led by returning athletes like senior Braeden Person, junior Quintin Franzen and sophomore Brady McAlpine. All three were key pieces of various relay teams last year. McAlpine was one of Gilman’s top 100-meter sprinters, getting down to 13.06 seconds at the Flambeau regional. Person got his time as low as 58.9 seconds in the 400-meter dash at last year’s Eastern Cloverbelt Conference meet in Colby. Franzen filled a role for Gilman last spring in both the 110-meter high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles, breaking the 50-second barrier at regionals in the intermediates at 49.87 seconds.

McAlpine placed fifth in Friday’s 45-meter dash at Neillsville in 6.12 seconds and was even quicker in the preliminaries at 5.96 seconds. Person was fifth in the 2-lap event and Franzen was fifth in the 45-meter dash prelims and fifth in the 45-meter hurdle race to start his year as Gilman placed seventh out of eight teams.

Another returning veteran is junior Caleb Marion, who figures to score points in the shot put and discus. He steadily improved in both events and looks to surpass his top distances from a year ago of 33-11 in the shot and 103 9 in the discus.

Sophomore Mitchell Moran is an athlete who Gingras said will fill in anywhere he’s asked. He picked up some points in Friday’s meet by taking fifth in the 1,600-meter run and seventh in the 800-meter run.

Freshman Sawyer Winger is a nice addition as well. He made an impact in his first meet, placing fifth in both the long and high jump and he will likely fill some running roles as well.

Obviously, there is plenty of time and room for additions to the roster, but as of now, this is the crew Gingras and assistant coach Tom Tallier will take into the UW-Stout Small School Northern Badger Indoor Invitational on Saturday and then into the outdoor season, which is scheduled to begin with the first of three home meets on April 13.

Gilman is also scheduled to host its second invite of the year on May 2 and will host this year’s Eastern Cloverbelt meet on May 16. Gilman did not host any meets last year due to repair work that needed to be done.

The post-season road to state goes through Flambeau again for regionals and Cameron for the May 25 sectional meet.