Tallier wins all four events as Pirates tie for 2nd at Spencer meet

GILMAN TRACK & FIELD

Gracie Tallier won all four of her events Tuesday, Bailey Angell swept the throws and Claire Drier was a topfour finisher in all four of her events in a high-scoring night for the Gilman girls at Spencer’s Brian Picket Invitational.

With just six team members, the Pirates still fared quite well in the seventeam meet, tying Neillsville for second with 104.5 points. They trailed the only non-Cloverbelt team in the meet, Abbotsford, who totaled 166.5 points. Columbus Catholic (59), Spencer (54), Thorp (50.5) and Greenwood (15) rounded out the field on one of the most spring-like days the Pirates have seen in the last four weeks.

The Pirates put a lineup focus on the sprints, but also scored well in the field in the throws and the long jump.

Tallier won all three sprint finals and the long jump with a leap of 15 feet, 7.5 inches. Drier took second at 15-1 and Kyra Rabuck was seventh at 12-4.25, giving the Pirates 20 points in the event.

In the 100-meter dash, Tallier took the six-runner final in 12.9 seconds, beating Neillsville’s Kaylee Lawrence by 0.6 seconds. Drier tied Abbotsford’s Sommer Brodhagen for fourth at 13.8 seconds. They were a 0.1 seconds behind Abbotsford’s Chloe Cihlar.

All four of Gilman’s entrants in the 400-meter dash competed in the event for the first time this spring, and it paid off with 22 points being scored. Tallier won it in 1:02.1, Drier was second at 1:05.5 and Rabuck was fifth at 1:13.6. Teams were limited to three scorers per event. Jaylen Copenhaver finished eighth at 1:17, which also would be scoring position in most cases.

Tallier’s night ended with a win in the 200-meter dash final at 27.09 seconds, 0.84 seconds ahead of Neillsville’s Kayleigh Kubisiak. Drier was third at 28.77 seconds. Copenhaver didn’t make the final but was seventh in a season-best 30.0 seconds. Rabuck was 13th in a season-best 31.1 seconds.

Angell held off Abbotsford’s best throwers to win the shot put and discus events. The Gilman junior took the discus at 108-11, winning by a margin of 4-2 over Falcon Margo Pogodzinski. Brodhagen was third at 100-1. Gilman’s Kaylee O’Malley was eighth with a season-best throw of 70-3. O’Malley also set a new best in the shot put at 27-9, good for fourth place. Angell won that at 35-11.25, beating Abbotsford’s Pogodzinski (30-1.25) and Isabella Aguilera (28-5.5).

Copenhaver added to the scoring with a sixth-place finish in the high jump. She cleared 4 feet.

Gilman’s boys scored 36.5 points to place sixth, five points ahead of Greenwood. Neillsville easily won the meet with 192.5 points. Abbotsford had 132 points, followed by Columbus Catholic (91), Spencer (63.5) and Thorp (54).

Most of Gilman’s scoring came in the 400-meter dash, again, an event Gilman hasn’t featured much this spring.

Senior Braeden Person, the one Pirate who is a 400-meter regular, was third in a personal-best 58.5 seconds, Brady McAlpine was fourth for Gilman in 1:00.5 and Quintin Franzen was fifth in 1:00.6 to give the Pirates 15 points. Sawyer Winger added a ninth-place time of 1:03.8. Columbus Catholic’s Cal Birkhauser won in 54.7 seconds.

Winger had Gilman’s highest individual finish. The freshman cleared a season-best 5-6 in the high jump and tied Neillsville’s Landon Kummer for second place, 2 inches behind Neillsville’s Ashten Schultz.

Mitchell Moran scored nine points by taking fourth in the 800-meter run at 2:37.82 and fifth in the 1,600-meter run in a personal-best 5:59.79. McAlpine got to the 100-meter dash final by taking fourth in the preliminaries at 12.2 seconds. He was sixth in the final at 12.55 seconds. Person tied for eighth in the prelims at 12.7 seconds while Winger and Franzen tied for 11th at 12.9 seconds. Abbotsford freshman Christian Fuentes won the final in 11.84 seconds.

McAlpine was 13th in the 200-meter prelims at 25.6 seconds, Person (26.0) was 15th and Franzen (26.35) was 17th.

Caleb Marion added Gilman’s last two points by taking seventh in the shot put at a season-best 34-4. He was 12th in the discus at 86-7.

Gilman is at the Cadott Invitational on Friday and then the big season-ending meets begin with the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference championships on Tuesday. That meet will be held in Gilman starting at 4 p.m.

Oriole Invite

At Stanley-Boyd’s Oriole Invitational Friday, Tallier won both short dashes and placed second in the long jump, Angell won the discus and the girls 800-meter relay team was second as Gilman’s girls finished sixth in the 11-team meet.

Tallier’s time of 12.7 seconds in the 100-meter dash was her best of the spring and was good for a 0.6-second margin over runner-up Kali Goulet of McDonell Central. Copenhaver fell 0.03 seconds shy of scoring, while placing ninth at a season- best 14.05 seconds and Rabuck was 25th at 15.28 seconds.

In the 200-meter dash, Tallier won in 26.91 seconds, this time finishing 0.76 seconds ahead of Goulet. Copenhaver was 10th in 30.18 seconds, 0.22 seconds away from the top eight, while Rabuck was 18th in 32.01 seconds.

Four inches was all that separated Tallier from a third win in the meet. She went 16-1 in the long jump to fall just behind Cadott’s Iszy Sonnentag and 5.75 inches ahead of Goulet. Drier added three points with a sixth-place jump of 14-11.75. Rabuck (12-2) was 24th and O’Malley (107) was 30th. Angell’s win in the discus came with a season-best throw of 116-4.5 and was close to last year’s best distance of 116-11. Three Abbotsford throwers took second through fourth place. Pogodzinski was the runner-up at 107-6.5, while O’Malley was 14th with an improved distance of 66-9. Angell threw 36 feet even in the shot put, which was good for second place behind Athens freshman Sy’ Rih Hartwig (36-9.5). O’Malley improved by 2 inches and placed 11th at 27-3.5.

Rabuck, Copenhaver, Drier and Tallier teamed up to run the 800-meter relay in 1:58.73, which put them 3.24 seconds behind the winning team from McDonell and a solid 3.46 seconds ahead of thirdplace Abbotsford.

Drier added a fourth-place time of 18.14 seconds, her best of 2023, in the 100-meter high hurdles. Sonnentag won that in 16.46 seconds.

Winger led the boys by clearing a personal-best 5-4 in the high jump, good for a second-place tie with Cadott’s Peter Weir and Stanley-Boyd’s Cameron Kohls. They were all 6 inches lower than event champion Ashten Schultz of Neillsville.

Gilman got four points from its fifthplace 800-meter relay team of Person, McAlpine, Winger and Grady Kroeplin, which posted a time of 1:45.86. Neillsville won in 1:40.52. The Pirates were just behind Cadott (1:44.73) and just ahead of Athens (1:46.72).

Franzen supplied the rest of the scoring for the Pirates. He took sixth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at 48.55 seconds and eighth in the 110-meter high hurdles at 19.91 seconds. Schultz won the highs at 16.63 seconds and Stanley-Boyd’s Nic Schmelzer won the intermediates at 44.78 seconds.

Person was 10th in the 400-meter dash at 1:01.04 and McAlpine was 13th in both the 100-meter (12.62) and 200-meter (26.0) dashes. Person was right behind him in the 200 (26.16) and Winger was 27th in the 100 (13.72).

Moran had a great night, setting new bests in both of his distance runs. He was 12th in the 800-meter run at 2:36.44 and 13th in the 1,600-meter race at 6:03.83. Moran also was 26th in the long jump (1110.75).

Marion placed 16th in the shot put at 32-1 and 17th in the discus at 88-10.5.

Girls team standings were: 1. Mc-Donell Central, 119; 2. Abbotsford, 94; 3. Stanley-Boyd and Cadott, 79.5; 5. Bloomer, 71; 6. Gilman, 59; 7. Athens, 53; 8. Neillsville, 50; 9. Flambeau, 18; 10. Osseo-Fairchild, 16; 11. Fall Creek, 14.

Boys team standings were: 1. Stanley-Boyd, 173.08; 2. Bloomer, 86.75; 3. Neillsville, 84.5; 4. McDonell Central, 75.75; 5. Abbotsford, 68.25; 6. Cadott, 56.33; 7. Athens, 49; 8. Flambeau, 14; 9. Gilman, 13.33; 10. Osseo-Fairchild, 13; 11. Fall Creek, 7.