Tallier 8th in 100, Angell 9th in shot; RL’s Lopez sets record

WIAA DIV. 3 STATE TRACK & FIELD

One stellar career came to a close and two local athletes have motivation to add to their final chapters next year after this past weekend’s WIAA Division 3 state track and field championships at UW-La Crosse.

Gilman senior Gracie Tallier and junior Bailey Angell, both at state for the third straight spring and medal winners a year ago, ended up just outside of medal contention this time around with Tallier taking eighth in the 100-meter dash final and Angell placing ninth in shot put competition Saturday.

Rib Lake junior Olivia Lopez was right behind Tallier in the 200-meter dash preliminaries on Friday afternoon, taking 12th as both fell short of making the final. Lopez, however, set a new Rib Lake school record with her time of 26.92 seconds in her first state meet appearance.

In the 100-meter dash, Tallier ran a time of 12.97 seconds in Friday’s preliminaries to secure a spot in Saturday’s final. Tallier was fourth out of eight runners in her heat and her time was seventh-best out of the 16 state qualifiers, good enough to be among the 10 finalists on Saturday.

Running in lane two in the final, Tallier was in a tight battle for the last medal spot until getting nudged out at the end by Savannah Duckett of Randolph, who finished in 12.62 seconds and got the last medal by placing sixth, and Tallier’s familiar local opponent Carly Borst of Eau Claire Regis, who finished seventh in 12.79 seconds.

Tallier’s time was 12.88 seconds. Bella Thomas a freshman from Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, won the state championship in 12.39 seconds, followed by Cashton senior Braylee Hyatt (12.5) and Deerfield senior Steffi Siewert (12.52). Fall Creek freshman Rebecca Sturz was fourth in 12.55 seconds.

Tallier’s eighth-place finish gave Gilman one point in the team standings, putting Gilman in a four-way tie for 60th place.

Tallier won the 200-meter dash sectional championship in Cameron on May 25 and came into the competition as the sixth seed based on sectional times, but luck wasn’t on her side in Friday’s state preliminaries. Running in heat one, Tallier finished in 26.61 seconds, fifth out of eight runners in her heat.

In the second heat, Rib Lake’s Lopez, who entered the competition as the 16th seed, took seventh of out eight runners, beating Lancaster’s Eden Bowen (26.96) by 0.04 seconds and setting Rib Lake’s new record, beating Dana Dolezalek’s 2007 record of 27.0 seconds. Lopez also owns the school’s triple jump record and was less than an inch away from the outdoor long jump record this year.

“Obviously when you look at the heat sheet and you’re seeded 16th it’s hard,” Rib Lake head coach Jonah Campbell said. “We took the attitude that we’re running down at state. We’re here, we made it. We made getting that school record the main goal for her there.”

Campbell said that goal was already in focus at the Marathon sectional May 25, where Lopez qualified for state by a 0.03-second margin in 27.35 seconds.

“Our big takeaway was even though we didn’t make the final, we were two spots away,” Campbell said. “As a 16th seed, she was probably one that others weren’t too worried about, but she was close. She improved by a half-second this year and if she does that again next year, if you look at the times, it could get her there next year.”

When times from both heats were finalized, Tallier was 0.09 seconds behind 10th-place finisher Audrey Arndt of Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran, while Lopez was 0.4 seconds out of 10th, keeping them out of Saturday’s final, which Hyatt won in 25.75 seconds, 0.07 seconds ahead of Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah senior Ariana Parnitzke.

Tallier is off to UW-River Falls in the fall where she plans to compete with the Falcons’ volleyball team. She leaves Gilman’s track and field program with a plethora of accolades, including school records in the long jump at 16-11 as well as the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter dashes in times of 12.56 and 26.09 seconds and 1:02.1. She was fourth in last year’s state meet in the 100-meter dash and seventh in the 200, competed at state in the 100- and 200-meter dashes as well as the 1,600-meter relay as a freshman, won Eastern Cloverbelt Conference titles in four individual events this year, was part of four conference titles as a freshman and has two career sectional titles to her credit.

Angell, the defending Division 3 state runner-up in the shot put, got better as the competition progressed Saturday, but she couldn’t match the leaders this year with her best throw being 36 feet, 7.25 inches. That came on her final throw.

Angell opened the preliminaries with a throw of 33-11.75 and then scratched on her second attempt. She needed a big throw on her last preliminary attempt to advance to the finals and she got it at 358.5, giving her the ninth spot out of 10 finalists. Her first two throws in the finals went 36-6.75 and 34-9.75.

This year’s champion is Laconia senior Mattie Isaac, who came in as the fifth seed but won it with a throw of 397.75 on her last attempt. She beat Ozaukee junior Paige Kurlinski by a half-inch. Rosholt junior Payton Skortz was third at 38-10.5, which she hit on her first throw of the competition.

Gilman head coach Mike Gingras said he sensed the disappointment each of its athletes had in falling short of their goals for the weekend, but they shouldn’t lose sight of what it took to get there. In Angell’s case, she had a sectional shot put championship and a first-place finish in the shot put and a second-place finish in the discus at the Flambeau regional as well as the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference meet.

“It’s tough but I look at it as we ended at the last meet of the year,” Gingras said. “Look at what you accomplished. You can’t base everything on one meet.”

Gilman’s Bailey Angell spins into an attempt during the preliminary round of the shot put competition Saturday afternoon at the WIAA Division 3 state track and field championships at UW-La Crosse. Angell placed ninth in the competition.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS