WIAA DIV. 3 GILMAN REGIONAL - Copenhaver, Vick win triple jump titles; several relays go on

The Gilman Pirates went relay heavy in pushing their entries through to sectionals during Tuesday’s WIAA Division 3 regional meet that they hosted.

In all, the Pirates advanced nine girls entries and seven boys entries with topfour finishes in their events Tuesday. Those who move on will compete in Friday’s WIAA Division 3 Colby sectional where the top four finishers in each event will qualify for state competition at UW-La Crosse June 6-7.

Out of Gilman’s nine girls sectionalqualifying entries, four are relay teams. Senior Jaylen Copenhaver won the regional triple jump championship and qualified twice individually, while Claire Drier, Addison Vick and Patricia Kloss also earned an individual qualification.

Two of the boys sectional entries are in relays. Senior Trevor Vick won the triple jump title and Max Ustianowski qualified in both relay races to highlight Gilman’s efforts in that side of the meet.

Gilman’s girls placed sixth out of 13 teams with 68 points. The Pirates trailed Cadott (106), Owen-Withee (97), Neillsville (96), Athens (79) and Loyal (76). The boys were eighth with 53 points. Owen-Withee edged Neillsville 108-103 for that regional championship plaque. Abbotsford got by Columbus Catholic 7775 for third.

Girls results

Triple jump was a big event for Gilman’s girls as Copenhaver, Kloss and Vick all placed to score 18 points.

Copenhaver’s big year in the event will extend for at least one more meet as she won the competition with a distance of 33 feet, 11.5 inches, her best outdoor mark of 2025 and the top distance of all the jumpers who will compete at Colby. She won by 15.5 inches over Abbotsford’s Lauryn Harris. Kloss advanced with a fourth-place and personal-best jump of 32-1.5 and Vick was sixth at 31-2.

Vick added a third-place finish in the high jump at 4-8. She got the top spot in the tiebreaking process over Cadott’s Adrianna Goodman and Haley Mathison. She was 4 inches behind winner Aubrey Waldhauser of Columbus Catholic and 2 inches behind Loyal’s Addysen Wolf. Copenhaver advanced with a fourth-place leap of 15-0.5 in the long jump, good enough to beat Spencer’s Caitlin Clark by 3.5 inches for that spot. Gilman’s Kyra Rabuck was ninth at 13-4.25.

The top relay performance of the meet was in the 800-meter race where Copenhaver, Kloss, Vick and Drier shaved 0.06 seconds off their school-record time and lowered it to 1:50.43. That was good for second place Tuesday behind Loyal’s 1:49.91. The Pirates were well ahead of third-place Neillsville (1:54.07) and are in good shape for Friday, going in as the fourth seed.

Those same girls took third in the 400meter relay at 53.2 seconds, advancing along with Neillsville (51.32), Owen-Withee (52.7) and Abbotsford (53.84).

Running together for just the second time, the 3,200-meter team of Brynn Komanec, Ava Webster, Rabuck and Aubrey Steinbach lowered its time to 11:52.92 and placed third behind Colby (11:01.5) and Owen-Withee (11:02.87). Fourth-place Neillsville (12:15.62) will join those teams in Colby. The 1,600meter team qualified with a fourth-place finish. Shae Drier, Komanec, Webster and Rabuck posted a time of 4:43.09 to beat Cadott by 9.04 seconds. Owen-Withee won the race in 4:20.45.

Claire Drier focused on just one hurdles race and did well, advancing with a second-place finish in the 300-meter low hurdles. She lowered her time to 48.67 seconds to beat third-place Cassidy Graski of Owen-Withee by 1.96 seconds. Blackhawk Kendall Weiler won in 46.62 seconds.

Kennedy Buske scored twice for Gilman and set season-best times in the sprints. She took seventh in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash finals with times of 14.07 and 29.05 seconds. She was sixth in the 100-meter preliminaries at 13.89 seconds. Steinbach also got two seventhplace points. That was in the 400-meter dash with her time of 1:11.92.

Rilla Syryczuk fell 1.25 inches shy of scoring with a ninth-place toss of 29-10.75 in the shot put. Gilman’s Jazmyn Robinson (22-10) and Emalee Rivera (189.75) were 24th and 33rd. Syryczuk was 21st (66-6), Robinson was 31st (47-5) and Rivera was 33rd (47 feet) in the discus. Aspen Person had improved times while placing 17th in the 200 (32.27) and 23rd in the 100 (15.45). Rabuck was 22nd in the 100 at 15.27 seconds.

Abbotsford (51), Colby (44), Columbus Catholic (25), Spencer (23), Thorp (6), Greenwood (3) and Granton (1) all finished under Gilman in the team standings.

Boys results

Trevor Vick shot himself into state contention as he, like Copenhaver, had the top triple jump distance out of Tuesday’s boys qualifiers. He won the regional at 413, which was his new best by a quarterinch. Spencer’s Teddy Meyer was his closest competitor at 40-5.5.

Ustianowski moved on with a thirdplace finish in the 110-meter high hurdles at 16.12 seconds, his best of the spring by 0.4 seconds. He was just 0.12 seconds behind winner Breckin Miller of Spencer. He also took fourth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at a new best time of 44.58 seconds. He’s headed to the sectional along with teammate Brady McAlpine, who took third at 44.19 seconds. Owen-Withee’s Mason Gay (41.53) and Dominic Sherwood (42.79) were the top two hurdlers.

Gilman’s top relay placement came in the 800-meter race where Logan Halida, McAlpine, Sawyer Winger and Chad Konsella were a solid second in 1:37.91, 1.17 seconds ahead of third-place Neillsville and 3.34 seconds behind champion Abbotsford. McAlpine, Winger, Vick and Konsella got the last qualifying spot in the 400-meter relay with their time of 46.44 seconds. Abbotsford (44.81), Spencer (45.96) and Neillsville (46.27) also advanced.

Gilman fell short in the 1,600-meter relay. Halida, Winger, Vick and Konsella were fifth in 3:59.15, 7.14 seconds behind fourth-place Columbus Catholic.

Winger gave Gilman one last sectional entrant with his fourth-place finish in the high jump. He cleared 5-8 as did teammate Tony Syryczuk. They were among five jumpers to top out at 5-8 behind champion Chase Boller of Abbotsford (5-10). Syryczuk, though, came out fourth among those jumpers in the tiebreaking process and placed fifth overall.

James Wojcik was 10th in the 200meter dash (26.28) and 15th in the 100meter dash (12.8). Halida took 11th in the long jump at 17-10. Mitchell Moran was 16th in the 1,600-meter run (6:34.59) and 17th in the 800 at 2:44.66. Wyatt Orth was 16th (78-11) and Elijah Madlon was 22nd (66-9) in the discus. Madlon also was 19th in the shot put (29-0.75).

As for the rest of the team standings, Cadott (68), Spencer (66) and Athens (60) were fifth through seventh. Colby was ninth with 27 points, followed by Thorp (21), Loyal (17) and Greenwood (9).