Saturday, July 5, 2025
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By Jon Akre
605 Sports
SIOUX FALLS — Elias Gillen closed out his high school career with two field championships.
The senior from Rapid City Stevens earned the top spot in both discus Friday at the South Dakota state track and field meet at Howard Wood Field with a throw of 173-feet, 10-inches.
On Saturday, in his final event of his career, Gillen took the top spot in the Class AA boys shot put with a mark of 59-feet, 1.25-inches.
“I’m just really proud of my performance,” said Gillen. “Shot put has been kind of rocky since I threw my big PR. But I was just proud of what I did getting to go out there with my dad and visualize the meet before it happened. Definitely happy I pulled it through today.”
Gillen increased his distance with nearly every throw in the shot put event. Starting with his first throw of 56-06.5, Gillen worked all the way up to just over 59-feet.
“I definitely needed to get my mark in before I started attacking it,” said Gillen. “Once I got that first throw down I knew I was just going to keep attacking it harder every throw.”
All five of Gillen’s eligible throws were higher than the thrower in second, Harrisburg’s Elijah Detert, who tossed 55-03. But Gillen, who took home second in shot put last season, didn’t want to get ahead of himself leading into finals.
“I try to keep myself from getting too amped up cause then I’ll jump too far forward and hit on the top of the toeboard so I try to keep myself ranged in and keep everything for the throw at the very end,” Gillen said.
Gillen says he was proud of his performance compared to last year’s runner-up finish in shot put.
“It feels good for sure,” Gillen said. “Definitely not my day last year, I had a rough end of the season but happy I turned it around this year.”
And to top it all off, the senior capped off his track career defending his Class AA boys discus title as well.
“I knew I had a chance in discus and to pull through yesterday was really cool and then shot put went how I envisioned it so I was really happy with how that went,” Gillen said.
As he closes this chapter of his life he will quickly start a new one down in Lubbock, Texas. The former Raider from Stevens high school will be playing Division I football for the Red Raiders of Texas Tech University in the fall. Gillen says he’ll miss being around his fellow classmates the most as he heads south for college.
“All the guys on the team and being able to have fun with the high school boys, now I’m going to have to make some new friends down in Texas which I’m not too worried about,” said Gillen on what he’ll miss most about Rapid City Stevens. “Definitely just going to miss all the guys in high school and the hometown.”
But Gillen is excited for the new challenges he’ll face as he starts his college football career.
“Just being around people that can push me to be my best,” said Gillen on TTU. ”Absolutely outstanding athletes and being around some amazing coaches and just people that surround the program are just happy to be uplifted and ready to perform at my best.”
