RAPID CITY — Since he stepped into the ring as a freshman, Rapid City Stevens’ Elias Gillen wanted to leave his mark on the Raiders track program.

Now as a senior, Gillen is the top Class AA shot put and discus thrower returning from a year ago. 

Gillen took gold in the discus (170-10) and silver in the shot put (55-10.5) at the state meet last year. 

“I really want to leave a mark. I've been talking to myself about these school records since freshman year, knowing that I can get them and they're very attainable,” Gillen said. “So, I just wanted to leave with one more boom before I go out.”

Last season, Gillen set a personal best of 60-0.25 in the shot put at the Crosstown Classic last May. While his toss of 170-10 was a new PR in the discus.

In the Raiders' only track meet so far, this early spring season, due to weather postponements, Gillen recorded a throw of 56-7 in the shot put and a throw of 149-01 in discus in the West River AA preview meet on March 27.

While his throw in the shot put is about where Gillen said he wanted to be, his discus was a little short of what he would have liked.

“That’s only because he threw his bombs out of bounds on the right section line when the wind was blowing so hard, but he's off to a great start,” Stevens throws coach Kerry Beyer said. “He's off to a great start. He's right where he should be in both the shot and the discus, to be honest, and wanted to be to get his goals reached by the end of the season.”

The school record for both shot put (61-11.5) and discus (184-09) were set in 1973 by Tim Treick.

Now, 52 years later, Gillen wants his name atop the record book. 

Gillen, who will go on to play football at Texas Tech University next fall, said once the football season ended, he went to work in the weight room and in the gym to focus on strength and continue to improve his technique.

“He has become a student of throwing technique, and now, to be honest, he's become a coach of the technique,” Beyer said. “In practice, he can coach any of these kids. He can watch their form. He can say, ‘Hey, you need to do this. You need to do this with your footwork.’ He's just become a student of the art of throwing, whether it's the shot or the discus. 

“He has such body awareness. He knows exactly what he can get done with the throw. And he started doing this a little bit towards the end of his sophomore year and was so much more in tune with what he was doing as a junior. And this year, of course, it's just even beyond what you would expect — he’ll be like, ‘Yep when I came around, I could feel that my foot was here, and I needed to get it over here.’”

With goals set early on as a freshman, Gillen has focused a lot on getting stronger and his technique. 

Beyer said she knew right away Gillen would be a competitor as a freshman.

“As a freshman, he was already built — tall, long, strong, and he had such a competitiveness about him, and that willingness to learn…I saw that ‘Man, you're coachable.’ That's a huge thing,” she said. “As a freshman, his competitiveness, I felt, got in the way a little bit. The ability to handle when things were not going like you wanted, the letdown or I didn't throw as well as I wanted to, he struggled a little bit.”

“That's what a lot of my conversations were with him as a freshman, he came back as a sophomore, like a different kid, like he was now more mentally in the game. How he would react to things was so much calmer, smoother. ‘It's okay. I'll do better next time. I got this figured out what I did wrong.’ ”

Beyer said Gillen’s ability to detect the flaws in his technique makes her job much easier. She said she would ask him what he did wrong on a throw, and he could tell her and it is the same thing she noticed as well.

His willingness to learn and study footwork and technique has not only helped Gillen in the ring but also on the field. 

“The technicality of shot put and discus, you kind of just get a focus on that. And then when you go to football, it's not just all aggression anymore,” Gillen said. “You can kind of see the sport through a different lens of how technical it actually is.”

Immediately following last year’s track season, Gillen spent most of his summer focusing on football. Attending camps, going on recruiting visits and preparing for his final season on the Raiders football team.

He had to wait until football was over before he could start focusing on track again.

But with his letter of intent signed with the Red Raiders in Lubbock, Texas, Gillen said he does not have as many outside distractions to take up his time as he focuses on his senior year of track.

“Just being able to focus on just track has been really big,” Gillen said. “Obviously, I've had conversations with coaches and everything leading up to getting there, but this year, it's just like, I don't have to worry about recruiting, and I can just focus in on my athleticism.”

As Gillen is focused on winning a pair of golds and getting his name atop the Raiders record books, the 6-foot-6 offensive lineman is excited about his future in Lubbock, Texas saying the coaches, school and town felt just right. Despite being 800 miles from home.

“The coaches and the relationships I got to build in such a short time there, and then getting to go down there for my visits, it was huge, because the campus and the city really isn't too much different from Rapid City, as far as size goes,” he said. “All the people there were just as nice as they are here. So it was just kind of like, I'm not gonna worry about the distance, because I feel comfortable there.”

The South Dakota state track meet is May 29-31 at Howard Wood in Sioux Falls. Gillen said, should he win, he won’t have much time to enjoy it as he will have to drive back to Rapid City immediately before then down to Lubbock, Texas to report to camp that Monday, June 2. 

Until that day though, Gillen said he’s just focused on getting better each week in his goal to take the top records.

“It's one of those catch twenty-twos that, it's an awesome experience. You've been there, done that, you know what the environment's like, but now there's a little pressure on you too,” Beyer said of Gillen getting gold. “He's the closest we've ever had to making it in shot (put). I'm guessing he'll probably get it and in discus too — he's hit some here in practice that are, they're pushing that school record mark.”