Falteisek, Bohl face top athletes at state

Senior thrower Marcus Bohl and junior hurdler Syndey Falteisek represented the Abbotsford Falcons track and field team at the D3 WIAA State Championships held at UW-La Crosse’s Veterans Memorial Stadium this past Friday and Saturday.

Bohl was competing in his third straight state meet, having also qualified for the event in 2021 and 2022. He qualified this season by taking fourth at the sectional meet held in Marathon the week prior.

The senior once again saw improvement in his placement at the championships, taking seventh place overall. After scratching on his first throw, the senior launched his best toss of the day in the second round. The discus traveled 144 feet, 11 inches and secured his spot in the finals. Bohl went into the final three throws in sixth place, but unfortunately scratched on all of them, leaving him unable to improve his standing.

Collin Thier of Hurley snuck past the Falcons’ thrower, posting a distance of 149 feet, six inches in his final throw of the day. This pushed Bohl into seventh place, but none of the other finalists behind him could surpass his second throw. The seventh place finish was two spots better than his 2022 performance, where he took ninth after recording a throw of 142 feet, eight inches.

Athen’s Aiden Janke took first place in the discus, his top throw measuring 159 feet, six inches.

Falteisek was also no stranger to the state championships, though this was her first time running both as an individual and in the hurdles. Last year as a sophomore, she competed in La Crosse as part of the 4x100-meter relay team. In 2023, however, she broke through in the 100-meter hurdles, posting a personal best time of 16.50 seconds to take fourth place at the sectional meet.

Mere hundredths of a second separated Falteisek from racing on the meet’s second day. The junior ran in the first heat of the event and recorded a time of 16.79 seconds. While she took eighth in the heat, there was still a chance that she could sneak into the top 10 and qualify for the finals on Saturday.

While the second heat was slower than the first, there were a few athletes that just passed by Falteisek to claim the last two spots. There was only sixhundredths of a second difference between the times of ninth-place Emily Sorensen of Faith Christian and Falteisek, who ended up taking 13th in the event. Mondovi’s Ava Gray took the last spot in the finals, finishing with a time of 16.76 seconds.

Kamdan Johnson of Florence claimed first place in the finals, posting a time of 15.01 seconds.

The end of the state meet also marked the conclusion of the 2023 season for the Abbotsford teams. While Bohl, who broke the school record in the discus earlier in the season, and a handful of other seniors have graduated, they will have a host of underclassmen that have the opportunity to return to the club next year. The Falcons could also see an influx of new talent from their eighth grade team to help bolster their already solid numbers.