Colby track competes at Stout, Wausau West
The Colby Hornets had two more indoor track meets over the past week. Athletes who qualified for UW-Stout’s Elite Meet competed in Menomonie last Friday and then the girls’ team traveled to Wausau West, where they took fifth place.
In their final indoor event of the 2023 season, the Colby girls’ team went up against fifteen other schools in Wausau on Tuesday. Scoring 55 points, the Hornets took fifth place overall.
Event hosts Wausau West took home first place, scoring 111.5 points. Merrill and Wittenberg-Birnamwood were a distant second and third, ending the evening with 69 and 68.5 points respectively.
Seniors Willow Oehmichen and Hayden Willner grabbed victories for the Hornets.
Oehmichen continued her early season success in the pole vault with her second victory in the event in 2023. She topped 10 feet, six inches on Tuesday, giving her a comfortable lead over second place Jaylin Machon of Medford, who reached a height of nine feet, six inches. Oehmichen has topped ten feet in all three of her events this season.
Her teammate has garnered similar success in the hurdles, but had yet to find the elusive win. That changed on Tuesday evening for Willner, who claimed first place in the 55-meter hurdles. The senior streaked past her opponents in the final, taking nearly a half second advantage with a final time of 9.57 seconds.
Willner also grabbed a second-place finish in the 200-meter hurdles, the first time she has been able to run a hurdles event longer than 60 meters this season. She finished with a time of 33.37 seconds, just behind Wittenberg- Birnamwood’s Faith Resch.
In addition to her success in the hurdles, Willner also put together her best performance in the long jump this year. Her longest leap measured 15 feet, one-quarter inch, which was good for fifth place in the event Pearl Feiten and MaKenna Herrmann both added third place finishes for the Hornets in Wausua.
Feiten put up a time of 1:11.03 in the 400-meter dash, notching her second top-five finish in similar events this season.
Herrmann, meanwhile, has been coming away with solid performances in long distance events for Hornets all season, adding to that resume with her third place finish in the 1600-meter event on Tuesday. Her time of 6:14.22 put her just behind Waupaca’s Sienna Timm and Wausau West’s Leah Ottosen.
Daelyn Rieck also provided a boost for the Hornets after finishing in sixth place in the shot put. The freshman had a final toss of 31 feet, onethree- quarters inch.
Jazmyn Heeg was one-hundreth of a second away from scoring herself in the 55-meter dash. Her time of 8.15 seconds put her in ninth place, just behind Natalie Bystol of Shawano, who finished with a time of 8.14 seconds.
The Colby Hornets had several of their athletes travel back to Menomonie for the UW-Stout Elite Meet last Friday to test their mettle against some of the best the state has to offer. A number of Hornets put together impressive outings, especially given the level of competition.
There were eight top 10 finishes for the Colby squad, leading to a sixth place finish for the boys team and a ninth place finish for the girls team.
Senior Caden Healy concluded his dominant indoor season with two more victories. After winning the 55-meter dash one week earlier, Healy improved on his time to win the event once more, defeating Carson Tait of Regis by four-hundredths of a second with a time of 6.70 seconds. He also improved on his second place performance in the long jump, putting up a final distance of 20 feet, seven inches. No other competitor topped 20 feet on Friday, putting Healy atop the podium.
On top of his two wins, Healy cut two-tenths of a second off his 200-meter dash time, finishing in 23.92 seconds. This earned him fourth place in the event.
Seth Hopperdietzel put forth a valiant effort in the pole vault. After maxing out at 10 feet, six inches at the Wausau West invitational, the Colby junior cleared 13 feet at the Elite Meet, earning himself fourth place in the process. Only Eli Hallwood of Mauston managed to get past the 13 foot mark, winning the competition with a final height of 13 feet, nine inches.
Hopperdietzel’s teammate and fellow pole vaulter Willow Oehmichen came through for the girls’ team. Oehmichen dueled Fall Creek’s Alena Sanfelippo and Arcadia’s Casidi Pehler for the top spot in the event. Her final height of ten feet, six inches earned her second place, trailing only Pehler’s height of 11 feet, six inches.
Hayden Willner took four-tenths of a second off her seventh-place 55-meter hurdle performance the week prior, putting up a time of 9.56 seconds and earning herself fifth-place in the event. Daelyn Rieck also showed improvement in the shot put, where she took sixth place with a final distance of 33 feet, eight inches. MaKenna Herrmann added a fourth top 10 finish for the girls after earning seventh place in the 3200-meter run, coming in with a time of 13:37.91.
Other top 20 performances for the Hornets included a 13th place finish for Healy in the shot put with a distance of 42 feet, two inches, 14th and 19th place finishes for Willner in the long jump with a distance of 14 feet, seven-and-a-half inches, and the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.08 seconds respectively and 20th place finishes for Jazmyn Heeg in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.90 seconds and Pearl Feiten in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:08.40.
The Hornets will have a short break before their outdoor season kicks into gear. Their next meet is scheduled for Thursday, April 13 at Medford. Field events are to start at 4:00 p.m.
PHOTO FINISH -Caden Healy leans foward as he crosses the finish line in the 60-meter dash. The Colby senior won the event by four-hundreths of a second.STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
