Falcons track soars high at sectionals
The obstacles loomed large on Thursday with the sun, heat and humidity beating down on some of the assembled athletes in Boscobel. After that long and grueling day at the WIAA D-3 sectional meet, two Falcons ensured Abbotsford will be represented at Veterans Memorial Stadium at UW- La Crosse for the state meet.
Ty Falteisek and Marcus Bohl will compete against the best of the best as the WIAA state meet return after the coronavirus cancelled the 2020 season.
Falteisek competed in the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash on Thursday, and Ty qualified for the finals of the 200-meter dash, finishing eighth in 23.59. His time in the final was even faster, a blazing 23.48 seconds.
Despite that impressive mark, only the top four from each event would move on to state, and Falteisek’s time resulted in seventh place. The difference between going to state and not? A mere four tenths of a second.
Falteisek knew he had one more chance to realize his dream of competing at state. Ty’s final race of the day was the 400-meters, his best event.
He came in as the sixth seed, and he knew his regional time of 53.18 seconds wouldn’t do it. If he was to make it to state, he needed to at least crack 52 seconds, something he had only done once.
Ty settled into his blocks, and when the gun went off, so did he. When he crossed the finish line Falteisek not only set a new PR, finishing the race in 52.30, but his time was fourth best - earning him an automatic bid for the D-3 state meet.
“It feels great,” Falteisek said after the meet. “The football injury was a big set back, and this helps show everything is close to normal.”
Falteisek’s time was the seventh fastest amongst the four sectional meets last week. The top six make podium, and to do that, Ty will likely need to run faster than he’s ever done before. But after Boscobel, he feels he knows what it takes to get the job done.
“I think that the sectional I was at is a great prep because I know how I would have to preform when I am at state, and how hard I have to run.”
Ty won’t be the only Falcon in La Crosse, he’ll be joined by Marcus Bohl.
Bohl’s sectional qualifying throw of 126-07 was decent, but few knew what the strong sophomore was capable of as he stepped up for the first throw of the discus competition. Bohl’s first throw proved to be his best, and his competition spent the rest of the day playing catch up.
They would all fail.
Bohl’s throw of 145-09 not only garnered him first place, it sent him to La Crosse as the fifth seed. If Bohl can replicate that effort, he’ll be standing on the podium this week.
Mason Wellman was also in Boscobel, hoping to earn a berth into the state meet in the pole vault. His PR from Colby’s regional of 11 feet, three inches had him inside the top five. If he could have reached that mark again, he would join Ty and Marcus in La Crosse. But try as he might, Wellman finished seventh with a height of 10 feet, six inches.
Despite only having three athletes compete on the men’s side, the Falcons earned 18.5 points to place 13 out of 36.
The Abbotsford Falcons girls team competed in six events in the WIAA D-3 sectional in Boscobel, but were unable to send a member to La Crosse.
The silver lining is that many of the Falcons who competed are only freshman, and they will have three more years to reach the WIAA state meet. One of those freshman was Sommer Brodhagen, who had a busy day, competing in three relays and the discus.
Brodhagen finished runner-up in the discus at the Colby regional, and her throw of 92-07 was among the highest seeded in Boscobel. However, her throw of 72-06 resulted in 16th place.
Brodhagen fared better in the relays, but between the blazing times and burning heat, the Falcons could not finish inside the top four of the 4x100. 4x200 and 4x400.
The 4x100 team of Brodhagen, fellow frosh Briseida Escalara, senior Mya Ruesch and junior Olivia Hammel took 13th with their time of 54.81 seconds.
The same team fared a bit better in the 4x200, taking twelfth in a time of 1:56.38, and then wrapped up their day by placing twelfth in the 4x400 with their time of 4:31.93.
Junior Bridgett Pogodzinski finished just outside the top ten in the 100-meter hurdles, taking eleventh overall with her prelim time of 18.44 seconds.
Briseida Escalara and fellow freshman Sydney Falteisek capped their excellent debut seasons in the triple jump after Falteisek placed 15th in 28-10, and Escalara leapt 27-08 for 16th.
CLIMB THE SKY -Mason Wellman gets ready to take off for the high jump at regionals. Wellman missed state by one spot at Boscobel last week.STAFF PHOTO/ROSS PATTERMANN
