Falcons soar in Colby, send seven to state
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Abbotsford track and field team will be sending seven athletes to compete in the WIAA Division 3 state meet in La Crosse this coming Friday and Saturday after qualifying in seven separate events for their performances at last Friday’s sectional meet in Colby. The team also had their regional meet last Tuesday evening, where the boys placed third overall and the girls took seventh.
Colby Sectionals
It was an impressive showing for the Falcons on Friday in nearby Colby, having over half their entries move on to the Division 3 state meet and breaking a school record in the process. Buoyed by these solid performances, the boys team took sixth out of 41 teams with 34 points while the girls team placed 17th out of 42 teams with 20 points.
Abbotsford picked up a trio of second place finishes at the sectional meet, all in the field events. Carter Cihlar and Christian Fuentes led the boys team, grabbing their respective runner-up spots in the pole vault and long jump while the girls Lauryn Harris captured the second place spot in the triple jump.
Cihlar cruised to his second place spot in the pole vault. The Abbotsford sophomore cleared a height of 12 feet, nine inches with no issue, making it over four height increments without a fault. Holding the tiebreaker over Clear Lake’s Evan Cain and Spencer’s Breckin Miller and with his trip to La Crosse already secured, Cihlar only jumped back in at 13 feet, nine inches, where he tried to break his own school record. While he could not quite make it over the height, the sophomore vaulter will have one more chance this season to extend his own personal best at the state finals.
Fuentes had his best jump of the day on his final attempt of the preliminary round, posting a leap of 21 feet, 4.25 inches. All three of his preliminary attempts would have been enough for him to lock in his spot at state, as neither third place Jarrett Heckendorf of Chequamegon nor fourth place Brody Bergemann of Neillsville breached a distance of 20 feet, 9.25 inches even through the finals, giving Fuentes the runner-up spot behind Ladysmith’s Ashton Clark.
Harris and teammate Celia Schindler will both represent the Falcons in the triple jump at the state meet after the pair went back-to-back in the triple jump. Both had their best jumps on their second attempts of the day, with Harris registering a jump of 34 feet, three inches and Schindler’s attempt measuring 33 feet, 7.25 inches. Gilman’s Jaylen Copenhaver’s initial attempt of 35 feet, 11 inches carried the day, but no one else could top the pair of Abbotsford athletes. Flambeau’s Ashley Lawton came the closest, putting together an attempt of 33 feet, 4.5 inches on her final jump of the day.
As the skies darkened and the rain began to fall midway through Friday’s meet, the boys’4x200-meter relay team not only captured a spot at state by taking fourth place in the event on Friday, but also etched their names into the Abbotsford record books. Despite the inclement weather, the Falcons’ sprinters were able to take off over a second from their time at the regional meet in Gilman to set the new record of 1:33.26. The team of Jovanny Cruz, Chase Boller, Cihlar and Fuentes posted the fastest time in school history, coming in just a tenth of second behind the third place Webster relay and three tenths of second behind the second place Grantsburg team. Ladysmith’s relay won the event with a time of 1:31.31.
The same team of Cruz, Boller, Cihlar and Fuentes also moved on to the state meet in the 4x100-meter relay after taking fourth in the event. A highly contested race, the Falcons narrowly defeated the Grantsburg relay for the final state spot, their time of 44.82 seconds just two-tenths of a second faster than the Pirates. Webster’s relay was only six hundredths of a second faster than the Abbotsford squad and Unity’s relay won the event with a time of 43.99 seconds.
Boller will also be heading to state as an individual. The junior came through in the clutch in the high jump, where he was able to grab the final state spot with a fourth place finish. Boller started the six foot height increment with a pair of faults, and, if he could not clear the height on his final attempt, he would find himself on the outside looking in, losing the fourth place tiebreaker to Frederic/Luck’s Carson Anderson. However, Boller was able to make it over on his final jump while Anderson did not, allowing the Falcon to capture fourth place and move on to the state competition.
Margo Pogodzinkski nearly broke her own school record in Colby. The Falcons’ thrower owns both the shot put and discus school records and competed in both events at the sectional meet, and while her 13th place finish in the discus, where her best throw measured 96 feet, 11 inches, wasn’t enough to move on, she nearly matched her personal best in the shot put. Sitting just outside the top-four heading into the final round of throws, Pogodzinski unleashed a throw of 37 feet, six inches on her last attempt to pass Kyra Flick of Glenwood City. The throw, just a few inches short of her school record, was enough to earn her fourth place in the event and a spot in La Crosse.
Marcus VanLuven scored for the boys team in the shot put, grabbing a sixth place finish by registering a throw of 45 feet, eight inches on his second attempt of the day. Miguel Bautista-Carreon represented the Falcon boys in the 800meter run, where he posted a time of 2:08.81.
On the girls side, Azul Diaz notched a scoring performance by placing eighth in the 3200-meter run. She earned her spot by posting a time of 12:54.36, picking up four spots over the final half of the race. The Falcons’ 4x100-meter and 4x200-meter relays also competed at the sectional meet, the relay of Harris, Schindler, Hazel Flink and Chloe Cihlar taking 11th with a time of 54.10 seconds in the 4x100-meter and claiming 10th in the 4x200-meter with a time of 1:53.38.
Gilman Regionals
Strength in the field events and relay races have carried the Falcons all season and it was no different on Tuesday evening when Abbotsford traveled to Gilman for the WIAA Division 3 regional meet. Ten top-3 finishes helped the Falcons as the boys team took third with 77 points and the girls squad placed seventh with 51 points.
Marcus VanLuven and Chase Boller earned two individual regional titles for the Falcons in the field events. VanLuven earned his victory by launching the furthest throw in the shot put. The junior defeated Neillsville’s Marcus Luchterhand, the runner-up, by nearly a foot, posting a throw of 44 feet, 3.25 inches to capture the top spot. Meanwhile, Boller was the only athlete to reach a height of five feet, 10 inches in the high jump, pushing him past a field of five opponents who cleared the previous height increment to stand alone at the top of the final standings.
The boys sprint relays also notched a pair of wins. The team of Boller, Jovanny Cruz, Carter Cihlar and Christian Fuentes represented Abbotsford in both the 4x100-meter and the 4x200-meter relays and swept their events. In the 4x100meter relay, the Falcons defeated the second place Spencer relay by over a second, easily taking home first place with a time of 44.81 seconds. The 4x200-meter relay was not any closer, with the speedy quartet cruising to another win with a time of 1:34.57, over three seconds faster than the second
See FALCONS POSTSEASON/ Page 18
RISE TO NEW HEIGHTS - Carter Cihlar gets a good launch during the boys pole vault event in Colby.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
LEAPING TO STATE - Lauryn Harris secures her spot at the state tournament with this leap in the triple jump. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
NEW RECORD - Jovanny Cruz gets the 4x200 relay team off to a fast start as they set a new school record in Colby. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Falcons postseason
Continued from page 8
place Gilman relay.
Fuentes and Cihlar also picked up a pair of seconds for the Falcons. Fuentes came in only an inch behind Neillsville’s Brody Bergemann in the long jump, his furthest leap measuring 20 feet, 4.75 inches. Meanwhile, Cihlar posted a new personal best by reaching a height of 13 feet, six inches in the pole vault. The performance broke his own school record, which he had set earlier this season. Only Athens’ Kyle Schreiner had a better day, winning the event by clearing a height of 14 feet.
Lauryn Harris had the girls team’s best result in Gilman. The freshman was the runner-up in the triple jump competition, her attempt of 32 feet, eight inches trailing only Gilman’s Jaylen Copenhaver. Teammate Celia Schindler was not far behind, posting a distance of 32 feet, three inches to capture third place for the Falcons.
Margo Pogodzinski posted sectional-worthy performances in both the shot put and the discus, taking third in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, 1.5 inches and notching a fourth place finish in the discus after her best throw measured 108 feet. Azul Diaz had similar results for Abbotsford in the distance events, taking third in the 3200-meter run with a time of 13:50.41 and fifth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:01.34.
Miguel Bautista-Carreon added a fourth place finish for the boys team in the 800-meter run, recording a time of 2:11.91.
The girls 4x100 and 4x200-meter relay teams of Hazel Flink, Chloe Cihlar, Harris and Schindler grabbed the final qualifying spots for the Falcons. Taking fourth in both competitions, they posted times of 53.84 seconds and 1:54.90 in their respective races.
There were a few Falcons who just missed the cut for the sectional meet. Preston Belanger came in fifth place in the 1600-meter run on Tuesday, finishing with a time of 5:19.27 and teammate Jack Sheahan also took fifth with a distance of 35 feet, one half inch in the triple jump. The pair were also part of the 4x800-meter relay team that also included Bautista-Carreon and Gavin Reis that took fifth with a time of 9:20.31.
Other scoring performances included sixth place finishes from Harris in the long jump, with a distance of 14 feet, seven inches, and Irvin Davila in the discus, with a throw of 110 feet, seven inches, a seventh place finish for Chloe Cihlar in the 300-meter hurdles, posting a time of 57.07 seconds, and eighth place finishes for Flink in the pole vault with a height of seven feet, six inches, and Kevin Fuentes in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:03.79.
RAIN OR SHINE - A sudden downpour did not hinder Marcus VanLuven during the sectional meet in Colby. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
