Falcons see early results at Stout, Marshfield

The Abbotsford Falcons track and field team continued their indoor portion of their season with two more meets over the past week. The girls’ team competed in their half of the Marshfield invitational last Thursday and both teams traveled to Menomonie on Saturday for the Northern Badger Classic event held at UW-Stout.

Northern Badger Classic

The Falcons took on athletes from 30 different schools from across northern and central Wisconsin last Saturday at the Northern Badger Classic. Competing in 13 scored events, the girls’ squad took 16th place with a final score of 11 points and the boys’ team placed 18th after tying with Brue and Clear Lake with 8 points.

Both Abbotsford teams found themselves just outside scoring range in a number of events, but put together a number of top-ten performances.

Azul Diaz came away with the Falcons’ highest finish of the day. The sophomore placed third in the 3200-meter run, putting up a time of 14:00.35 and coming in only behind Ashland’s Adeline Bauer and Colby’s MaKenna Herrmann. Diaz also had another top ten-finish on Saturday, taking eighth in the 1600-meter run. She finished in 6:21.65.

Juniors Sydney Falteisek and Sommer Brodhagen also scored for the girls team. Falteisek earned a sixth place finish in the 55-meter hurdles. After posting a time of 9.63 seconds in the preliminaries, she put up a time of 9.95 seconds in the finals, though her first time would have also earned her sixth. Brodhagen, meanwhile, took eighth in the 55-meter with a final time of 7.95 seconds.

The Falcons also had two ninth-place finishes in field events. Celia Schindler posted a distance of 29 feet, five inches in the triple jump and Isabella Aguilera recorded a throw of 28 feet, 11 inches in the shot put, putting them just outside of the scoring range. Margo Pogodzinki also found herself just missing out on scoring with an 11th place finish in the shot put, her top throw coming in at 27 feet, 11 inches. A relay team of Falteisek, Brodhagen, Schindler and Chloe Cihlar also came in just outside the top-ten, finishing 11th in the 4x400meter relay with a time of 4:44.84.

The boys had four entries score at Saturday’s meet. The 4x400 relay team of Christian Fuentes, AJ Brodhagen, JV Castillo and Evan Reis had the highest finish for the boys’ team, coming in fifth in their event with a time of 3:52.81 and finishing neck and neck with the fourth-place Saint Charles team.

Fuentes also scored in two of his other events, taking seventh place in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.99 seconds and eighth in the triple jump with a distance of 37 feet, 11.75 inches. Brodhagen finished tenth in the triple jump with a distance of 37 feet even and Castillo took tenth in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.99 seconds.

Reis, Fuentes and Castillo all had solid performances in the 200-meter dash, with Reis taking eighth with a time of 24.26 seconds and his teammates Fuentes and Castillo taking ninth and 11th respectively. Fuentes came in with a time of 24.59 seconds and Castillo had a time of 24.95 seconds.

Marcus Bohl also had a top-ten finish for the Falcons, posting a distance of 39 feet, 10.5 inches in the shot put to take ninth place in the competition.

Marshfield Tigers Invitational

The girls kicked off their 2023 season in the Marshfield Fieldhouse on Thursday. The Falcons turned in some solid performances in their opening meet, earning 42.5 points and taking fifth place overall out of 18 teams.

The hosting Marshfield Tigers took first place with 144 points, far outpacing the rest of the field. Colby finished second with 48.5 points and the Tigers’ “B” team tied with Wittenberg-Birnamwood for third, both scoring 45 points.

The Falcons strength came in the short-distance sprints, where they had four top-five performances.

Sydney Falteisek had the best finish of the afternoon for the Falcons, claiming first place in the 60yard hurdles. The junior edged out Colby’s Hayden Willner and Marshfield’s Lucy Luedtke for the top spot in the event, defeating the pair by three-tenths of a second with a final time of 9.52. She also added a fourth-place finish in the 220-yard dash, putting up a final time of 29.88 seconds. Reese Rogowski of Wittenberg- Birnamwood cruised to a first place finish with a time of 27.35, but mere tenths of a second separated second through fifth place.

Abbotsford’s 4x160-yard relay team captured second place in an event that featured 20 separate entries. Joining Falteisek on the relay were Sommer Brodhagen, Chloe Cihlar and Calley Ruesch, who combined to finish the event in 1:26.38. Their time was second only to a Marshfield relay that finished in 1:25.54 and saw them defeating a Colby relay that had won the event last year.

Brodhagen also competed in the 60-yard dash, where she took fifth place. One-hundredth of a second separated her and fourth-place Ellie Jensen of Marshfield, coming across the line neck and neck with her opponent. Brodhagen finished with a final time of 7.76 seconds.

Azul Diaz added a top-five finish for the Falcons on the track in a long-distance event. Diaz took fifth place in the one-mile run, finishing with a time of 6:39.65.

Several Falcons also put forth solid performances in the field events. Isabella Aguilera had the meet’s fifth-best throw in the shot put, recording a throw of 30 feet, 10.5 inches. Her teammate, Margo Pogodzinski, finished immediately behind Aguilera, her longest throw of 30 feet, two and three-quarters inches good for sixth place in the event.

Celia Schindler took sixth in the triple jump. The freshman recorded a jump of exactly 29 feet, just barely missing out on a top-five finish in her first varsity meet.

Next up for the Falcons is the elite event at UWStout on Friday, March 31, which is to start at 3:30 p.m. They will have one more indoor meet next Monday, April 3 at UW-Stevens Point. This will serve as a preview of sorts to the Marawood conference meet, as all 12 Marawood teams will be present.