Falcon girls claim top spot at Marawood Invite
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Abbotsford track and field team wrapped up their indoor season this year with an impressive performance at the Mararwood Conference Invitational held at UW-Stevens Point on Monday evening. The girls team grabbed first place while the boys squad took sixth out of the 12 teams at the event. They also had a number of athletes compete at the UW-Stout Elite Meet that was held last Thursday in Menomonie.
Marawood Conference Invite
The Falcon girls concluded the 2024 indoor season with their best team finish yet, racking up 82 points on Monday evening in Stevens Point to take the top spot. Stratford claimed second with 62 points and Marathon placed third with 57 points. While the events and conditions will be different for the outdoor Marawood conference meet in May, the first place finish for Abbotsford shows that they should be a force to reckon with when the time comes.
Sydney Falteisek notched a victory for the Falcons in the 60-meter hurdles. The senior put up a time of 10.33 seconds in the preliminaries to secure a spot in the finals with the event’s fastest time. She then beat her old time in the finals to once again claim the top spot, finishing with a time of 10.25 seconds. Teammate Oriah Harris provided even more points for Abbotsford in the event, getting into the finals with a time of 11.07 seconds before taking third by finishing in 10.70 seconds.
Falteisek also grabbed a second place finish in the high jump, where she cleared a height of four feet, eight inches. Evie Bates of Newman Catholic was the only one to record a higher jump, winning the event with a height of five feet even.
She was one of four Falcons who posted second place performances on Monday. Harris had her best result for Abbotsford in the 200-meter dash, where she was the runner- up. The freshman narrowly beat out Newman Catholic’s Mel Severson, defeating her by five-hundredths of a second with a time of 28.53 seconds.
Two Falcon athletes earned second place finishes in the field events. Celia Schindler was the runner up in the triple jump, putting up a distance of 30 feet, four-and-a-half inches in the event while Margo Pogodzinski took second in the shot put with a throw of 34 feet, one-half inch.
Schindler added another individual top-five finish by taking fourth in the 400-meter dash, posting a time of 1:05.91 and she was part of the 4x400-meter relay that took third. Schindler, Falteisek, Harris and Chloe Cihlar combined to finish the race at the 4:33.18 mark.
Cihlar picked up more points for the Falcons in the 60-meter dash, where she took seventh with a time of 8.64 seconds and in the 4x200-meter relay, where she, Falteisek, Sommer Brodhagen and Briseida Escalera took fourth in a closely contested race. The second-place Edgar relay and third-place Marathon relay narrowly edged out the Falcons, who finished with a time of 1:58.92, just tenths of a second slower than their closest opponents.
Azul Diaz posted her best time in the 1600-meter run this season in Stevens Point, finishing in 5:56.59 and earning herself fourth place for her efforts. She also took fifth place in the 3200-meter run with a time of 13:43.85.
Iris Cruz added another long distance scoring performance for the Falcons, taking fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:52.42.
The field events were a strong point for Abbotsford’s boys team in their most recent meet. Chase Boller recorded the top finish for the boys’ squad on Monday. The sophomore was in the thick of a competitive high jump event, where the top four all finished with a final height of five feet, 10 inches. Rib Lake’s Jed Henderson came away with the tiebreaker victory and Boller placed third. Teammate Grayson Totzke was one spot away from scoring for the Falcons in the event, taking eighth with a height of five feet, four inches after the two athletes in front of him tied for seventh.
Boller also added a fifth place finish in the triple jump, recording a distance of 37 feet, nine inches. Christian Fuentes grabbed fourth place in the other leaping event, his furthest jump measuring 18 feet, 11 inches in the long jump.
In the only throwing event of the day, Daniel Davila placed sixth in the shot put, his furthest toss measuring 40 feet, nine-and-a-half inches.
Warren Flink and Carter Cihlar both scored for Abbotsford in the pole vault. The pair both ended the day with a height of 10 feet even, earning themselves seventh and eighth place respectively.
On the track, Fuentes had the boys’ top finish, coming in fifth place in the 200-meter dash. The Abbotsford sophomore was only tenths of second behind the event’s winner, Assumption’s Mason Kubis, recording a time of 24.61 seconds. He also took fifth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.16 seconds and seventh in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.44 seconds.
Jack Schindler once again anchored the Falcons efforts in the long distance events, posting two more scoring performances for the boys. His time of 5:12.07 in the 1600-meter run was good for sixth place and a mark of 11:36.72 in the 3200-meter run was good for seventh place.
UW-Stout Elite Meet
A number of Abbotsford athletes also qualified to compete at the UW-Stout Elite Meet held last Thursday. The girls finished in 14th place with nine points while the boys team could not get on the board, though they only had four entries at the meet.
The girls received points courtesy of Azul Diaz, Sydney Falteiseik and Oriah Harris. Falteisek earned herself fourth place in her first high jump event of the season,
See FIRST PLACE FALCONS/ Page 16
150567
STRONG TOSS - Daniel Davila hefts his furthest throw of the day in Menomonie. He took 11th in the event.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
LONG DISTANCE, NO PROBLEM - Jack Schindler holds off Cadott’s Beau Steinke in the opening laps of the 1600-meter run at the UW-Stout Elite Meet.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
CRUISING TO THE FINISH LINE - Celia Schindler turns on the jets on the final stretch of the 400-meter dash. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD First place Falcons
Continued from page 10
posting a height of four feet, eight inches. Diaz took seventh place in the 3200-meter run with a time of 13:32.93 and Harris placed seventh in the long jump with a jump of 15 feet, one-and-three-quarters inches.
Falteisek also had a ninth place finish in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 9.79 seconds and Diaz came in 11th in the 1600-meter run.
Margo Pogodzinski came in 10th for the Falcons in the shot put, where her best throw of the day traveled 32 feet, five-and-a-half inches.
Celia Schindler came in 14th in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:06.88, Harris placed 16th in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 10.34 seconds and Chloe Cihlar finished the 55-meter dash in 8.13 seconds to place 19th. Schindler also took 20th in the triple jump, putting up a distance of 29 feet, four inches to round out the top-20 performers for the girls squad on Thursday.
Daniel Davila was the only member of the Falcon boys team to finish in the top-20 in Menomonie. The senior placed 11th in the shot put, his furthest throw measuring 40 feet, five-and-a-half inches.
With their indoor season concluded, Abbotsford will look to the beginning of their outdoor campaign. Their first meet is scheduled for next Monday, April 8 in Altoona. Field events will begin at 4 p.m. and running events will start at 4:30 p.m.
BURST OF SPEED - Chloe Cihlar crosses the finish line in Thursday’s 55-meter dash event.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
