Pogodzinski sets new mark in Stanley-Boyd
By Nathaniel Underwood
Margo Pogodzinski added her name once again into the Abbotsford track and field annuals after breaking the school’s shot put record when the Falcons traveled to Stanley-Boyd last Friday. The girls team ended up finishing in ninth place out of 12 teams, finishing with 44 points, while the boys team took fifth overall with 53 points.
The hosting Orioles won the girls team competition, finishing with 110 points to put them over McDonell Central and Neillsville. Meanwhile, the Warriors grabbed the top spot for the boys, ending the day with 118 points, putting them just ahead of the Ladysmith and McDonell Central squads.
Pogodzinski had been close to breaking Abbotsford’s shot put record last season, coming just a few inches short of the 37 foot, half inch mark set by Makenzie Klieforth in 2016. At Abbotsford’s home meet a few days prior, the senior thrower once again nearly reached the mark with a throw of 36 feet, nine inches.
On Friday, Pogodzinski finally got over the hump. Unleashing a throw of 37 feet, 10.25 feet, she not only crushed her previous personal best but beat out Klieforth’s record throw by nearly a foot. Only Athens’ top thrower and state hopeful Sy’Rih Hartwig had a better throw in Stanley- Boyd, a three-foot difference separating Pogodzinski from Flambeau’s Reese Roehl in third place.
The record is the second that Pogodzinski holds, as she also has the longest discus throw in Falcons track and field history, a mark that she set last season. She placed third in the event on Friday, putting together a 107 foot, 10 inch performance.
Another school record holder, Carter Cihlar, also picked up an individual second place finish in Stanley-Boyd. The Falcons’ pole vaulter finished in the runner-up spot after reaching a height of 12 feet in the event. Ladysmith’s Alex Mikunda also cleared the same height, but Cihlar held the tiebreaker to earn the second place honors.
A pair of relay teams picked up their own runner-up awards, both in the 4x200meter event. The boys team of Cihlar, Jovanny Cruz, Chase Boller and Christian Fuentes posted a time of 1:36.49 to put a comfortable four-second gap between themselves and the third place Gilman re-
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GAINING MOMENTUM - Celia Schindler maintains her acceleration as she leaps towards the pit during the triple jump competition in Stanley-Boyd. The junior took sixth in the event.
ROSS PATTERMANN/THE THORP COURIER
WATERFALL START - Kamron Krueger and Gunnar Graves take off from the starting line during the 1600-meter run. The pair would finish back-to-back, taking 19th and 20th.
ROSS PATTERMANN/THE THORP COURIER New record
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lay. Meanwhile, the girls squad of Reyna Romo, Chloe Cihlar, Celia Schindler and Lauryn Harris cruised to their second place finish with a time of 1:55.72, defeating the Neillsville relay by a second and a half.
The boys team notched 20 total points in the relay events after their 4x100-meter and 4x800-meter squads both added third place finishes in their respective events. The 4x100-meter team of Cruz, Boller, Fuentes and Carter Cihlar notched a time of 45.32 seconds while the 4x800-meter team of Preston Belanger, Jack Sheahan, Gavin Reis and Miguel Bautista picked up third by finishing with a time of 9:37.95.
Fuentes and Azul Diaz also had individual third place performances for the Falcons. Fuentes grabbed his in the long jump by putting up a distance of 20 feet, 0.75 inches while Diaz picked up a third in the 3200-meter run, posting a time of 13:21.38 to do so.
Irvin Davila and Marcus VanLuven had the two fourth place finishes for Abbotsford in Stanley-Boyd. Only hundredths of a second separated fourth through seventh place in the boys’ 100-meter dash, but Davila came out with the top spot among them, putting up a time of 11.92 seconds. For his part, VanLuven defeated Bloomer’s Brian Hall by less than an inch in the shot put to come up with his fourth place finish, boasting a longest throw of 39 feet, nine inches.
Rounding out the top-five finishes for the Falcons were fifths from Diaz and Harris. Diaz added another scoring performance in the distance events, where she posted a time of 6:01.31 in the 1600-meter run, and Harris grabbed hers in the long jump, where her furthest leap measured 14 feet, 11.75 inches.
Schindler and Boller both ended the day with sixths in their respective triple jump competitions. Schindler's longest attempt measured 31 feet, 1.5 inches while Boller reached a distance of 37 feet, 5.5 inches.
Other scoring performances for the Falcons included a sixth place finish from the girls 4x100-meter relay of Harris, Schindler, Chloe Cihlar and Hazel Flink, where they finished with a time of 55.01 seconds, two seventh place finishes courtesy of Miguel Bautista-Carreon, who posted times of 56.58 seconds in the 400meter dash and 2:18.84 in the 800-meter run, and a quartet of eighth place results. Harris notched one for the girls in the 200meter dash with a time of 28.27 seconds and Chloe Cihlar had another with a time of 57.46 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles. Belanger and Caleb Kulesa picked up eighths for the boys, the former doing so in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:20.72 and the latter picking up his in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 51.15 seconds.
The Falcons will be back in action on Monday, May 19, where they will travel to Marathon for the Marawood Conference meet. The field events are set to begin at 3:30 p.m.
