Colby starts track with a bang
Colby girls win back to back meets
The Colby Hornets girls track and field team fired some shots at their competition last week after they won their first meets of the 2022 season, the Marshfield Indoor Girls Invite, and the Northern Badger - Small School Invite.
Invite
For many Hornets, Thursday’s Marshfield Tiger Girls Invite was their first indoor meet experience. In fact, only this year’s seniors had ever taken part in an indoor meet after COVID-19 halted indoor meets in 2020 and 2021.
Even with limited indoor experience, and a slew of new faces on the team, Colby took home the trophy with a final score of 89 points, ten points ahead of second place Marshfield’s 79. Straford took third with 58 points.
While the Hornets did not have any athletes take top honors in any event, they were carried by a bevy of top eight performances. Among the best results was senior Kaylee Podevels, a two time state qualifier in the high jump. Podevels was second in the high jump with a height of four feet, ten inches.
Junior Willow Oehmichen was in second place for the pole vault with a vault of eight feet, six inches. Senior Daisy Feiten was fifth in the pole vault after she cleared seven feet, six inches.
Freshman Pearl Feiten vaulted for a height of six feet, six inches, following her sister Daisy in sixth place.
Junior Hayden Willner, took second place in the 220-yard dash with a time of 29.72 seconds. Sophomore Jazmyn Heeg was in sixth place in that same race with a time of 31.03 seconds.
Senior Malayna Rieck placed third in the shot put with a throw of 32 feet, 1.25 inches. Willner took third place in the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 3.75 inches. Senior Trinity Severson took sixth place in the long jump with a jump of 13 feet, 11.5 inches.
Freshman Makenna Herrmann placed third in the one mile race with a time of 6:17.62. Casey Reynolds was just outside of the scoring position, but did take ninth place in the one mile race with a time of 7:01.55.
P. Feiten placed seventh in the 880-yard run with a time of 3:05.17 minutes. Raegan Schraufnagel took ninth place with a time of 3:12.98 minutes. P. Feiten was eighth in the 440-yard dash with a time of 1:15.37 minutes.
The Colby Hornets girls track and field team repeated the result from Thursday night’s meet, capturing their second title of the young season, and against a deep and talented field that featured several of the best athletes that WIAA D-3 has to offer.
The Hornets came out on top in Menomonie, winning the Northern Badger - Small Schools meet with a score of 51 points, just barely squeeking past Gilman’s 50 points. Ladysmith was third with 45 points.
Just as in Marshfield, Colby carried the day by placing multiple athletes inside the top eight at the Johnson Fieldhouse at UW - Stout’s campus.
Colby’s best result came when the 4x400-meter relay was victorious in a time of 4:29.41. The names of the participants were not available upon publication.
The Hornets saw plenty of excellent performances from individual athletes on Saturday. Willow Oehmichen was fourth in the 800-meters in 2:40.85 and second in the pole vault after she cleared nine feet indoors.
Senior Daisy Feiten recorded a new personal best time in the indoor one mile race, crossing the finish line in sixth place in 5:57.34. Sophomore Reagan Schraufnagel added two points when she placed seventh in the 3,200-meter run in 14:57.94.
Trinity Severson and Hayden Willner formed a nice one-two punch in the 55-meter hurdles. Severson took second in 9.53 seconds, with Willner close behind in fifth place in 9.91 seconds.
Malayna Rieck recorded a new PR in the shot put, throwing the shot 32 feet, 2.50 inches for sixth. Kaylee Podevels added another sixth place result for Colby when she cleared four feet, eight inches in the high jump.
Severson and Willner once again were potent duo, this time in the long jump. Severson was fifth with a leap of 14 feet, 7.5 inches. Willner’s distance of 14 feet, 2.5 inches netted her eighth place, and most importantly the point that broke Colby’s tie with Gilman.
The Hornets will enjoy some time off before they return to UW - Stout and the Johnson Fieldhouse this Friday for more indoor track and field action. The events are slated to begin at 3:30 p.m.
LET’S GO! -Colby’s Malayna Riech placed third in the shot put on Thursday, March 24 in Marshfield.STAFF PHOTO/ROSS PATTERMANN
