Colby girls battle with the best at Elite Meet

The Colby Hornets girls track and field team has something special going on, and if everything works out according to plan, this season could be even better than last year’s results.

And that’s saying something. The Colby girls won the Cloverbelt Conference and a regional title in 2021, and while the 2022 season has only just begun, the Hornets are already racking up impressive results.

Colby took on half a dozen D-I programs from Wisconsin, and several D-2 programs at the Elite Meet at Johnson Fieldhouse at UW - Stout on Saturday, and more than held their own, tying with Osceloa for fourth place with 35 points.

Holmen, a Division One high school program, took first with 39 points, a prize they split with Bloomington/Jefferson from Minnesota. Ladysmith was third with 38 points.

Willow Oehmichen was a huge reason for Colby’s success. Oehmichen picked up ten points after she topped the field in the pole vault competition. Along the way, Oehmichen also broke a decade long record in that event. Her cleared height of nine feet, six inches bettered Stephanie Dunleavy’s mark of nine feet, three inches that was set in 2010.

Oehmichen was not the only Hornet to have a great showing on Saturday. Senior Trinity Severson finished in the top eight in several events, placing fifth overall in the 400-meter dash in a personal best indoor time of 1:04.85.

She had another fifth place performance in the 55-meter hurdles with her time of 9.62 seconds after she recorded a personal best time of 9.44 seconds in the prelims.

Hayden Willner joined Severson in the finals of the 55-meter hurdles after she posted 9.77 seconds in the prelims. She set a new PR in the finals, cruising to 9.73 seconds for sixth place overall.

Senior Malayna Rieck had the second best individual result of any Hornet over the weekend. Rieck finished in second place thanks to a personal best throw of 36-08.50 in the Johnson Fieldhouse.

Oehmichen added one more point with her eighth place finish in the 800-meters thanks to an indoor PR of 2:38.36.

The 4x400-meter relay team finished in fourth with a time of 4:29.83. The names of those participants was not available upon publication.

Several Hornets just missed out on points, but did place inside the top ten. Senior Kaylee Podevels likely would have finished in the top four in any other meet, but with so many D-I and D-II teams competing, Podevels finished tenth in the high jump with a new indoor PR of four feet, ten inches.

Sophomore Reagan Schraufnagel recorded a new indoor personal best in the two mile with her time of 14:33.40.

The Colby girls track and field program will be back in action later this week, when they return to Marshfield for another indoor meet at Boson Fieldhouse on Thursday, April 7.

Events for the invitational are slated to begin at 3:30 p.m.