Abby X/C improves at Marshfield, Nine Mile
Marshfield Invitational The Abbotsford Falcons traveled to Marshfield on Tuesday evening to participate in their third meet of the season. As a team, the Falcons finished 10th out of 18 participating schools, scoring a 263.
Personal bests were set across the board as each member of the team ran their fastest time of the season at Marshfield. The young Falcons team continues to grow with each meet, as evidenced by the significant leap in times.
Azul Diaz finished 44th overall with a time of 24:59.8. Iris Cruz crossed the finish line second for her team, completing the course in 26:22.7 and taking 60th place. Not far behind was teammate Valeria Aguilera-Hernandez, who finished in 62nd place with a time of 26:26.5.
Reese Molitor and Ana Flores ran nearly side by side, finishing 78th and 79th with only a second separating the two. Molitor recorded her new personal best after posting a time of 28:44.1 and Flores came in with a time of 28:45.8. Azalea Atkinson finished in 30:27.8 and Asia Atkinson finished in 31:20.3, good for 86th and 89th places.
Abbotsford’s runners are still relatively green, having only two or three meets under their belts. That being said, the progress they have made in just the first two weeks of the season is impressive and shows that the Falcons have both the talent and the work ethic to be successful. The strategy and knowledge of how to tackle the course will come with experience. The fact that they continue to get better with each meet shows head coach Dillon Novak that his team is headed in the right direction.
“It’s a good starting point for us as a team,” he said. “It seems like they are starting to gain a little confidence and figuring out how to race. I knew pace would be something that wouldn’t come naturally right away and it takes time. We are seeing definite improvement though, which is exciting.”
Marathon Invitational
The Falcons also competed in the Marathon Invitational meet last Thursday. The team traveled to Nine Mile Forest just south of Rib Mountain for the meet and took on runners from 14 other schools. The Abbotsford team finished sixth overall, with a final team score of 159. Tomahawk won the meet with a score of 30, followed by Assumption and host Marathon in second and third respectively.
Diaz led the way for the Falcons. Holding a place in the top quarter of the racers, Diaz finished 22nd overall out of 83 athletes in her first varsity race. She recorded a time of 26:06.8.
Not far behind was Aguilera-Hernandez, who finished the race in 26:47.1. This was a vast improvement over her time in the first meet of the season, where she ran a 33:02.1. This PR placed her in 27th overall.
In fact, many of the Abbotsford runners who participated in the Pittsville meet broke their personal bests by significant margins in their second meet. Cruz, who placed 30th overall and third for the Falcons, ran a 27:03.5, which was just under six minutes faster than her recorded time at Pittsville. Molitor, who placed fifth for the Falcons, recorded a time of 31:56.0, shaving off two-and-a-half minutes from her time at Pittsville and finishing 68th overall. Flores took off over two minutes from her PR to finish seventh for the Abbotsford team and 72nd overall in 32:44.2.
Azalea Atkinson and Asia Atkinson both ran their first varsity races at Nine Mile, finishing 66th and 70th overall respectively. They posted times of 31:50.4 and 32:01.6.
Next up for the Abby girls team is a meet in Colby on Saturday, which has a start time of 10:30 a.m.
