Abby boys grab sixth in Altoona, girls place 10th

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Abbotsford track and field team opened their outdoor season with a trip to Altoona on Monday. Facing up against athletes from 11 different schools, the boys team placed sixth overall with 46.50 team points while the girls squad took 10th with 40 points. Prescott took first place in both the boys and girls competitions, with the boys team finishing with 167.50 points and the girls ending the day with 119.17 points.

The jumps were where the Falcon boys found the most success, coming away with 19.5 points in such events.

Christian Fuentes took second place in the long jump, posting a leap of 18 feet, nineand- a-quarter inches to take the runner up spot. The sophomore was not far behind the event leader, as McDonell Central’s Calvin Rineck narrowly won the event with a jump of 19 feet, three-and-three-quarters inches.

Warren Flink and Chase Boller both grabbed fourth place finishes for Abbotsford on Monday. Flink tied for the spot in the pole vault, where he matched Prescott’s Chase Kinney with a height of nine feet, six inches. Meanwhile, Boller edged out Colby’s Rolyn Hopperdietzel in the triple jump, his longest attempt of the day measuring 38 feet, twoand- a-half inches.

Grayson Totzke added another top-eight performance in the jumping field events by tying for fifth in the high jump. Totzke and four other athletes all reached a height of five feet, two inches in the event.

Daniel Davila put together a solid finish for the Falcons’ throwing team, taking fourth in the shot put on Monday. His longest throw of the day measured 40 feet, two inches, putting him just behind Prescott’s David Regnier, who finished with a distance of 40 feet, three-and-a-half inches.

In addition to his second-place finish in the long jump, Fuentes also flashed his speed on the track, picking up two scoring performances in the sprinting events. The sophomore claimed third place in the 400-meter dash, putting up a time of 55.21 seconds, just beating out Prescott’s Wyatt Wrisky by a few tenths of a second for the spot. He also took fifth in the 100-meter dash, finishing the race in 12.02 seconds.

Jack Schindler picked up the team’s only top-eight finish in the distance events by grabbing sixth place in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:11.00. Irvin Aguilera added

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FINISHING STRONG - Paola Tzintzun pushes towards the end of her portion of the 4x800-meter relay.

ROSS PATTERMANN/THE THORP COURIER Abby track

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another individual scoring effort on the track by taking eighth in the 300-meter hurdles, posting a time of 50.19 seconds.

Eight of the Falcons team points came from their relay events. The 4x200-meter team of Aguilera, Jovanny Cruz, Luis Tzintzun and Emilio Escalera had the best finish of the group, posting a time of 1:46.62 to take fifth in their event.

The relays were where the girls team found the most success, with 14 of their 40 points coming in such events.

The 4x100-meter relay of Faith Sperl, Oriah Harris, Briseida Escalera and Riley Podevels posted the fastest time in the event’s first heat and took third overall, completing the race in 57.65 seconds, beating out Cumberland’s relay by mere tenths of a second. The 4x200-meter relay of Harris, Escalera, Podevels and Sydney Falteisek found similar success, claiming fourth by once again besting the Cumberland relay by three tenths of a second with a time of 2:01.05. The 4x800-meter relay of Esmeralda Altamirano, Lynxa Olson, Mose Ochoa and Paola Tzintzun also scored for the Falcons, taking sixth with a time of 13:05.00.

Margo Pogodzinski put forth a pair of top-eight performances for Abbotsford on Monday. The junior thrower took third in the discus with a throw of 93 feet, nine inches and then came away with a fifth place finish in the shot put, her best throw of the day measuring 30 feet, five inches.

Harris also claimed third place for the Falcons in Altoona, putting up a leap of 15 feet, four-and-three-quarters inches in the long jump. Falteisek picked up another five points by taking fourth in the high jump, clearing a height of four feet, eight inches.

The pair went back to back in the 100-meter hurdles, where Falteisek took sixth with a time of 18.54 seconds and Harris came in seventh with a time of 18.80 seconds.

Both squads will be back in action on Thursday, April 11 when they take on 10 other area teams in Gilman. Start time for the meet is set for 4:15 p.m.