Abby girls take first at home meet, boys fourth

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Abbotsford Falcons track and field team came up with a pair of good team performances over the past week, with the girls taking fourth in Bloomer before winning their home meet on Monday while the boys team notched a third in Bloomer and a fourth on their home turf.

Abbotsford Meet

The Abbotsford girls took first place overall on Monday night at their home meet, narrowly defeating the Stanley- Boyd Orioles for their second meet victory of the season. The Falcon girls finished with 145 points to Stanley-Boyd’s 142 while Edgar took third with 114 points. Meanwhile, the boys team placed fourth with 98.5 points. Stanley-Boyd claimed the top spot with 193 points.

The girls team found particular success on the track, finishing with at least a top-three finish in all events that they had entries in. They also had 17 top-eight finishes in the running events.

Azul Diaz, Sydney Falteisek and two relay teams all picked up wins for Abbotsford. Diaz led the way in the 1600-meter run, cruising to a 15 second victory over Elena Trevino of Stanley-Boyd with a time of 5:54.77. Teammates Iris Cruz and Ana Flores also scored for the Falcons in the event, taking third and fourth with times of 6:39.61 and 6:55.86 respectively.

Falteisek had her best performance of 2024 in the high jump, reaching a height of five feet, one inch. The season-best earned her the top spot in the event, beating out Prentice’s Kayla Gillett who cleared a height of four feet, 10 inches.

The Abbotsford senior was also part of the 4x100 and 4x200-meter teams who also took first place on Monday. Chloe Cihlar, Sommer Brodhagen and Oriah Harris, along with Falteisek, teamed up for both races, capturing the top spot in the highly competitive events. With a time of 52.95

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seconds, the squad defeated Edgar’s relay by seven tenths of a second in the 4x100-meter relay. The 4x200-meter race was even closer, with only a tenth of a second separating the Falcons’ time of 1:52.42 and the Stanley-Boyd team.

The Falcon girls added five second place finishes to their four victories. Harris, Diaz and Celia Schindler were runners- up on the track, picking up three of those second place finishes. Harris posted a time of 13.34 seconds in the 100-meter dash, trailing only Athens’ Ava Ford’s time of 13.24 seconds. Diaz had another top distance performance for Abbotsford, grabbing second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:47.95 while Schindler put up a time of 1:07.34 in the 400-meter dash for her second place finish.

Brodhagen and Margo Pogodzinksi earned seconds in the throwing events, with Brodhagen doing so in the discus with a distance of 101 feet, five inches and Pogodzinski grabbing the spot in the shot put, her furthest throw measuring 33 feet, six inches. Pogodzinski also added a third place finish in the discus with a throw of 96 feet, nine inches. Other third place finishes included Cihlar in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.09 seconds, Cruz in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:47.96 and Schindler in the triple jump with a distance of 32 feet, three inches. Schindler also had a fourth place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:50.06. Falteisek, Monse Ochoa, Marilyn Hammock and Hazel Flink rounded out the top-five finishers for the Falcons, with Falteisek taking the spot in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.72 seconds, Ochoa grabbing it in the 1600-meter run with a time of 7:02.53, Hammock posting a leap of 14 feet, three inches in the long jump to earn her fifth and Flink clearing a height of seven feet in the pole to take home her spot.

While the boys team did not have any wins at home, they did end the day with three second place finishes. Chase Boller earned his runner-up spot in the high jump, reaching a height of five feet, eight inches while Christian Fuentes added another field event second by recording a leap of 19 feet, four inches in the long jump. Jack Schindler had the boys squad’s top finish on the track with a second in the 1600-meter run, finishing with a time of 5:02.48.

Three running events concluded with thirds for Abbotsford. Schindler grabbed one in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:19.69 and Alex Sundermeyer snagged another in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.09 seconds. The 4x100-meter relay of Sundermeyer, Fuentes, Boller and Irvin Aguilera and the 4x200-meter relay of Sundermeyer, Fuentes, Boller and Emmanuel Manzanarez also finished with thirds, putting times of 47.75 seconds and 1:40.21 respectively.

Boller added another third to his resume with a leap of 36 feet, eight-and-a-half inches in the long jump while Warren Flink finished third in the pole vault with a height of 10 feet.

Manzanarez and Eduardo Acuna earned fourths for Abbotsford, with Manzanarez doing so in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.55 seconds and Acuna earning the spot in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.58 seconds. Rounding out the top-five performances were Emilio Escalera taking fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.56 seconds, Aguilera earning that same spot in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 49.01 seconds and Marcus VanLuven earning the Falcons top spot in the shot put, his toss of 38 feet, nine inches earning himAbbotsford’s final fifth place.

Bloomer Invite

The Falcons also traveled to Bloomer last Thursday to take on athletes from eight other schools. The boys team finished in third place overall with a final team score of 73 points while the girls team finished fourth with a score of 71 points.

Stanley-Boyd took the top spot in the boys competition, finishing the day with 161.5 points while Bloomer took the

See HOME MEET WIN/ Page 20

PICTURE PERFECT EXCHANGE - Sommer Brodhagen hands off the baton to Oriah Harris at Bloomer. The pair were part of the 4x100-meter relay that took third at last Friday’s meet and helped the Falcons win the event at their home meet held on Monday.

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I’VE GOT IT FROM HERE - Alex Sundermeyer receives the handoff from Chase Boller during the 4x200-meter relay in Abbotsford. The Falcons went on to take third in the event.

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Home meet win

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girls team overall win with 155.5 points.

Chase Boller had the sole event victory for Abbotsford on Thursday, edging out Jonas Dasbach of Eau Claire Regis for the top spot in the high jump. While both cleared a height of five feet, eight inches, Boller was able to do so in just one attempt while it took Dasbach three.

While the Falcons may have only had one first place finish, they finished second in eight different events. Five of those were courtesy of the boys squad, who had three athletes finish as the runner-up in individual field events and had two relays claim second place on the track. Christian Fuentes was one of three competitors who posted jumps over 20 feet in the long jump, his longest leap measuring 20 feet, eight inches. Jesus Reyes also had a solid performance for the Falcons in the triple jump, finishing second with a jump of 38 feet, 10 inches. Carter Cihlar tied with Fall Creek’s Nate Spencer in the pole vault, both earning the runner-up spot by reaching a height of 10 feet in the event.

The 4x100-meter relay of Fuentes, Reyes, Irvin Aguilera and Jovanny Cruz and the 4x200-meter relay consisting of Cihlar, Cruz, Boller and Fuentes both earned seconds, completing their races in 48.63 seconds and 1:38.77 respectively.

On the girls side, Azul Diaz, Margo Pogodzinski and Sydney Falteisek all took second in Bloomer. Diaz did so in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:56.93, Pogodzinski added one for the Falcons in the shot put with a throw of 34 feet, three-and-three-quarter inches, and Falteisek cleared the second highest height in the high jump at four feet, eight inches. Diaz and Pogodzinski also had third place finishes as well, with Diaz posting a season high time of 5:49.56 in the 1600-meter run and Pogodzinski finishing with a triple digit throw in the discus, her furthest toss measuring 104 feet, six inches.

The girls highest finishing relay, the 4x100-meter team of Falteisek, Chloe Cihlar, Sommer Brodhagen and Oriah Harris, grabbed third in their event, posting a time of 53.04 seconds.

Jack Schindler had the boys’ sole third place finish, coming in as the top boys Falcon in the 1600-meter run, with a time of 5:00.84. Other top five individual finishes included fourths from Sommer Brodhagen, who had a throw of 96 feet, six inches in the discus, Warren Flink in the pole vault with a height of nine feet, six inches and Daniel Davila in the shot put with a throw of 39 feet, three and a half inches, and fifths from Falteisek in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.97 seconds, Celia Schindler in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:05.62, and Hazel Flink in the pole vault with a height of six feet, six inches.

The Falcons will be back in action on Friday, May 3 when they travel to Stanley-Boyd. The meet is set to start at 4:15 p.m.

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DOWN THE FINAL STRETCH - Anchor Syndney Falteisek sprints towards the finish in the 4x200-meter relay. The senior helped her team take first place in the event. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD

TEAMING UP - Jack Sheahan, left, and Preston Belanger, right, keep pace with each other during the 1600-meter run on Monday night.

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD