Falcons

over three days, with D-3 on Thursday, D-2 on Friday and D-1 on Saturday. That meant the crowd’s would be smaller, but in no way did that mean the scene was any less nerve-wracking or special.

Falteisek came into La Veterans Memorial Stadium with an outside shot of cracking the top six and making podium, but he would need to run faster than ever before as he was seeded seventh.

Temps were brutal, and coupled with humidity and high winds. All three elements conspired against Ty, who finished 15th in the 400-meters in 53.31 seconds.

“I feel like the heat definitely factored in a bit, and especially the wind in that last stretch, but I feel like I should have evened out with that backstretch too.”

Nonetheless, it was an excellent learning experience, and one that Ty hopes to apply to next season.

“I always want to try and improve after each race and each event. Next year, I hope to make it back and hopefully podium with it.”

Ty shouldn’t be the only one returning to state in 2022, and he wasn’t the only Falcon to wear Abby’s colors at state this year. Sophomore Marcus Bohl joined Falteisek in La Crosse last week.

“It’s impressive Marcus made it. It was his first year doing high school track. He wasn’t even going to go out because he didn’t want to run,” Knapmiller said. “Coach Bloch deserves a lot of credit for putting the time in and giving all of his throwers the opportunity to be great!”

Bohl surprised everyone when he won the discus title at Boscobel, and his throw of 145-09 was far and away the best of his young career. In fact, it was so good that Bohl was the only underclassmen in La Crosse for the discus throw.

Bohl held his own against older competition last week, placing eleventh overall with his best throw of 134 feet. With room to grow and get stronger, the future is certainly bright for Bohl.

“It was a great way to end a strange year. Proud of all of our kids to stick it out until the end,” Knapmiller said. “The easy thing to do was to quit or not give 100 percent, but our kids that stayed with it got better because of it!”