Abby girls have strong track and field debut

The Abbotsford Falcons girls track and field team posted a pair of excellent results last week as they began their 2022 track and field season.

The Falcons travelled to their first indoor meets in over two years, competing in Marshfield on Thursday, and Menomonie on Saturday.

Marshfield

It’s a younger Falcons squad that journeyed to the Boson Fieldhouse at Marshfi eld High on Thursday for the 2022 Marshfield Tigers Girls Invite.

Colby won Thursday’s meet with 89 points, followed by Marshfield with 79 points and Stratford in third with 58 points. Abbotsford shared seventh place with Pittsville after both teams tied with 34 points.

Freshman Chloe Cihlar showed her speed, racing out to fourth place in the 55-meter dash in 7.90 seconds. Sophomore Sommer Brodhagen did not score points, but did finish inside the top ten, crossing the line in 8.18 seconds for tenth.

Azul Diaz added another tenth place in the one mile, finishing the race in a time of 7:03.80. The Falcons saw two athletes score points with a pair of top eight performances in the 60-meter hurdles.

Bridgett Pogodzinski and Sydney Falteisek were third and sixth respectively in times of 10.22 and 10.62 seconds. Kelsey Rueden was one spot short of scoring after she placed ninth in the high jump with a cleared height of four feet, four inches.

Falteisek scored six points with her third place finish in the triple jump after she soared 30 feet, 1.5 inches. Margo Podgodzinski and Dana Bloch were inside the top ten in the shot put. M. Pogodzinski was eighth overall with her throw of 29 feet, 4.75 inches. Bloch was tenth with her throw of 27 feet, 9.5 inches.

Northern Badger

The Falcons joined the Hornets in Menomonie on Saturday, also choosing to take part in the Northern Badger - Small Schools Invite on UW - Stout’s campus.

The Falcons, Unity and Marathon all earned eleven points to tie for 14th place. The meet featured many of the best sprinters, throwers and jumpers that Wisconsin has to offer in Division - III, so while many Falcons set personal bests on Saturday, points were hard to come by.

Freshman Chloe Cihlar scored two points after she placed seventh in the fi- nals of the 55-meter dash in 8.04 seconds. Sophomore Sydney Falteisek was fourth overall in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.82 seconds.

Abbotsford’s 4x400 relay team took seventh place in 4:45.22, but names of those athletes were not available upon publication. Falteisek recorded another top eight performance in the triple jump thanks to a distance of 29 feet, 7.5 inches, which was good enough for seventh.

The Falcons will be back at UW - Stout this Friday, with events starting at 3:30 p.m. at the Johnson Fieldhouse.