Contributor: The Nerd
The week ended March 26 featured a mix of three types of meets: (a) some final indoor meets for mostly Class A schools at Doane, UNK, Wesleyan, USD and Mount Marty, (b) relay-focused meets that included very few individual running events, and (c) the first full week of outdoor meets for Classes B through D. We'll do our best to summarize the week.
Results and this week's meets
We have results links for a whopping 29 meets at our page at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/trackresults. We are still trying to track down results for four meets: Arlington/Blair dual (3/24), Ponca (3/24), Palmyra triangular (3/25) and Central City (3/26). If you have results for any of those meets, please e-mail me at jayslagle@hotmail.com.
The results page includes 26 meets scheduled for this week, but we know that there are many more out there. If we know about a meet, it's a lot easier to dig for the results. If you know of a meet that isn't listed, shoot us an e-mail with the location, date and which team you're supporting.
And then there were three
We're only two weeks into the official track season and we now have three girls with sub-5:00 1600 performances. Stella was the most recent to do it, running 4:57.63 at the Doane Indoor meet to join Jaci Sievers and Elli Dahl in this elite club of Nebraska prep athletes that now numbers 17:
1 Elizabeth Lange, Lincoln Pius X, 4:49.3, 2003
2 Erin Lee, York, 4:49.6, 2016
3 Aubree Worden, Scottsbluff, 4:50.06, 2011
4 Emily Sisson, Millard North, 4:51.42, 2008
5 Katie Spencer, Millard South, 4:55.18, 2015
6 Jenny Stricker, Lincoln Southeast, 4:55.6, 1981
7 Jaci Sievers, Elkhorn South, 4:56.31, 2022
8 Anne Shadle, South Sioux City, 4:56.40, 2000
9 Taylor Somers, Millard South, 4:57.58, 2016
10 Stella Miner, Omaha Westside, 4:57.63, 2022
11 Donna Spickelmier, Hayes Center, 4:58.06, 1985
12 Sara Ensrud, Gering, 4:58.14, 2003
13 Elli Dahl, Fremont, 4:58.81, 2022
14 Meredith Snow, Millard West, 4:58.89, 2003
15 Pam Willey, Lincoln East, 4:59.54, 1984
16 Shona Jones, Hastings, 4:59.60, 1984
17 Karlene Erickson, Wheeler Center, 4:59.78, 1982
We were on site for Stella's race and posted video of the entire race at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2oj-SrVmcE. That video also includes Gabe Hinrich's 4:18 1600, which Nerd the Third (4:23 high school PR) and I (4:53) felt was the easiest-looking 4:18 we've seen.
Boy's 1600 marks
We've focused on the girls' 1600 quite a bit this season, for good reason, but we've listed below what we below are the 15 fastest 1600's in Nebraska history. The NSAA recognizes Milo Greder as the state record holder with his 4:09.84 in May 2017, while the listing we inherited includes a 4:09.29 mile (converts to 4:07.84 1600) run by Millard North's Brian Turner in June 1998. (Turner's best in-season time was a 4:10.80 1600, so either way he's in the top three all time.)
1 Brian Turner, Millard North, 4:07.84, 1998 (converted)
2 Milo Greder, Omaha Westside, 4:09.84, 2017
3 Colby Wissel, Kearney, 4:10.44, 2004
4 Danny Aldaba, Fremont, 4:12.24, 2012
5 Gabe Hinrichs, Elkhorn South, 4:12.40, 2021
6 Mo Hamden, Lincoln North Star, 4:13.59, 2013
7 Brandon Jessop, Kearney ,4:13.6, 1997
8 Ty Hansen, Fremont, 4:13.71, 2015
9 John Nownes, Creighton Prep, 4:13.90, 2015
10 Nate Nielsen, Lincoln Southeast, 4:13.94, 1987
11 Ben Delay, Bellevue West, 4:14.11, 2004 (converted)
12 Liem Chot, Lincoln North Star, 4:14.14, 2021
13 Daniel Romary, Lincoln Northeast, 4:14.28, 2021
14 Seth Hirsch, Millard West, 4:14.34, 2017
15 Lynn Hall, Grand Island, 4:14.52, 1970 (converted)
While I was researching for this article, I ran across a website last updated in 2015 that lists the best 1600/mile times in Nebraska history. It doesn't list converted times, but it was still interesting to see the list at https://www.angelfire.com/ne/huskertrackmag/boysmilelist.html. It also has a link to the fastest girls' 1600/mile times through 2015.
This is a long-winded way of sharing the names of the prep giants still sitting ahead of Gabe Hinrichs on the all-time charts. Will any of the Fremont, Millard West and Gretna also boys make it onto the top 15 this season? We can't wait to find out.
Competitive races ahead?
Last week Stella and Gabe both led their entire races and were alone for the last 800 meters. What could our high-level distance runners do if they were pushed? Well, we might find out on Friday for at least the boys.
Columbus is hosting its annual meet, and participating schools include Papio South, Omaha Burke, Elkhorn South, Fremont boys (but not the girls), GI, Kearney and Millard West. This could be one of just three meets that the Elkhorn South and Fremont boys cross paths this year (State and possibly Harold Scott), so we should see Gabe should facing a solid line-up of Fremont and Millard West boys in whatever race he runs. (The rumor mill says the 1600 will be loaded.) We also expect to see Juan Garcia (GI), Deavion Deleon (Papio South) and a host of other strong distance runners. The current forecast calls for 15 mph winds under partly-cloudly skies - not perfect but not bad for early April - and great competition usually drives great results.
We'll have to wait longer for the top girls to match up. If it works out, we might see Jaci, Stella and Elli compete against each other at the Harold Scott meet later in April.
Greatness inspires greatness?
Nerd Junior was a year behind Seth Hirsch in high school, and my initial impression was that it had to be pretty deflating to be a high school runner in the Hirsch era. After all, how could the other runners be as motivated when they knew they were running for second place? However, Milo Greder's ascension as an elite runner made me realize that when a Nebraska athlete achieves greatness, it often serves as a road map for other athletes to do the same.
I was thinking about this as I watched the Creighton women advance to the Elite Eight this week. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but Creighton's historic run came in the second year of UConn's re-entry into the Big East. Creighton went 0-and-4 against UConn the past two seasons, but I wonder how much those games helped prepare Creighton for this year's NCAA tourney. After coming within 8 points of UConn earlier this winter, perhaps it gave Creighton the confidence and motivation to excel in the tourney.
And now we have this year in Nebraska T&F. Incredible distance runners. Dajaz DeFrand. A host of impressive throwers for both boys and girls. Two triple jumpers less than a foot away from joining the top-10 all-time list.
It's going to be a helluva season.
Speaking of greatness
One of our goals this year is to track down every one of Carson Noecker's performances, and we made a connection this morning that should ensure that. Carson is a three-time Class C XC state champ (running for Hartington-Newcastle) and the defending Class C 3200 champ (wearing the Hartington Cedar Catholic kit). To our knowledge, he's only lost two races in his school career. After a low-key 'practice meet' last week at Ponca where official results weren't kept, Carson started the 2022 season off with a bang yesterday. He ran a 2:05 4x800 split, a 4:30 1600, and then finished his day with a 9:22 3200. That 3200 mark is the second fastest of the season among all Nebraska boys, just behind the 9:15 that Fremont's Carter Waters ran at an open meet in February.
Want to know more about Carson? To our knowledge, we're the only statewide outlet to interview him. We caught up with him last October as part of our pre-State review. Here's that article, which also includes phenoms Keeli Green of Arlington, Lindee Henning of Ogallala and Luke Bonifas of Adams Central.
The delayed impact of three-sport athletes
We're all on board for three- or four-sport athletes, but keep in mind that winter sports often lead to slow starts in the spring. While it's not as much of a factor in Class A, most of the top T&F athletes in Classes B through D were still in basketball or wrestling until late February or early March. For example, Class D XC runner-up Trevor Kuncl was playing in the State basketball tourney on the second weekend in March, so his 1600 and 3200 times aren't going to be sharp until late April or early May. Keep that in mind as you evaluate early-season results.
Varsity performances at JV meets
As we look for notable performances each week, we also review JV results. A few jumped out at us this week:
Jarrett McQueen, Papio South, 15.79 110HH
Ian Lewis, Papio South, 23.14 200
Kyrell Jordan, Bellevue West, 23.4 200
Elle Heckenlively, Gretna 5-04 HJ
Justice DeWitt, Bellevue West, 25.6 200
I'm predicting a few call-ups to the varsity squad this week.
Photos - yep, we got 'em
Last week we hit two meets - the Class A Doane indoor meet on Friday and the Class B/C Boys Town indoor meet on Saturday. We upload photos to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/preprunningnerd. We do have few guidelines for our photos:
If you're an athlete, family member, friend or school, you can share and/or download the photos and use at your discretion. We'd appreciate a photo credit if you post on social media or Strava.
If you're on the high school yearbook staff and want to use a photo, DM us or send an e-mail and we'll arrange for you to get the high-resolution version.
If you're a media member, paid or unpaid, we ask that you contact us for consent to use our photos. Over the past year, we've shared our photos with with local newspapers and television stations, as well as national TV outlets (NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America) and websites (The Stride Report and many others). It's an unusual hobby to be sure, but the Nerd team devotes about 60 hours a week in-season to covering T&F. Consequently, we're a bit protective about other media outlets using our photos without our permission.
Notable performances
We've reviewed results from all 32 meets listed on our website and tried to pick out a few that jumped out at us. These aren't necessarily the three, four or five best performances of all classes - in some instances we found some exceptional marks by Class B, C or D standards that needed to be pointed out. We likely missed a few, so we apologize for that. In terms of notable performances, we compiled a cheat sheet by Class that helps us understand when athletes are performing well.
The marks below are all great, but one that stuck out to us was the 25.87 200 run by Story Rasby of Sutherland. Story is a freshman who was running incredibly well at the start of the XC season before she was injured. Her versatility to excel from 200 to 5000 meters could make for an exciting high school career.
Gage Griffiths had a great week, combining a 58-05 shot put with a 169-07 discus throw. Jacob Horner of Elkhorn North ripped off a season-best 300H and the fourth-fastest 110H of the young season. Grace Mustard of Columbus Scotus ran a season-best 15.00 in the 100H, a few hundreths of a second ahead of Kate Campos of Pius and Adrianna Rodencal of Lincoln Lutheran.
Boys
60 - Dominic Sedlacek (Gretna) - 6.93, Jaylen Lloyd (O Central) - 6.94, Connor Bradley (Southern) - 7.11
60H - Noah Smith (Gretna) - 8.32 (2022 best), Keaton Wattier (O'Neill) - 8.53
100 - Vince Genatone (North Platte) - 10.94, Hunter Stewart (Lexington) - 11.00
110H - Evan Shepherd (Ashland Greenwood) - 15.16, Caden Joneson (North Platte) - 15.44, Rhett Cullers (Chadron) - 15.46, Jacob Horner (Elkhorn North) - 15.46, Tony Berger (Riverside) - 15.50
200 - Caden Denker (David City) -22.44, Dominic Sedlacek (Grena) -22.75 (indoor), Quentin Moss (Lexington) - 22.80, Ian Lewis (Papio South) - 23.14, Ryan Kirby (St. Paul) - 23.29, Dillon Miller (Brady) - 23.36, Kyrell Jordan (Bellevue West) - 23.40
300H - Jacob Horner (Elkhorn North) - 41.50, Dane Miller (Superior) - 41.58, Easton Fries (Chase County) - 42.05, Rhett Cullers (Chadron) - 42.24, Carson McCleary (Red Cloud) - 43.30, Aydan McDonald (Gordon-Rushville) - 43.46, Owen Kaps (Bertrand) - 43.60
400 - Mitch Deer (Sidney) - 50.68, Conner Wells (St. Paul) - 50.86, Mitchell Rudie (Platteview) - 51.80, Caden Denker (David City) - 52.29, Wesley Okafor (Westside) - 52.34 (indoors), Devon Carel (Fairbury) - 52.69, Alex Leuenberger (Waverly) - 52.93 (indoors), Jace Freeseman (Gordon-Rushville) - 53.27
800 - Sam Kirchner (Millard West) - 2:00.90, Conner Wells (St. Paul) - 2:02.72, Daniel Bashtovi (Sidney) - 2:06.94, Tanner Cooper (Norris) - 2:07.91, Logan Lebo (Lincoln Lutheran) - 2:10.95
1600 - Gabe Hinrichs (Elkhorn South) - 4:18.51, Isaac Ochoa (Norfolk) - 4:29.57, Ethan Walters (Elkhorn) - 4:44.52, Cameron Brauer (Sidney) - 4:44.75
3200 - Colby Erdkamp (Gretna) - 9:45, Grant Wasserman (Lincoln North Star) - 10:05, Christian Naujokaitis (Millard West) - 10:06 (29-second PR), Mesuidi Ejerso (South Sioux City) - 10:21, Ty Schlueter (Ainsworth) - 10:26, Nathan Nottingham (Seward) - 10:27
LJ - Jaylen Lloyd (Omaha Central) - 22-05.5, Reece Grosserode (Pius) - 22-04.5, Tony Berger (Riverside) - 22-00.5, Preston Witulski (Beatrice) - 21-07, Logan Havlicek (McCook) - 21-04.25, Carson Staehr (Aurora) - 21.04-25, Myles Sadd (Doniphan Trumbull) - 21-02.5, Ben Hunzeker (LSW) - 21-01.5, Gavin Sullivan (Pierce) - 20-08.75, Carter Nelson (Ainsworth) - 20-08.75, Beau Lee (NC Lourdes) - 20-08.25
TJ - Reece Grosserode (Pius) - 47-10, Adam Dugger (McCook) - 45-02.5, Carson Staehr (Aurora) - 45-01.25, Tony Berger (Riverside) - 43-07, Beau Lee (NC Lourdes) - 42-01.25
HJ - Micah Biltoft (Sandy Creek) - 6-07, Carter Nelson (Ainsworth) - 6-06, Jessie Cauble (Millard West) - 6-04, Sawyer Dickman (Sidney) - 6-04, Cooper Girmus (Friend) - 6-02, Nolan Studley (Hastings) - 6-02
PV - Branson McDonald (McCook) - 14-06, Kalen Knott (Seward) - 14-00, Drew Sellon (Fremont) - 14-00, Jack Oettinger (North Platte) - 13-06, Jose Feldman (Lincoln East) - 13-00, Owen Kaps (Bertrand) - 13-00, Carson Marking (Columbus) - 13-00
SP - Gage Griffith (Aurora) - 58-05, Nic Davis (North Platte) - 57-00.5, Joe Kieny (Creighton Prep) - 56-07.5, Jay Ballard (Boys Town) - 53-08.75, Sam Cappos (Lincoln East) -53-03, Sebastian Kramer (Medicine Valley) - 52-05.5, Arden Jenkins (Bellevue West) - 51-10, Brogan Nachtigal (FC Sacred Heart) - 50-03
Discus - Gage Griffith (Aurora) - 169-07, Nic Davis (North Platte) - 160-03, Seth Schnakenberg (Superior) - 153-09, Caiden Frederick (Papio) - 153-05, Joe Kieny (Creighton Prep) - 153-01, Cale Bessler (Crete) - 152-08, Sam Cappos (Lincoln East) - 151-04, Carson Lavaley (Wahoo) - 144-06, Sebastian Kramer (Medicine Valley) - 142-02
4x400 - Fremont - 3:30
4x800 - Millard West - 8:10
Girls
60 - Zakeirah Johnson (Burke) - 7.79, Grace Pham (Papio South) - 8.01, Elizabeth Wemhoff (Columbus) - 8.03, Zelie Sorensen (O'Neill) - 8.08, Emily Penne (South Sioux City) 8.14
100 - Makai Baker (Cozak) - 12.30, RaeAnn Thompson (Falls City) - 12.67, Morgan Mahoney (Beatrice) - 12.78
100H - Grace Mustard (Columbus Scotus) - 15.00, Kate Campos (Pius) - 15.02, Adrianna Rodencal (Lincoln Lutheran) - 15.19
200 - Justice DeWitt (Bellevue) - 25.6 (in a JV race!), Lademi Davies (Omaha Westside) - 26.08 (indoor), Story Rasby (Sutherland) - 26.67, Ella Gardner (Superior) - 26.95
300H - Adrianna Rodencal (Lincoln Lutheran) - 46.32, Paige Horne (Scottsbluff) - 48.27, Grace Mustard (Columbus Scotus) - 50.20
400 - Brynn McNair (Chase County) - 1:00.62, Sadie Millard (Millard West) - 1:00.72 (indoor), Shawna Wilkinson (McCook) - 1:00.79, Brooke Rose (Gretna) - 1:00.82 (indoor), Carli Bailey (Ansley Litchfield) - 1:01.36, Jessie Bertrand (Axtell) - 1:02.50
800 - Jaci Sievers (Elkhorn South) - 2:18.60, Sydney Stodden (Elkhorn North) - 2:25.44, Maeli Meier (Overton) - 2:29.80
1600 - Stella Miner (Omaha Westside) - 4:57.63, Claire White (Omaha Westside) - 5:15, Brynn Hirschfeld (York) - 5:22, Keeli Green (Arlington) - 5:35
3200 - Sydney Beaudin (Millard West) - 11:44, Julia Karmazin (Elkhorn North) - 11:52, Kassidy Stuckey (York) - 11:56, Alexus Sindelar (Pierce) - 12:11
LJ - Lademi Davies (Omaha Westside) - 18-04, Ella Gardner (Superior) - 17-07, Keeli Green (Arlington) - 17-04.5, Kamdyn Stanley (Syracuse) - 17-00.5, Hanning Dunning (Doniphan Trumbull) - 16-11, Lilee Kaasch (Millard South) - 16-10.25, Leah Hatch (Sandy Creek) - 16-08.5
TJ - Avery Couch (David City) - 36-08.75, Lilee Kaasch (Millard South) - 36-04, Macy Richardson (Sterling) - 35-09.25, Adysen McCarter (Overton) - 35-04, Gozie Okafor (Marian) - 35-02.25
HJ - Layla Hopkins (Millard West) - 5-05, Alyssa People (Burke) - 5-04, Karsyn Leeling (Sidney) - 5-4, Elle Heckenlively (Gretna) - 5-04 (JV meet!), Kelsey Miller (Seward) - 05-04, Brynn McNair (Chase County) - 5-03, Hannah Swearingen (Holdrege) - 5-02, Morgan Haarberg (Kearney Catholic) - 5-02
PV - Maria Kimpson (Papio South) - 11-2, Bradie Medina (Holdrege) - 10-06, Savannah Bishop (Elkhorn North) - 10-06
SP - Jozy Piper (Pierce) - 41-10.75, Kinsley Ragland (LNS) - 41-03, Jessica Stieb (Arcadia-Loup City) - 39-10.5, Katharine Beachler (Millard North) - 39-07.25, Nyalet Diew (South Sioux City) - 39-04, Sierra Kotschwar (McCook) - 39-02.5, Elly Piper (Pierce) - 38-07.50, Mackenzie Fleming (Fremont) - 38-01, Georgia Carroll (Millard South) - 37-07.5, Shayla Meyer (Superior) - 37-03
Discus - Shayla Meyer (Superior) - 139-10, Madison Smith (Gothenburg) - 128-06, Jessica Stieb (Arcadia-Loup City) - 128-03, McKinna Moats (Hastings) - 123-02.5, Ella Jacobson (Holdrege) - 122-10.5
Nerd Athletes of the Week
Nerd Junior launched the Nerd Athlete of the Week this week. Voting is exclusively on our Twitter account and wrapped up shortly after we publish this week's Nerdsletter. The winners for Weeks 1 and 2 were Stella Miner and Gabe Hinrichs. If you'd like to have your vote be counted, just give us a follow on Twitter and look out for the poll.
Super-jumpers Jaylen Lloyd and Reece Grosserode should be on all of your radars for future voting. Both have jumped over 47' this year. A college coach texted me this afternoon: "Triple jump is a rare event that people don't get or appreciate. Anything over 47' is a monster jump."
The Schumacher family
I tweeted this last Friday, but Clint Schumacher of Elkhorn South competed in the 4x800 at the Doane meet on Friday - less than four days after his family's house burnt down late Monday night. He returned to practice on Wednesday, received a new uniform (they lost nearly everything in the fire) that day, and let his coach know that he was ready to compete on Friday. The Elkhorn South family, and to a lesser extent the T&F community, responded in force during a GoFundMe drive. Distance runners get knocked down, but they almost always bounce back.
Nebraska Track & Field Festival
Registrations are now open for the TrackFest22 at Papio South on April 19. This meet allows competitors from all four classes to compete against one another, and it's an extremely well-run meet with sweet awards, live video and great announcing. We encourage coaches to check out the website at https://netrackfest.weebly.com/ and consider sending your best athletes to this event.
Commit list
There's been a flurry of commitments during the past week and we probably haven't kept up with them. Take a look at our commitment list at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/class-of-2022-commitment-list and then DM or e-mail us at jayslagle@hotmail.com if we're missing your favorite athlete.
Jeremy knows what he's talking about
In January I interviewed Jeremy Fischer, a US Olympics jumps coach, and he had some interesting comments about high school T&F that I included in my article. Last week I was listening to the Citius Mag podcast interview with 3X Olympian Brittney Reese here. She repeatedly name-dropped Jeremy and the impact he had on her career. If you haven't had a chance to read the Jeremy Fischer article, now is as good a time as any.
Coming up this week
Our plans are always subject to change due to school, work or practice requirements, but as of now we're planning to be on site at the Columbus meet on Friday and the Westside meet on Saturday. If it works out, we may even try to hit the 14-team Platteview Invite on Friday. Look out for Nerd Junior at Columbus and Nerd Senior at Westside; we'll be wearing Nerd gear.
If you're looking for some jumps excellence, the Westside meet will feature Jaylen Lloyd of Central and Reece Grosserode of Pius - they've both jumped over 22' and 47' this year. In addition, Lademi Davies of Westside went over 18' last week and is working on the triple jump.
We're also working on a long-form article about an exceptional athlete who has faced tremendous challenges over the past year -- the kind of challenges you would never want to face. Mrs. Nerd is out of town for a few days so that should give me some time to work on that article.
Yes, we make mistakes
Did you find any errors in this article? We know there are likely a few, so shoot us a DM on Twitter or Facebook, or e-mail us at jayslagle@hotmail.com.
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Originally written for and posted at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle.
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