03/31/26 Nerdsletter

jayslagle
2 hours ago
11 min read

Contributor: The Nerd

Louie Fritz, RIP

Running mentors come in many forms. Nerd Junior's first two mentors were his junior high coaches; one focused on celebrating the joy of running while the other kept whispering 'you can be great'. Junior was a mentor to his younger brother, and they both benefitted from the guidance of older teammates once they were in high school. As I've become more familiar with the Omaha post-grad running scene, it's been fun to watch experienced runners take novice adult runners under their wings.

As a 70-pound 7th grader, it was clear that I would never be a football star for Falls City High School. My attention turned to distance running. After an unremarkable 7th-grade track season, my older brother began coaching me by having me run laps around our block, each lap timed with a Casio stopwatch. Once the next school year started, a friend and I had a proposition for our PE teacher: could we start practicing with the high school cross country team even though we were still in 8th grade?

Our teacher, who also doubled as the high school cross country coach, agreed to let us try. For six weeks, Bob Nelson and I were at the back of every training run. As runners, we were nothing special; I suffered from exercise-induced asthma and Bob only opted out of football because he broke his collarbone with alarming regularity.

The PE teacher was a strict disciplinarian when dealing with junior high students. As a coach, however, he was quiet and thoughtful with a deep love for distance running and his athletes. At the time, we didn't know much about Mr. Fritz other than on some days he ran ten miles to school from his Verdon home, and then later in the day he'd run back home. While all of his athletes wore thick cotton socks that were standard in the early 80's, Mr. Fritz wore black nylon dress socks when he ran. He was ahead of his time.

We later learned that Louis Fritz was a legend during his time as a Peru State athlete. He owned fifteen cross country and track school records when he graduated in 1966, and his biggest achievement was his 14th-place finish at the 1965 NAIA cross country national championship when he led the Bobcats to a 3rd-place finish. When I was in high school, he was the only adult runner I knew in Richardson County, and boy did he run. He finished 72 marathons and founded the Tri-State Marathon (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska) that nearly killed me after my sophomore cross country season.

Unfortunately, he was never my coach. He retired from coaching before my freshman year. The Class of 1981 had been the Tigers best team in decades and it was fitting that he retired at his peak.

Louie Fritz passed away on March 14. He was my first running role model. My first mentor. May he rest in peace.

Another State record

Brock Bailey of Dundy County Stratton threw the shot 63-04.25 at the Southern Valley invite on Friday, topping the Class D mark of 63-01.25 set by Steve Kriewald of North Loup-Scotia at the State meet in 2000. The DCS coach has confirmed that the mark will be submitted to the NSAA this week for ratification.

If you missed last week's Nerdsletter, Chayden Hoffmaster of Cozad appeared to break the Class B long jump record with his 24-05.50 leap at the UNK indoor meet on March 20. There was initial confusion about whether an indoor mark qualified for a State record, but Cozad does plan to submit the mark. The previous mark of 23-08.25 was set by Tyler Wullenwaber of Centennial in 2009. Chayden topped the previous record again this past week, jumping 23-10.00 at Holdrege on Friday, although I'm not seeing a wind reading for that mark. Speaking of...

A primer on State records

The NSAA is responsible for certifying and compiling State records. The most updated list is located at https://secure.nsaahome.org/nsaaforms/tr/staterecords.php.

Each season I receive DMs and e-mails telling me about a phenomenal result in a sprint race or the horizontal jumps. My usual reply: "was it wind legal?" The usual response: "I don't think they measured it."

As we dive into the outdoor season, this is our annual reminder that a wind reading is required in five events for any performance to be considered for a State record. Here is the 'wind-legal' overview that Doane coach PJ Grosserode helped us first publish in 2023.

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A gauge called an anemometer is used to measure the advantage that the wind provides to a runner's velocity. A certified manual-start anemometer can cost as much as $350, and most timing companies have access to them. For State-record purposes, wind readings are required for the 100, 200, 100/110 hurdles, long jump and triple jump. In races the anemometer is to be set 50 meters from the finish line, 1.22 meters off the ground and no more than 2 meters from the running surface. For the two jumps, the anemometer is set 20 meters from the board, 1.22 meters off the ground and no more than 2 meters from the runway. The anemometer is used to measure the average athlete velocity displacement for a certain amount of time - for the 100/110, it's the entirety of the race, for the 200 it's essentially the straightaway, and for the jumps it's when the athlete is sprinting and jumping.

Wind readings are rounded to the nearest tenth, so a meter/second reading of 2.04 would be rounded down to 2.0. When you see race results, a wind reading of +2.5 or 2.5 reflects a tailwind while a reading of -2.5 reflects a headwind. If there is no wind reading (or 'NWI') next to a mark, that means a wind reading wasn't taken. If the average wind reading is 2.0 or lower, the performance is 'wind legal.' If the average is 2.1 or above, it's not wind legal and isn't eligible for a State record.

Is the wind reading synonymous with the wind miles-per-hour we see on weather apps? Google has links to several calculators, and the one I referenced says that 2.0 meters/second is equivalent to a wind speed of 4.5 miles per hour. (Last Friday the average wind speed at the UNK collegiate meet was over 20 miles per hour, and the meter/second reading ranged between 4.0 and 8.0 for most of the events where it was measured.) However, because the anemometer captures a very brief span of time - generally 15 seconds or less - there might be a lull in wind velocity that would allow for a wind-legal mark on a day that featured gusts of 25 mph. The presence of nearby buildings or hills can also amplify or block winds.

Wind also plays a key part in the pole vault. In 2022 I asked the Concordia jumps coach whether pole vaulters have higher jumps indoors or outdoors. He responded that crosswinds typically reduce pole vault performance, but a reasonable tailwind can lead to higher jumps at outdoor meets. However, the pole vault isn't subject to wind readings.

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So if you're a coach of a great athlete, what's the moral of this story? Coordinate with meet hosts to ensure that either the timing company or someone else is responsible for taking and recording anemometer readings. Your school may have to pay for the anemometer, but that's a small price to pay when a record is on the line.

Performers of the week

We reviewed all of last week's meet results at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/trackresults to find some of the best performances of the week. A few athletes caught our eye:

GINW junior Ethan Smith won the 1600 and 3200 at Aurora on Friday, posting the second-fastest 1600 of the week in 4:22.98 and the fastest 3200 in 9:46.81.
Dakota Keil, a junior high jumper at Creighton Prep, cleared 6-00 once as a sophomore; his second-best finish in his six other meets was 5-09. On Monday he competed at the Millard West JV meet and cleared 6-06. He ended the week with a 6-00 win at Millard North on Saturday.
In a match-up of two defending State champions in the 800, Class B champ Emma Steffensen of Waverly and Class A champ Alexis Chadek of Papio LaVista ran 2:14.58 and 2:16.94 at Thursday's Doane indoor meet. These are blazing 800 marks for an indoor meet in March. Emma has committed to UNL and Alexis has committed to Washburn.

Mia Cushing, Elkhorn (white singlet, black undershirt)
Mia Cushing, a sophomore at Elkhorn, posted the fastest 100 (12.03) and 200 (25.26) races of the season competing at the DC West meet on Friday. She also ran the anchor leg on Elkhorn's 50.25 4x100 relay, which is also the second-fastest time of the young season.
The 'live' results from Tuesday's DC West meet haven't made it to the athletic.net rankings yet, but Arlington freshman Neva Bauer posted an 11:27 3200 in a race that featured only one other competitor. Neva finished 12th in State XC and is off to a strong start on the track.
Carter Ribble, an 8th-grader at Beatrice, ran 2:16 (800) and 4:43 (1600) at the Beatrice/Ralston dual last Thursday. He ran 2:10/4:41 at the Doane indoor meet in January after finishing 2nd at the State junior high XC meet in October. If he was in high school, his 4:43 would be ranked in the top 10 in Class B two weeks into the season.

Titan Classic 1600

We teased this last week but we have more information on the girls' 1600 race that will be held at the Papio South meet on Thursday, April 16. As of today, the following girls are expected to be in this race:

Emily Hegge, Papio South, PR 4:55, 2025 Class A State XC champ
Cece Kramper, Roncalli/Duchesne, PR 4:57, 2025 Class B State XC champ
Avery Arens, Crofton, PR 5:04, 2025 Class D State XC champ
Brianna Reilly, Harrisburg (SD), PR 4:46, 2025 SD Class AA State XC champ
Hannah Genrich, Harrisburg (SD), PR 4:56
Ashlyn Carter, Papio South, PR 5:10, 2025 Class A State 7th place

While Papio South has reached the maximum number of teams for the meet, coach Jeremy Haselhorst will be reaching out to a few other schools to fill out the field of twelve girls, with a PR of 5:15 likely needed to get into the field. The 1600 is going to be moved to later in the meet to be run under the lights. Competitors will be introduced one at a time, some of the stadium lights will be dimmed, and fans will be allowed to stand in lanes 5-8 on the homestretch and backstretch.

For reference to State records, Crofton competes in Class C during the track season:

Class A: Stella Miner, Omaha Westside, 4:47.49, 2024

Class B: Aubree Worden, Scottsbluff, 4:50.06, 2011

Class C: Rylee Rice, Ainsworth, 5:05.25, 2017

South Dakota Class AA: Alea Hardie, O'Gorman, 4:45.33, 2022

Results

You can find results to nearly all of last week's meets at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/trackresults. We do our best to track down every result we can find, which is why we also include junior high and collegiate results that make their way to the internet.

Photos

We had about a dozen Nerds out in the wild last week and their albums are being posted on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums.

All of Nerds have jobs and families so they edit photos when they have time, which is why photos are usually posted two to seven days after a meet. If you're looking photos from a specific meet, you can go to https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022 to see if your meet is listed. We don't update the website as often as the Facebook page, but the website is a helpful resource is you're trying to find a meet that was held over a week ago. Here are examples of albums posted since last week:

College of St. Mary, 3/21/26 (Royal Nerd)

Perkins County, 3/26/26 (Nerd Stammpede)

Douglas County West, 3/27/26 (Nerd Senior)

Top performances

We'll get our results database running in a few more weeks. Until then, we're compiling a list of the top performances from each week's meet results to share with you.

Boys

100

Caleb Niedhardt, JR, North Platte, 10.55

Mason Giebler, SR, NPSP, 10.71

Bryson Snider, SR, Cozad, 10.80

110 hurdles

Beau Fujan, SR, Bishop Neumann, 14.22

Le’Brian Clay, JR, Lincoln North Star, 14.90 (JV)

Michael Obermiller, SR, Grand Island, 14.90

200

Caleb Niedhardt, JR, North Platte, 21.78

Liam Jensen, SO, Ashland-Greenwood, 21.87

Evan Svoboda, JR, Norfolk, 21.91indoor

300 hurdles

Noah Sagehorn, SR, Fremont, 40.19

Kevin Garcia Guzman, Dundy County Stratman, 40.23

Esteban Arcos, JR, Columbus, 40.40

400

Will Urosevich, SO, Omaha Westside, 49.14 indoor

Josh Paulsen, SR, Elkhorn South, 51.16 indoor

Logan Ferron, JR, Roncall, 51.53 indoor

800

Sam McQuistan, SO, Holdrege, 1:58.95

Zander Carson-Koestner, Elkhorn South, 2:00.01

Jack Knapp, JR, North Platte, 2:00.05

1600

Tyler Smith, SR, Lincoln North Star, 4:22.49

Ethan Smith, JR, GINW, 4:22.98

Jared Schroeder, SR, Waverly, 4:32.11

3200

Ethan Smith, JR, GINW, 9:46.81

Tyler Hetz, JR, Gothenburg, 9:51.20

Jaxon Cushing, SO, GINW, 9:53.98

4x100

Millard South, 42.50

Cozad, 43.33

Millard North, 43.40

Creighton Prep, 43.50

4x400

Syracuse, 3:32.04

Gothenburg, 3:32.29

Papio South, 3:32.46

4x800

Elkhorn South, 8:17.12

Lincoln Southwest, 8:28.52

Papio LaVista, 8:29.15

Long jump

Maurice Purify, SR, Omaha Westside, 24-00.00

Chayden Hoffmaster, SR, Cozad, 23-10.00

Jack Poppe, SR, Doniphan-Trumbull, 23-04.25

Triple jump

Jayden Slagle, SR, Aurora, 45-08.00

Trevor Duryea, SO, Anselmo-Merna, 45-06.00

Pierce Parker, SR, Bellevue West, 44-09.75

High jump

Christian Fitzgerald, SO, Lincoln Southwest, 6-08.00

Isaac Cronen, SR, Valentine, 6-08.00

Tyler Daly, SR, Platteview, 6-06.00

Dakota Keil, JR, Prep, 6-06.00

Pierce Parker, SR, Bellevue West, 6-06.00

Pole vault

Jax Richardson, SR, Gothenburg, 15-00.00

Ike Schmeckpeper, JR, Gretna East, 14-06.00

Kade Evans, JR, Millard West, 14-06.00

Byrce VanCampen, SO, Holdrege, 14-04.00

Ian Hanson, SR, Kearney, 14-03.00

Beau Wells, SO, Ord, 14-01.00

Peter Russell, SR, Aurora, 14-00.00

Shot put

Brock Bailey, JR, Dundy County Stratton, 63-04.25

Jake Brock, JR, Creighton Prep, 60-01.00

Mannox Martin, SO, Ravenna, 59-10.00

Discus

Noah Rau, SR, Chase County, 199-11

Derek Russel, JR, Aurora, 187-09

Andrew Shada, JR, Elkhorn North, 177-10

Girls

100

Mia Cushing, SO, Elkhorn, 12.03

Hazel Haarberg, SR, Kearney Catholic, 12.11

Grace Brees, JR, Seward, 12.34

Taylor McIntyre, SR, Central Valley, 12.45

Abigael Spargo, SO, Dundy County Stratton, 12.45

100 hurdles

Celia McCoy, SR, Grand Island, 14.70

Aubrey Fujan, JR, Bishop Neumann, 15.27

Shadyn Rasby, SO, Ogallala, 15.37

Zaya Lewis, JR, St. Paul, 15.42

200

Mia Cushing, SO, Elkhorn, 25.26

Anisten Wortmann, JR, Cedar Catholic, 25.39 indoor

Hazel Haarberg, SR, Kearney Catholic, 25.51

300 hurdles

Shaydyn Rasby, SO, Ogallala, 44.83

Abigael Spargo, SO, Dundy County Stratton, 45.04

Aubrey Fujan, JR, Bishop Neumann, 45.43

400

Sevyn Russell, SO, Doniphan-Trumbull, 59.00

Macie Reiner, SO, Bennington, 59.63, indoor

Layla Phillips, SR, Papio LaVista, 1:00.19 indoor

800

Emma Steffensen, SR, Waverly, 2:14.58

Alexis Chadek, SR, Papio LaVista, 2:16.94

Tatum Nielson, SR, Bellevue West, 2:17.32

Kori McClain, SR, North Platte, 2:19.84

1600

Emily Hegge, FR, Papio South, 5:06.38

Piper Petersen, SR, Lincoln Southwest, 5:15.49

Meredith Marsh, JR, Lincoln Southwest, 5:16.92

3200

Neva Bauer, FR, Arlington, 11:27.87

Maya Freyer, SO, Omaha Marian, 11:38.36

Silvy Munn, SR, Lincoln Southwest, 11:57.98

Kayleigh Betka, SO, McCool Junction, 11:59.64

4x100

Millard North, 50.10

Elkhorn, 50.25

GINW, 50.63

Central City, 50.83

4x400

Bennington, 4:03.62 indoor

Papio LaVista, 4:04.00

Bellevue West, 4:07.24 indoor

Waverly, 4:07.79

4x800

Lincoln Southwest, 9:46.42

Millard West, 10:04.84

Long jump

Marianne Forney, SO, Omaha Marian, 17-11.00

Reese Jones, JR, Grand Island, 17-11.00

Paige Gargano, FR, Bennington, 17-11.00

Triple jump

Auzlyn Anderson, SR, Omaha Westside, 37-06.00

McCartney Bazar, Omaha Westside, 37-00.50

Kiana Pierre, SO, Bennington, 36-09.50

Kipley Kuecker, JR, Lexington, 36-09.25

High jump

Claire Hellbusch, SR, Lincoln North Star, 5-08.00

Kate Hessel, SR, Millard West, 5-08.00

Pole vault

Alyssa Onnen, SR, Kearney Catholic, 12-08.00

McKenna Kleppinger, SR, Millard West, 11-06.00

Peyton Jacobsen, SO, North Bend Central, 11-00.00

Bailee Hartwig, JR, Lincoln Southwest, 11-00.00

Shot put

Kennedy Bailey, SR, Dundy County Stratton, 45-04.75

Bailey Theis, SR, Dorchester, 45-01.25

Hope Paup, JR, Central City, 44-10.75

Discus

Kennedy Bailey, SR, Dundy County Stratton, 147-06

Erin Briggs, SR, Columbus Lakeview, 145-01

Alexa Jacobsen, SR, Kearney, 141-03

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on March 31, 2026. If you find an error, shoot us an e-mail at jayslagle@hotmail.com and we'll get it fixed.

Like this coverage of the Nebraska T&F and cross country scene? There's more of this at www.preprunningnerd.com. Check out the Blog tab for our frequent stories and the Results tab for every Nebraska high school meet we can find. If you want to see meet photos or just need to kill a few hours on social media, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @PrepRunningNerd or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/preprunningnerd.

Finally, if you think runners, jumpers and throwers are the best things on earth, you'll enjoy our two most popular articles. In 2018 we published "The Runner with the Broken Heart" about a high school boy who finished last in nearly every race he ran. In 2022 we published, "The Fall and Rise of Emmett ," a story about a high school triple jumper who became a quadrapalegic after a swimming accident.