04/28/26 Nerdsletter

jayslagle
Apr 27
15 min read

Contributor: The Nerd

3rd. Fastest. Ever.

This past weekend, in a field of mostly professional runners at the Drake Relays, UNL's Berlyn Schutz ran the mile in 4:27.30 to finish third. According to the UNL athletic department, this is the third fastest outdoor mile ever recorded by an NCAA female athlete. Cody Brousek of UNL referred me to the USTFCCA list, which reflects the top five all-time performers as:

Silan Ayyildiz, Oregon (Turkey), 4:25.50, Drake Relays, 2025

Mia Barnett, Oregon (California), 4:26.40, Drake Relays, 2025

Berlyn Schutz, UNL (Nebraska), 4:27.30, Drake Relays, 2026

Angela Chalmers, Northern Arizona, 4:29.04, Unknown meet, 1987

Leann Warren, Oregon, 4:30.36, Unknown meet, 1981

In addition, according to records maintained by Creighton coach Chris Gannon, Berlyn's time represents the fastest mile ever run by a former Nebraska high school female athlete. The previous mark was 4:27.31 by Gering alum and professional runner Sara Vaughn in 2018. If you're not familiar with Sara's long career, we have posted our 2022 interview with her at this link.

It's easy to assume that Berlyn took a straight path to this level of performance, but that's not the case. Here are her season bests for the last ten years, with her 1500- and 1600-meter races converted to mile times:

6th grade 5:10.01

7th grade 5:07.03

8th grade 4:59.20

9th grade 5:15.58 (outdoor cx'd due to COVID)

10th grade 5:23.88

11th grade 5:12.53

12th grade 4:46.77

Freshman 4:37.37

Sophomore 4:31.09

Junior 4:27.30

You'll notice that the time she posted as an 8th grader was her PB until her senior year of high school. She did not follow a linear path. She worked through three seasons of slower times before she dipped below 5:00, and that perseverance is surely one of the reasons she's excelling in college. Third fastest ever, and she's not done yet.

Drake results

We'll probably miss a few notable results, but here's a brief review of top performances at Drake from Nebraska-based athletes:

Jake Ziebarth, Creighton - He won the unseeded section of the men's 1500 in 3:50.01.
Kaleb Sharp, Nebraska - He won the unseeded section of the men's 800 in 1:51.28.
Cami Merickel, Nebraska - She won the 3000m steeplechase in 10:32.34.
Aleah Hardie, Nebraska - She won the unseeded section of the 5000 in 16:54.69.
Sage Burbach, Nebraska (Norris HS) - She won the university shot put with a throw of 52-02.75.
Donna Douglas, Nebraska - She won the discus with a throw of 186-04.
Hencu Lamberts, Nebraska - He won the shot put with a throw of 65-03.25.
Mason Kooi, Nebraska - He won the high jump at 7-01.75.
Mine DeKlerk, Nebraska - She won the championship shot put section with a throw of 57-07.75.
Keaton Wattier, Minnesota State (O'Neill HS) - He was a member of the squad that won the University division of the 4x110 shuttle hurdles event.
Ela Velepec, Nebraska - She won the high jump at 06-00, edging Karsyn Leeling (Sidney) on jumps.
RaeAnn Thompson (Falls City), Tania Gleason (Fremont), Elizabeth Wemhoff (Columbus) and Neryah Hekl (Lincoln High) of Doane - They won the collegiate 4x100 in 45.82.

Rankings and results

Our rankings spreadsheet is struggling to stay alive as athletic.net adds more layers of security to prevent their data from being extracted. Nerd Junior found a fix this morning and so the data is updated for performances through Saturday. If things get any worse, we may need to reach out to our Northwestern IT guru to see if she can help us fix it. The rankings continue to be available at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings and provide All-Class and Class-specific rankings, as well as projected State points races.

We continue to update our results page at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/trackresults with links to each meet's results. The week's upcoming meets are also listed there, and that's the list we share with Nerds to see if they plan on shooting a meet. When possible, we will add a note if a Nerd is expected to be a particular meet. Jobs, life and weather can mess up those plans, but the Nerds are pretty darn reliable considering their only payment is a lousy t-shirt.

Sub-2:00

In a rare example of running news crossing over into mainstream news, you've probably already heard that Sebastian Sawe of Kenya became the first man to break the two-hour barrier in a record-eligible marathon when he won the London Marathon this past weekend with a time of 1:59.30. The previous record was 2:00:35. Two other men in the race also broke the previous record, with Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha also breaking the elusive barrier with his 1:59.46.

Nike spent millions of dollars in 2019 to help Eliud Kipchoge break the two-hour barrier on a loop circuit in Vienna that include rotating pacers and draft cars. Ironically, despite Nike's leadership in the development of super shoes, both Sawe and Kejelcha were outfitted in Adidas gear.

In anticipation of this record attempt, Adidas paid $50,000 for additional drug testing for Sawe in the lead-up to this race to overcome any allegations that Sawe's record was aided by doping. Sadly, dozens of high-performing African distance runners, often linked to the same few managers, have been suspended for doping violations after posting exceptional marks in recent years. The most prominent example may be Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya, who was suspended in July 2025, just nine months after she set the marathon world record of 2:09:56 at the Chicago marathon.

The cynics will say that the $50,000 in drug testing just allowed Sawe's team to better know which doping tools wouldn't trigger a positive test. However, if this performance doesn't pass muster, I'm not sure that we can ever trust the validity of a world-record mark.

Middle school Monday

Each Monday we ask our social media followers to give shout outs for middle school athletes who had great performances last week. Here are a few athletes who were mentioned:

Boys

Foster Stone, an 8th grader at Laurel-Concorde-Coleridge, threw the discus 170-06 at his home meet; he has the State junior high lead by almost eleven feet. (If you were wondering how this compares to high school marks, per my friends at Wisner-Pilger, junior high athletes and high school girls use a 1.0 kg discus while high school boys use a 1.6 kg discus.) Foster also broke the LCC school record with a shot put of 48-05.50.
Thomas Wilcoxson, an 8th grader at Gretna, threw the shot 51-11 today (4/27) and leads the state by over three feet. He also threw the discus 159-10 on Friday and ran the 100 in 12.2. He's the grandson of the Wilcoxsons who have run the State shot put competition for decades.
Gage Thomas (8th grade) of Raymond Central and Levi Bowen (7th) of Fort Calhoun both dipped under five minutes in the 1600 on Saturday at Fort Calhoun, running 4:53.33 and 4:53.42, respectively. There are currently five Nebraska JH boys under 5:00 this season.
Trevor Stott of Kearney Horizon ran a 2:05.46 800 and a 54-second 4x400 split as part of Horizon's 3:52.28 at Kearney on Thursday.
Ryder Ruff, an 8th grader at Sutherland, cleared 12-09 in the pole vault last Tuesday at Sutherland.
Graham Jansen, an 8th grader at Gretna, took the season lead in the long jump with his 20-04 on Friday.

Girls

Edie Sutton of Mary Our Queen in Omaha won three events at Saturday's PAL meet with her times of 12.53 (100), 25.70 (200) and 1:00.36 (400). She's ranked in the top three in State in all of these events.
Jenna Dahl of Fremont posted times of 2:29.9 (800) and 5:37.18 (1600) at, respectively, Fremont and Columbus last week.
The 7th-grade 4x800 team from Papillion Middle School ran 11:03 last week at LaVista that puts them in the top 10 this season.
Riley Thomas and Macy Matras of Papillion Middle School have both cleared 5-00 in the high jump.
In her first meet of the season, Leia Meyers, a 7th grader at St. Wencislaus in Omaha, long jumped 16-04.25 on Saturday to take the top spot in this season's rankings. She also finished 2nd in the 100 (12.54) and 200 (26.41) behind Edie Sutton (listed above).
Alexa DeVetter, a 7th grader at Elkhorn Grandview, took the season lead in the 800 with her 2:26.17 on Monday, April 27.

Post-season junior high meets

With conference meets starting this week, we just want to remind you that track season doesn't have to end so soon. Gothenburg hosts the Nebraska Championship Meet on Saturday, May 16, and Gretna will be hosting a similar competitive-entry meet on that date. To be eligible for the Gothenburg meet, performances must be posted to athletic.net by May 7th and then the meet director will go through the performance list to fill entries. You can find out more information about the Gothenburg meet at https://nebraskachampionshipmeet.com/. Nerd Junior competed in this event over a decade ago, and it was effectively the last time he got to compete against someone who didn't attend a Class A school. It was a very cool experience.

Seventh and eighth graders are eligible to compete at the Nebraska Elite Classic meet at Gretna High School on May 16th. They are offering the typical junior high events except the pole vault; like Gothenburg, entries in each event limited to 24 competitors for each gender. The top eight finishers from the OPS city championship are guaranteed entry, and the top three finishers from the PAL supermeet are guaranteed entry. Of course, all eleven of those athletes won't sign up, so there should be more than thirteen open spots in each event. The additional spots will be filled based on the best times, distances and heights in those events. You can learn more about the Gretna meet at www.gretnaathleticclub.com. Entries on athletic.net begin on Friday, May 1st and close on Tuesday, May 12. You can also reach out to meet director Andrew Smith at asmith@gpsne.org for more information.

Books

Former Nike professional runner Mary Cain has published a new book, "This Is Not About Running," and I suspect it covers much of the same ground as Kara Goucher's "The Longest Race." Professional female track athletes have a difficult life, and it seems to be far too common for coaches to physically and emotionally abuse those athletes. In addition to that abuse, Mary and Kara both share stories about the relentless pressure to maintain an ideal body weight.

Of course, there is no ideal body weight for runners, especially for females in the midst of puberty. Young women often deal with body image issues, and limiting calories is a fast track to injuries, illnesses and eating disorders. I'm aware of a number of female high school runners who have battled eating disorders, and it's a terrible path to follow.

If you'd like to learn more about the mental health side of running, "What Made Maddy Run" by former ESPNW columnist Kate Fagan is a revealing and frightening view of the pressures on a collegiate runner. All of the books I've listed here have adult themes, so I would encourage parents to read them first before deciding whether to give them to their daughters.

On a brighter note, "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker continues to be the best running book ever written. If you have a runner who likes to read, "Once a Runner" will have him or her loving running even more.

State records

We didn't post last week's Nerdsletter until Thursday night, so only three State records appear to have fallen since then:

#20 Avery Arens, Crofton - On Saturday, April 25, Avery faced off against an elite field in the mile at the Drake Relays. Avery was the fourth of five girls to break the five-minute barrier, and her 4:54.84 mile time is well below the 4:56.18 Class C State record she set on April 16 at the Titan Classic. Using the MileSplit calculator, the 4:54.84 mile time converts to a 4:53.13 1600 time. Once the Crofton athletic director or coach connects with the NSAA, we'll have clearer guidance on whether the NSAA will recognize the mile time or a converted 1600 time as the new record.

#19 Kennedy Bailey, Dundy County Stratton - she threw the discus 159-11 on Friday, 4/24, at Lexington to set the Class D record. It was a 3-09 PB for her and broke the previous record of 157-02 set by Samantha Musil of Pawnee City in 2006. Kennedy is a two-time defending Class D State champ in the discus, the defending State champ in the shot put, and she's a member of the defending Class D champ 4x100 squad.

#18 Brody Galyen, West Holt - a 48.15 400 on Friday, 4/24, at his home meet to break the previous Class C record of 48.33 set by Joel Duffield of Morrill in 2002.

Here's a list of the broken State records from prior Nerdsletters:

#17 Beau Fujan, Bishop Neumann - 13.86 110HH (0.6 m/s) at the Bennington meet on Tuesday, 4/21, breaking Class C record of 14.01 by Jaxon Knisley (NPSP) from 2024.

#16 Beau Fujan - 21.60 200 (1.5 m/s) at the Bennington meet on Tuesday, 4/21, breaking Class C record of 21.78 by Cole Biodrowski of Fort Calhoun in 2001.

#15 Aubrey Fujan, Bishop Neumann - 14.28 100H (1.3 m/s) at the Bennington meet on Tuesday, 4/21, breaking her own Class C record of 14.45 from 2025.

#14 Mia Cushing, Elkhorn - 11.92 100 (1.3 m/s) at the Bennington meet on Tuesday, 4/21, breaking the Class B record of 11.94 set by Katy Jay of Mitchell in 1999.

#13 Addie West, Omaha Skutt - 55.81 400 at the Bennington meet on Tuesday, 4/21, breaking the Class B record of 55.95 set by Sydney Stodden of Elkhorn North in 2024.

#12 Avery Arens, a freshman at Crofton, is breaking State records before the previous ones can get posted on the NSAA website. On April 8 she ran a hand-timed 10:51.7 3200 at the Knox County meet, which if ratified would have broken the previous Class C record of 10:59.05 set by Tamala Resh of Shelton on 1983. However, on Tuesday, April 21 at the USD Battle of the Border, Arens posted an electronic time of 10:31.69 to set the new standard. The All-Class 3200 record is held by Karlene Erickson (Wheeler Central), who ran 10:19 in 1982. The Class A record is held by two-time Olympian and US marathon record holder Emily Sisson, who posted a 10:23.00 for Millard North in 2008.

#11 Avery Arens, a freshman at Crofton, broke her own yet-to-be-ratified 1600-meter Class C record of 5:00.00 from April 8 (see #6 below) with a 4:56.18 at the Titan Classic on Thursday, April 18. She was one of three girls in that race to dip below the 5:00 mark.

#10 Jaiya Patillo, a junior at Bellevue West, broke her own Class A and All-Class 400-meter record of 54.66 set in 2024 with a 54.41 at the Elkhorn meet on Thursday, April 16.

#9 Noah Rau, a senior at Chase County and a UNL T&F commit, threw the discus 207-03 on Thursday, April 16 at Sutherland to break his own Class C and All-Class record of 205-07 set on April 2nd.

#8 Alyssa Onnen, a senior at Kearney Catholic and a UNL T&F commit, pole vaulted 13-04.25 at the Gothenburg meet on Thursday, April 16 to break her Class C record of 13-00.25 from the 2025 State meet and the All-Class record of 13-04.00 set by Jaidyn Garrett of Columbus in 2019.

#7 - Avery Arens of Crofton ran a 10:51.65 3200 at the Knox County meet on Wednesday, April 8. If the handheld time is accepted by the NSAA, it will break the Class C record of 10:51.65 set by Tamala Resh of Shelton in 1983.

#6 - Avery Arens of Crofton ran a 5:00.00 1600 at the Knox County meet on Wednesday, April 8. If the handheld time is accepted by the NSAA, it will break the Class C record of 5:05.25 set by Rylee Rice of Ainsworth in 2017.

#5 - Brock Bailey of Dundy County Stratton threw the shot 63-10.00 at the Perkins County meet on Friday, April 2nd. This mark breaks his previous but not-yet-certified-by-the-NSAA Class D record throw of 63-04.25 (see #2 below) at the Southern Valley meet on March 27.

#4 - Abigael Spargo of Dundy County Stratton set the Class D 300 hurdles record with her 44.12 mark at the Perkins County meet on Friday, April 2nd. She broke the record of 44.76 set by Skylar Hadley of Loomis in 2018.

#3 - Noah Rau of Chase County set the All-Class and Class C discus record with his 205-07 mark at the Ogallala meet on Friday, April 2nd. He broke his previous All-Class record of 203-09 that was set at last year's State meet as well as the previous Class C record of 196-11 set by Derric Werner of Elkhorn Valley in 2002. Because Chase County moved from Class B in 2025 to Class C in 2026, Noah has the unusual distinction of holding both the Class B (203-09 in 2025) and Class C (205-07 in 2026) State records.

#2 - Brock Bailey of Dundy County Stratton threw the shot 63-04.25 at the Southern Valley invite on March 27, topping the Class D mark of 63-01.25 set by Steve Kriewald of North Loup-Scotia at the State meet in 2000.

#1 - Chayden Hoffmaster of Cozad posted a long jump of 24-05.50 leap at the UNK indoor meet on March 20. There was initial confusion about whether an indoor mark qualified for a Class B 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.

The NSAA website at https://secure.nsaahome.org/nsaaforms/tr/staterecords.php has been updated for a number of the records above. Check out our April 7 Nerdsletter if you'd like more information on how wind strength impacts State record certification.

Boston finishers from Nebraska

The Boston Marathon was held last Monday, and we did our best to track down Nebraska runners and those with Nebraska ties. If you find an omission or you know the high school/college where a particular athlete competed, please DM or email us at jayslagle@hotmail.com and we'll update the list.

Men

Milo Greder, 27, Scottsdale (Westside/ISU/Cincinnati), 2:15:22 (48th overall)

Nate Moller, 24, Omaha, 2:32:29

Jaxson Hamm, 21, Ashland, 2:37:14

Jordan De Spong, Phoenix (UNL), 2:37:05

Dillon McNeill, 24, Papillion (Papio South), 2:37:23

Eli Jones, 20, Council Bluffs (Creighton Prep), 2:39:46

Carter Kocian, 27, Gretna, 2:42:01

Grant Schaefer, 20, Papillion (Bellevue West), 2:43:14

Karson LeComte, Cary IL (UNL), 2:44:21

Kyler Caverzagie, 27, Omaha (Papio South), 2:45:45

William Conway, 28, Omaha, 2:46:02

John Burns, 22, Milwaukee (Creighton Prep), 2:49:53

Joseph Barone, 40, Omaha, 2:51:17

Jerry Jorgenson, 25, Roca (Treynor, IA/UNL), 2:51:59

Brandon Schutt, 21, Bellevue (Bellevue East), 2:52:52

Nicholas Masada, 33, Lincoln, 2:53:24

Robert Nizzi, 22, Omaha (Creighton Prep/NWMSU), 2:54:26

Steven Gogela, 41, Lincoln, 2:54:45

Seth Marek, 38, Omaha, 2:55:38

Jake Ralston, 26, Omaha (Papio South/KU/UNL), 2:58:31

Jeffrey Brune, 61, Omaha, 3:00:18

Wes Baedke, 49, Blair, 3:00:35

Adam Leader, 41, Norfolk, 3:00:39

Todd Nott, 61, Plattsmouth, 3:05:04

Rick Tast, 52, Lincoln, 3:15:25

Tom Huston, 53, Omaha, 3:18:40

Jon Hasse, 38, Lincoln, 3:22:10

Kent Blobaum, 63, Omaha, 3:23:20

Craig Carr, 57, Lincoln, 3:33:41

Craig Halvorson, 45, Omaha, 3:37:53

Dan Swanson, 46, Omaha, 3:39:09

Brian Harrifeld, 67, Lincoln, 4:03:43

Rich Hrabchak, 66, Omaha, 4:23:36

Andrew Tweedy, 57, Bennington, 4:40:38

Marvin Ramirez, 26, Omaha, 4:42:22

Zackary Breazeale, 38, Omaha, 4:59:03

Women

Taya Skelton, 25, Lincoln (Fort Calhoun/UNL), 2:48:21

Kaci Lickteig, 39, Omaha (Centura), 2:55:50

Lindsey Stuckey, 24, Lincoln (York/UNK), 2:57.39

Bridgette James, 34, Lincoln (Columbus/UNK), 3:04:52

Helena Occansey, 22, Lincoln (Lincoln Pius), 3:04:56

Chelsey Welch, 40, Lincoln, 3:09:16

Raigan Kocian, 24, Gretna (Gretna), 3:11:53

Elsa Forsberg, 28, Lincoln (LSE/UNL), 3:11:58

Anna Prauner, 35, Omaha, 3:12:43

Nicole Ascanio, 38, Omaha, 3:14:06

Leah Chohon, 36, O'Neill, 3:14:11

Caitlin Orth, 38, Lincoln, 3:14:15

Jodi Semonell, 53, Omaha, 3:17:52

Jamie Larsen, 31, Wahoo, 3:18:39

Catherine Eisenhutt, 24, Omaha, 3:19:10

Mazie (Larsen) Atteberry, 25, Gretna (Gretna/Baylor), 3:20:30

Ashley Taff, 52, Lincoln, 3:21:46

Jackie Loenser, 42, Lincoln, 3:22:45

Janelle Tschauner, 29, Hastings, 3:22:59

Amber McIntyre Aguiree, 45, Lincoln, 3:23:21

Mary Hillabrand, 45, Bennington, 3:26:30

Jenny Sundberg, 38, Lincoln, 3:27:41

Emma Ralston, 23, Papillion (Papio South/UNL), 3:30:07

Jody Johnson, 44, Grand Island, 3:30:46

Tiffany Engleman, 46, Omaha, 3:31:46

Kimberly Petersen, 58, Omaha, 3:33:50

Melodie Buss, 42, LaVista, 3:35:17

Sarah Neubert, 45, Omaha, 3:35:53

Amanda Raithel, 51, Falls City, 3:37:59

Kathy Hinrichs, 50, Elkhorn, 3:38:37

Crystal Kmoch, 45, Omaha, 3:41:42

Elizabeth Markin, 55, Omaha, 3:42:05

Lori Leonard, 64, Dannebrog, 3:48:24

Katy Biehl, 45, Lincoln, 3:52:18

Rebecca Yoo, 58, Omaha, 3:53:41

Keiko Sasakawa, 64, Marquette, 3:58:40

Constance Garro, 60, Omaha, 4:00:13

Tonya Huseman, 47, Omaha, 4:01:55

Michelle Krust, 54, Lincoln, 4:03:55

Tasha Breitbarth, 44, Pender, 4:07:23

Christine Brune, 60, Omaha, 4:27:11

Lindsey Palmer, 43, Lincoln, 4:44:36

Photos

Due to Nerd HQ going remote last week, we couldn't share any of our Nerds' great pictures. We'll make up for that this week. Below are examples of the meet albums published since our 4/13/26 Nerdsletter. We have posted albums for 80 meets so far this season, and weather permitting our Nerds will be at over 20 meets this week. You can find our Facebook albums at https://www.facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums. If you'd like to see our chronological listing of albums, we update that list at least weekly at this link.

Millard South (including Unified), 4/10 (Royal Nerd)

Papio-LaVista Liberty JH, 4/16 (Berry Nerdy)

Millard Central Middle School, 4/16 (Nameless Nerd)

Papio South including Unified, 4/16 (Royal Nerd)

Waverly USATF youth meet, 4/19 (Nameless Nerd)

WTC JH and HS meet at Bayard, 4/20 (Blurry Nerd)

Laurel-Concorde-Coleridge, 4/21 (Nerdennan)

LaVista Middle School. 4/22 (Royal Nerd)

Lincoln Harold Scott, 4/23 (Nerdy by Nature)

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on April 27, 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.