05/05/26 Nerdsletter

jayslagle
11 hours ago
11 min read

Contributor: The Nerd

The wall

Speaking for most of the Nerds, we've reached that point in the season where the sheer volume of meets and unedited photos is overwhelming the amount of time we have to devote to Nerding. Spouses, children and bosses are starting to complain about our lack of attention.

I've got 10,000 photos from Saturday's Centennial meet to edit or delete, so this week's Nerdsletter will be a quick one.

Sport parents, play your role

With just over two weeks left in your athlete's season - and possibly their track career - your house may be full of emotions: excitement, disappointment, anxiety, uncertainty, stress and who knows what else? During these pressure-filled times, it's pretty easy for a parent to do or say the wrong thing. On that note, in mid-2024 we asked Jeremy Haselhorst, the Papio South girls distance coach and a certified mental performance coach, how parents should support their student athletes. I posed that question to him just minutes after a cross country meet where I heard parents scream "GO FASTER!", "You've got to pass that group in front of you!" and all sorts of other things that seemed unhelpful to the athletes, particularly those at the back of the race. A few weeks later we posted Jeremy's article, "Sports Parents, Play Your Role." Please consider spending some time with it and using his advice to support your athlete.

Odds and ends

At Sunday's Lincoln Marathon, the top of the female leaderboard had a local flavor. Millard South and Oklahoma State graduate Taylor Somers won the full marathon in 2:39:59 while UNO assistant track coach Saskia Pingpank of Hannover, Germany was second in 2:46:21. That appears to be a PB for Taylor, who finished the 2025 Boston Marathon in 2:46:32, while it was Saskia's first marathon.
Speaking of Taylor, her Andersen Middle School 800-meter record fell on April 30 when 7th-grader Emi Mandigo posted a 2:35.0 at the Andersen/Millard Central dual. Emi had previously met Taylor in the neighborhood and they had talked about how Emi wanted to break Taylor's record. They exchanged phone numbers and Taylor has been giving Emi running tips the last few weeks, and Taylor was one of the first people to call Emi on Thursday night to congratulate her.
The Nebraska Wesleyan 4x800 squad of Alex Lenn (Columbus High, 2:02.97 HS PB), Reed Emsick (Burke, 1:53.28), Elijah Pollard (Ord, 1:57.2) and Brennan Steenson (Skutt, 2:01.89) won the American Rivers Conference title on Saturday with a 7:34.75, which is currently the top D3 time this season. With an average split under 1:54, the homegrown boys were moving.
If you're a post-grad athlete looking for a good workout in the Omaha area, the TNT group hosts interval workouts every Tuesday night from May through September. The sessions run from 5:30 to 6:45 pm; they are held at Buena Vista High School the first three Tuesdays and at Elmwood Pool for mile repeats on the fourth Tuesday. Participants must sign a waiver on their first visit but there is no cost; Fleet Feet is covering the cost of renting the Buena Vista facility. There are typically three training groups for the track intervals: a competitive group that includes a number of former college runners, a second group capable of running a 5:30-6:00 mile on a good day, and the rest of us grinding out 400, 800s and 1200s at a 6:00-9:00 pace.
Fremont graduate Juan Gonzalez, now a freshman at Oregon, dropped his redshirt to run the 5K at Stanford last week. He posted a time of 13:47 that is, according to the performance database of former Nebraska high school athletes maintained by Creighton coach Chris Gannon, just ten seconds behind the all-time best of 13:37 set by Millard West alum Seth Hirsch. It's unclear whether Juan will compete at the Big Ten meet hosted by UNL on May 15-17.
Speaking of the Big Ten meet, UNL is hosting what will arguably be the most competitive track meet ever held in the state of Nebraska. You can buy a three-day pass for $40 ($25 for youth) or the one-day pass for $17 ($12 for youth). You can get more information at https://bigten.org/motf/article/59741/.
Nerd follower Tyler Kuester messaged us that Jocelyn Gerken, an 8th grader at West Point-Beemer, threw 41-08 on May 1st at the Oakland-Craig junior high meet. That puts her 4th in the nation this season for the junior high 4kg shot. To our knowledge, no one maintains a list of Nebraska junior high records, but Jocelyn's effort is the best mark that Tyler can find since 2011. According to his research, the previous bests were Kat Beachler (40-04 in 2019) and Hope Paup (39-11). Kat now competes at BYU while Hope is a junior at Central City where she has won 19 of the last 20 shot put competitions she's entered.

Rankings

Nerd Junior has brought our rankings sheet back from the dead, and it continues to be your best resource for a list of the top performers by Class and gender. Go to our webpage at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings and click the link under the '2026 track rankings' section. Due to formatting issues, I find it difficult to read the NSAA state record website at https://secure.nsaahome.org/nsaaforms/tr/staterecords.php on my phone, so our rankings spreadsheet includes the the State record for each event. Even better, we update the spreadsheet for pending records so that you're always up to date.

Midwest Night of Stars

Nebraska Wesleyan is again hosting an end-of-season regional meet for high school athletes on Saturday, May 30. We've had several Nerds attend this twilight meet and they enjoyed it. The goal is to have Nebraskans compete against the best athletes from surrounding states. Click here to access a Word document that gives details on the meet; click here to register.

Summer camps

We've received information on three summers camps:

Nebraska Wesleyan is offering a 3-hour T&F camp on Friday, May 29 with different sessions for Youth and Middle/High School. Cost is $45. Info at https://www.nebrwesleyan.edu/student-life/athletics/camps/nwu-summer-track-and-field-camps.
Nebraska Wesleyan is offering summer speed sessions for one hour Wednesdays from June 10 through July 29 for students entering grades 6-8. Info at https://www.nebrwesleyan.edu/student-life/athletics/camps/summer-speed-series
Cozad High School is hosting its annual one-day cross country camp on July 14. Click here to access a Word document offering more details.
Coach Ramsey is moving his annual cross country summer camp from Colorado to Omaha; it will be held July 5-12. You can find more information at https://ccrunningcamps.org/.

The website https://runningcamps.org/find.php?search=MO also lists a number of summer camps, sorted by state, but this appears to be a relatively new website and doesn't list camps offered by Nebraska colleges. Colleges can reach out to me if they'd like me to share camp information.

State records

Five State records have been broken since our last Nerdsletter:

Hazel Haarberg setting the Class C 200-meter record on 5/2

#25 Hazel Haarberg, Kearney Catholic - After seemingly jogging in the Centennial 200 prelims to earn the top seed later on Saturday, May 2nd, Hazel posted a 23.88 (-0.13 m/s headwind) in the finals to break her own Class C record of 24.04 from 2025

Hazel Haarberg setting the All-Class 100-meter record of 11.55

#24 Hazel Haarberg, Kearney Catholic - Hazel posted a 11.57 in the 100 meters at the Centennial prelims on Saturday, May 2nd, but the wind reading of 2.2 m/s was above the record-eligible limit of 2.0 m/s. A few hours later in the finals, she ran 11.55 (-0.40 m/s headwind) to break her Class C record of 11.73 from 2024. This mark also establishes a new All-Class record, topping the 11.64 ran by Dajaz DeFrand of Lincoln High in 2022. Dajaz is still competing for USC and has won multiple NCAA sprint medals at Florida State and USC.

#23 Aubrey Fujan, Bishop Neumann - In the 100h finals of the Centennial meet on Saturday, May 2nd, Aubrey posted a time of 14.08 to break her own Class C record of 14.28 that she set on April 21.

Noah Rau unleashes a 219-06 thrown (Michelle Mandeville photo)

#22 Noah Rau, Chase County - The UNL recruit set a huge PR in the discus, jumping to #2 in the nation this season, throwing the discus 219-06 on his first attempt on May 1st at Perkins County. That throw improved upon his All-Class and Class C record of 207-03 that he set on April 16. Science Nerd was on the scene and an official told her that a subsequent throw went around 225' but Noah touched the top of the toe board on his follow through.

#21 Norris 4x100 relay - On Thursday, April 30 at the Crete Invite, the Norris 4x100 squad of Luke Findley, Noah Waddel, Christopher Garner and Becket Behrens posted a time of 41.78 to break the Class B record of 42.04 set by Waverly in 2025.

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

#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.

#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.

Photos

Below are examples of the meet albums published since our 4/28/26 Nerdsletter. We have posted albums for 106 (!!!) meets so far this season, and weather permitting our Nerds will be at over 15 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.

Laurel-Concorde-Coleridge JH, 4/22 (Bloomin' Nerd)

Papio LV including Unified, 4/23 (Royal Nerd)

Lincoln city meet, 4/29 (Nerdy by Nature)

Grand Island Unified, 4/30 (Volley Nerd)

Hartington GNAC JH, 4/30 (Bloomin' Nerd)

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on May 5, 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.