Nerdsletter 5/20/25

jayslagle
1 hour ago
15 min read

Contributor: The Nerd

No room for fear or doubt

Doubt and anxiety can limit an athlete's performance, and we're doing our part to address that. We've reposted our oldie-but-goodie article 'No Room for Fear or Doubt' at this link. Please share with your favorite athletes.

Thank you to all of the Nerds

Due to work, school and family conflicts, we'll only have about 15 of our 25 Nerds at Burke this week, and never at the same time. By the end of June, our volunteer Nerds will have shot more than 140 junior high, high school, college and USATF track meets this year. Sure, it's awesome to wear a Nerd shirt at track meets and sign autographs from adoring track moms (women aged 35-55 are 55% of our Facebook followers), but the Nerds spend 5-15 hours every week editing the photos they take. The work they do -- all for a lousy t-shirt -- has helped raised the profile of Nebraska track and cross country. Each part of the state has their own special Nerd, and they all deserve a summer off after the great work they've done this season.

State preview

I connected with Rich Barnett of High Plains Radio in McCook earlier today for a quick State preview. Here are a few things we discussed:

Weather impact: We should have cooler weather this week, with a good chance to avoid rain all four days. However, winds could be a factor. The prevailing winds should be out of the north on Wednesday and Thursday, and Burke’s bowl design could block some of that wind. The winds should be from the south on Friday and the east on Saturday, and that may have a greater impact on the athletes. The discus athletes may be the biggest beneficiaries all four days, since a consistent headwind typically results in longer throws. The downside to 10-20 mile-per-hour winds is that it may limit the number of wind-legal sprints and horizontal jumps, so it could prevent some state records in those events.

Best candidates for four gold medals: Clara Spargo of Dundy County Stratton and Mason McGreer of Perkins County are the two athletes with the best shots at four medals. Spargo leads Class D and has the state records in the 100, 200 and 400, and her 4x100 team also has the best time of the year. McGreer is in the top two for the 800, 1600 and 3200, and his 4x800 team is a heavy favorite. Mason’s biggest challenge will be beating his teammate, Eli Goodell, who leads Class C this year in the 1600 and 3200.

Best candidates for three gold medals: Among athletes who seem likely to win three gold medals, Juan Gonzalez of Fremont is on the top of the list. He holds the All-Class State record in the 1600 and 3200, and he has the best 800 time in Class A this year. His fourth event appears to be the 4x400, although I thought Fremont had a better chance at a 4x800 gold if they had stacked their squad with the three sub-1:57 800 guys.

Braden Lofquest of Gretna East has a chance to win the three distance events in Class B, although he’ll have a huge challenge to beat Austin Carrera of Hastings in the 3200; Austin owns the State record at 9:01. Braden has only run the 3200 twice this season, while Austin should have extra motivation after being DQ'd from the 1600 at Districts.

Hazell Haarberg and Alyssa Onnen of Kearney Catholic should win two individual events each and their 4x100 team should also win. The two of them are also in the long jump, but neither are favored. Don't count either out.

Charlie Thorne of Lincoln Southeast comes in with the fastest time in the 300 hurdles and 400, and the fourth fastest 100 and the second fastest 200. However, he is running the 4x400 at State instead of the 200.

Kennedy Bailey of Dundy County Stratton is favored to win the shot put and discus, and she’s also a member of the DCS 4x100 team that has the best time in Class D this year.

Events that I'll be watching closely: The Class B 400 for both boys and girls should be a thriller. At least 15 Class B girls broke 60 seconds this year, and don’t be surprised if all of the medalists run under 58 seconds. The field is so deep that some talented girls have moved to other events in order to maximize team points. In the boys field, the season best times for the top five boys are within a half second of each other. Jett Tingelhoff of Elkhorn North comes in with the best 400 time this year but Josiah Wilkinson of McCook is only 0.02 seconds off his mark.

On Friday and Saturday, it will be interesting to watch teammates Mason McGreer and Eli Goodell of Perkins County battle for the 1600 and 3200 titles.

I hope to spend a lot of time at the shot put ring. Isaac Ackerman of Omaha Central has a great chance to break the All-Class record – two weeks ago I watched him throw 68 feet in warm ups – and Barrett Wilke of Stanton is very close to the Class C record. The shot put arena will be buzzing when those two are throwing.

How many more State and meet records will be broken? I think this depends quite a bit on the wind, which is supposed to be 10-20 miles per hour all four days. If the wind is too strong, it may negate some records in the 100, 200 and horizontal jumps, particularly for Class C and D when the wind is coming out of the south. The wind isn’t a factor for pole vault records, and there are four or five records that could fall in that event if there's a tailwind instead of a crosswind. Throwing into the wind typically results in longer throws in the discus, so Isaac Ackerman, Barrett Wilke, Noah Rau of Chase County and Kennedy Bailey could threaten State records.

I expect to see multiple records fall in the 4x100 and 4x400. The West Holt boys and girls both set State records this year in the 4x400, and a team title may be up for grabs when the boys run that final race of the meet.

In Class B, Braden Lofquest is only .41 seconds from the 800 record. In Class C, Perkins County has been chasing the Class C 4x 800 boys record all season, and I expect they’ll get it on Friday unless the southerly wind is too strong.

Of course, Juan Gonzalez could set a record any time he runs. The best chance may be in the 3200, his only event on Wednesday. Everyone would love to see him break 4:00 in the 1600, but that will be his second race on Thursday, a few hours after the 800 that should be his most competitive race of the week.

I think we'll see at least 10 records over four days, and we may possibly get over 20 if the wind cooperates.

Are there any stars we won't see at State? Two come to mind. Jacie Rexillius of Lincoln Christian holds the Class B record in the 200 and she has the season’s best time, but she won’t be competing due to a hamstring injury. Similarly, Samantha Campos of Lincoln Pius would have been great competition for Amarae Krafka of GI Northwest in the Class B pole vault with an 8th-grade PR of 12-6, but Samantha broke her ankle in the final weeks of the indoor season. Amarae is one of the athletes who could break a State record this week.

How do the team races look? We can’t make accurate projections based on District results since many top athletes only do enough to qualify. We used the season-best marks on our website to make our projections, but keep in mind that some athletes aren’t competing in all the events they excel in. For example, our projections show Charlie Thorne scoring in the Class A 200 but he’s not in that event.

With that in mind, there are three teams that should win easily: the Kearney Catholic girls in Class C, and the Dundy County Stratton boys and girls in Class D.

The tightest team race is for Class B girls, where Norris, Bennington, Waverly and GI Northwest are separated by three points in our projections. Norris is getting a lot of their points from distance events and relays, while Bennington has depth in the sprints. Waverly has a mix of contenders in the sprints and distance races. The deciding factor may be how each of these teams performs in the relays.

The Class C boys race should be tight between Perkins County and West Holt. Perkins County has no boys in the field events and will pick up nearly all of their points in the three distance events and 4x800. West Holt only has one qualifier in the field events but is loaded in the sprints. That team race could be determined by how well West Holt’s 2nd and 3rd qualifiers do in the sprints and whether their distance runners can score a few points. West Holt is expected to win the 4x400 but Perkins County also qualified a team, so even a few points from the Perkins County team could seal a team title.

The Lincoln Southwest girls and Kearney boys are our favorites in Class A. Lincoln Southwest hopes to pile up points in the sprints, hurdles and horizontal jumps, while the Kearney boys should do well in the hurdles, sprints, triple jump and high jump.

Finally, Waverly is a solid favorite for the Class B boys title on the strength of their sprints. They also have qualifiers in four of the six field events and have competitive teams in all three relays.

What's the best way to follow along if you're at Burke stadium? I’d suggest having two websites pulled up on your phone: the meet's live results (https://results.blacksquirreltiming.com/meets/52580 for Class A/B and https://results.blacksquirreltiming.com/meets/52581 for Class C/D) and our rankings sheet at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings which lists the season’s top performers and the current State records. If you’re at home, I’d still have those two websites pulled up and I’d buy a subscription to the live stream of the meet.

We'll also be posting on X and Facebook throughout the meet with videos, results and cool photographs.

Unless we have a surge of ambition, we don't plan to write a nightly recap. It's late in the season, our spouses are getting tired of us either being at meets or editing photos, and we're really tired.

My dream is that someday the fans inside Burke Stadium can listen to a play-by-play broadcast while the races unfold in front of them. Who's the guy who took an early lead in the 3200? Oh, his PR is 40 seconds slower than the favorite sitting in the back of the pack? Did you know that event winner will be playing Division 1 volleyball next fall? Oh my gosh, the guy who finished last in the 800 almost died two years ago in an auto accident?

Three-day State

I shot the B2 District meet at DC West last week and ran into a trackside official who works the State meet every year. I mentioned my article about moving to a three-day meet, and he said he hadn't read it. An hour later he practically tackled me to say that he was completely on board with a two- or three-day meet. He even proposed an alternative plan: devote Thursday to Class A/B prelims and a few finals in field and distance events, Friday to Class C/D prelims and a few finals, and then have the rest of the finals fall on Saturday. If you haven't seen our article, you can read it here.

I did include a two-question survey of the State format in my May 9th Nerdsletter. In that small poll, 62% of respondents preferred something other than a four-day meet but, if the four-day format remains, 62% thought that A/B and C/D should alternate the years in which they compete on Friday and Saturday.

Sprints

A few quick hits:

Tony Chapman of Harvest Sports has been a non-photographer Nerd for us the last few years, and he also wrote a State T&F preview for the NSAA website at https://nsaahome.org/2025-nsaa-state-track-field-championships-preview/. It's a good read.
At the Concordia collegiate meet on May 8-9, masters athlete Angee Henry ran a 26.64 to put her 1st in her age group in the world so far this year. Platteview coach Christina Elder ran 26.63 to put her 6th in the world and a 58.64 400 that has her 5th in the world. Both have qualified for the Masters Worlds in Korea in 2027.
Last week I ran into Sara Sinani, the starter at the DC West District meet. She's a Grand Island native who had Larry Rutar as a junior high coach and her track official mentor. She now lives in Kansas but is rarely there during track season. After Tuesday's meet at DC West, she officiated the Big 12 meet at KU and will work the NAIA national championships this week in Indiana. Last year she was a starter at the indoor and outdoor Division 1 national meets. Speaking of Larry Rutar, he'll be receiving a NSAA 50-year service award just before the races begin. I'm on iPhone duty so he can share the awards video with his wife.
Nerd Stammpede shares this fun tidbit: in tomorrow's second heat of the Class B boys 110 hurdles, first cousins Barry Fries of Elkhorn North and Lukas Fries of Chase County will be running in lanes 6 and 7. Their dads (Josh and Gabe) graduated from Dundy County high school, long before Dundy County met Stratton at a street dance and decided to get married.
The annual NSAA vs. media cage match returns tomorrow at the end of the long jump and triple jump pits at Burke. After having no restrictions beyond the end of the sand pits for years, several years ago the NSAA introduced a no-man's-land area beyond the pits with the vague explanation that having photographers near the end of the pits was either a competitive advantage, competitive disadvantage or some other nonsensical reason. The net result is that we don't get good photos to share for free with our followers, the sports photography company who pays the NSAA for the right to sell State photos doesn't get good photos, and the hardworking small town reporters struggle for one good photo to put into their weekly newspaper. The Nerd team has shot regional and national high school and collegiate meets, including the D1, D2 and NAIA indoor nationals last year. Nerd Dawg shot the USATF nationals at Hayward Field two years ago. In all the places we've been, the Nebraska State meet has been the only meet that features this restriction. Make it make sense.
If you are late to the party and are wondering how athletes qualified for State, we wrote an article that explains it.
The State junior high meet, aka the Nebraska Championship meet, was a rousing success again this year. There are too many ridiculous results to summarize in the Nerdsletter, but you can review them at https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/575897/results/all. We can't wait to see these kids compete in high school.

Record watch

We're predicting at least ten State and State meet records this week. We've had 22 records so far this season:

#22 Kelsey Miller of Seward set a new Class B record in the 100 hurdles at the Crete District on May 13, running 14.39 to break the record of 14.42 set by Chloe Arens of Sidney in 2024.

#21 The Waverly boys 4x100 team of Rose, Schere, Sutter and Smith ran a 42.04 at the Waverly District meet on May 13 to break the Class B record of 42.11 set by Waverly in 2023. With this effort, the boys 4x100 records have now been broken in 2025 for Classes B, C and D.

#20 Shayden Rasby of Ogallala broke the Class B 300 hurdles State record with her 43.45 mark at the Ogallala District on May 13. The previous record of 43.86 was set by Kris Nelson of McCook in 1989.

#19 Ike Ackerman of Omaha Central broke the Class A shot put record for the fourth time at his District meet on May 13, throwing 66-6 at LNW to break his previous record of 65-08.75 from the Metro meet on May 6.

#18 On May 9, the Dundy County Stratton boys 4x100 squad broke the record of 42.99 they set on April 22, running 42.57 at their home meet.

#17 On May 9, the Battle Creek 4x100 squad of Aden Pochop, Jaxon Mettler, Gavin Korth and Andy Ricchio set a new Class C record with their 42.78, breaking the mark of 42.85 set by West Holt in 2024.

#16 On May 7, approximately 30 minutes after Braden Lofquest broke his own All-Class record in the 1600 (see #15), Juan Gonzalez of Fremont set a new standard, running 4:03.08 at the HAC meet at Lincoln Northwest. That mark also broke Juan's previous Class A record of 4:08.61 that he set at the 2024 State meet.

#15 On May 7 the EMC meet, Braden Lofquest ran a 4:06.34 1600 to break his own All-Class record of 4:06.80. After Juan Gonzalez's subsequent mark (#16 above), the 4:06.34 still stands as the Class B record.

#14 Ike Ackerman of Omaha Central set the Class A shot put record for a third time this season on May 6 at the Omaha Metro meet, throwing 65-08.75 to break his previous record by 1.5 inches.

#13 Hazel Haarberg of Kearney Catholic ran a 24.04 (+1.2 m/s wind) 200 on May 3 at the Centennial Conference meet in Columbus to break the previous record of 24.06 ran by Sarah Lyons of Omaha Brownell-Talbot at the 2006 State meet. That result is not in Hazel's athletic.net profile because the meet results are only in pdf form.

#12 Clara Spargo of Dundy County Stratton ran a 55.94 400 at the RPAC meet in Sutherland on May 2, breaking the Class D record of 56.89 that she set in 2024.

#11 Ike Ackerman of Omaha Central broke his own Class A shot put record on Friday, April 25, throwing 64-07.25 at the Dennis Smith meet in Papillion. His previous record lasted seven days (see #4 below).

#10 The Dundy County Stratton boys 4x100 squad ran 42.99 at the Chase County Invite on 4/22/25, breaking the record of 43.59 set by Twin Loup in 2012. Members of the record-breaking squad: Kevin Garcia Guzman, Blaine Aldridge, Ethan Latta and Laken Wissink.

#9 Clara Spargo of Dundy County Stratton took ownership of another Class D sprint record after she ran a 12.24 100 (wind +1.8 m/s) in the prelims at the Chase County meet on Tuesday, 4/22. That broke the record of 12.30 set in 2024 by Adi Hunt of Southern Valley.

#8 The West Holt boys 4x400 team of Drake Nemetz, Andrew Rentschler, Lincoln Konrad and Brody Galyen recorded a 3:18.75 mark at the KU Relays on April 19, breaking the Class C record of 3:21.17 set by Chase County in 2024.

#7 The West Holt girls 4x400 team of Pavan Larson, Hollynn Konrad, London Konrad and Ainsley Galyen ran 3:58.52 on April 19 at the KU Relays to break the Class C record of 4:00.79 that they set in 2024 and tied the night before.

#6 The West Holt girls 4x400 team of Pavan Larson, Hollynn Konrad, London Konrad and Ainsley Galyen ran 4:00.79 on April 18 at the KU Relays to tie the Class C record set by the West Holt squad of Pavan Larson, Taylor Walnofer, London Konrad and Ainsley Galyen.

#5 Charlie Thorne of Lincoln Southeast ran a 36.96 300h at the Omaha Central meet on April 18, breaking the All-Class record of 37.29 set by Aaron Brandt of Bishop Neumann in 2006 and the Class A record of 37.36 set by Jeremy Buckner of Grand Island in 1991.

#4 Ike Ackerman of Omaha Central recorded a shot put of 65-04 at the Omaha Central meet on April 18 to break Larry Station's school and Class A shot put record of 64-09.5.

#3 Clara Spargo of Dundy County Stratton ran a 24.86 200 (-1.8 m/s) on Saturday, April 12 at Cambridge, breaking the oldest Class D record on the books. Karol McKenzie of Elwood had the previous record, running 25.20 in 1975. That marked Clara's second State record; she set the current Class D 400 record of 56.74 at the 2024 State meet. (Due to #9 above, Clara now holds all three Class D sprint records.)

#2 Austin Carrera of Hastings broke the Class B 3200 record on Friday, April 11 at Waverly, running 9:01.62. The previous record of 9:08.10 was set by Riley Boonstra of Norris at the 2024 State meet.

#1 Braden Lofquest of Gretna East broke the Class B and All-Class 1600 record on April 3 at Bellevue West, running 4:06.80. Braden held the previous Class B record at 4:12.11 from 5/1/24; Juan Gonzalez of Fremont held the previous All-Class record after running 4:08.61 at State last May.

Photos

The Nerd team hit 14 of the 28 District meets last week. Like many of our followers, we're juggling graduations, work, family and a lot of other things, so not all District albums are posted yet. You can check our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022 to see a list of albums posted through Monday, May 19. We've included below a few pics of the District meets that are already posted.

If you're interested in State photos, our turnaround time is protracted. We'll begin posting State photos once all of our 15 or so of the Nerds at State have finished editing their photos.

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on May 20, 2025. 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.