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5/08/22 Nerdsletter

Updated: May 8, 2022

Contributor: The Nerd


Folks, we're in the best part of the track season. The athletes may be tapering for Districts, but we're going long today. Grab a granola bar and enjoy all things nerd.


For you data nerds

We'll reference these resources throughout the Nerdsletter, but don't forget this useful info at our website:


We turned 30

Well, not 30 years old, but we took pictures at our 29th (Metros) and 30th (HAC) meets of 2022 on Tuesday. We post our photos on Facebook, and a link to photos for every meet we've attended this season is posted at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/copy-of-pictures. We're guessing there are over 15,000 photos from 2022; maybe your favorite athlete is in a few of them.


We turned 31 yesterday (Saturday) when we hit the PAL junior high Super Meet at Bellevue East. We were only there for four hours but we hope to post those photos by Monday night.


Speed work

In an effort to keep this week under 10,000 words, we'll give a few quick hits:

  • We previously noted that Seth Hirsch, a Millard West alum and current Wisconsin athlete, was in the transfer portal. He's decided to attend Colorado where he'll have one year of eligibility remaining in each of the three seasons. Seth is on our Mount Rushmore of distance GOATS, along with Milo Greder (Westside), Colby Wissel (Kearney) and.... well, we'll talk about the fourth guy later in the Nerdsletter.

  • We're hoping to compile a list of summer running camps. If you're aware of one or are a college who is offering camps, please DM or e-mail information to jayslagle@hotmail.com.

  • We wrote about Glenn 'Dane' Edwards last month. He was a 11-9.25 pole vaulter back at Hardy High School in 1949 when vaulters landed in sand pits instead of on a mat. He went onto Doane where he was an All-American in 1952. He's 90 now, and he'll be competing in the 100, high jump and long jump at the Senior Games in Fort Lauderdale that are being held May 10-23. Mason Kern from the GI TV station did a story on him that makes me want to be that vivacious when I'm 90.

  • Jeralyn Poe, who ran at Lincoln North Star, Michigan State and Northern Arizona, is now a pro runner that ran a 31:59 10K at the Sound Running meet this weekend. That appears to be a three-second PR and, according to somewhat dated USATF rankings, should keep her in the top 20 in the nation.

  • We've been following Alex France's career since he began running at Millard North. Alex is legally blind and uses a guide runner for races and some of his workouts. Tim Grundmayer, a standout at Gretna and Northwest Missouri State, has been his guide for most of Alex's competitive career. Alex now runs at Midland, and Channel 7 did a nice story on his collegiate career, which includes NAIA All-American status in the marathon.

  • We don't always catch great performances, so a nod to @LRCNebraska for highlighting Noah Rasmussen's great weekend. Noah, a Millard South alum, ran 4:12 at the Grand Blue Mile in Des Moines on April 26, and then ran a 65:33 half-marathon on May 1st. He was a beast on the Devaney indoor track this winter, running a 4:05.73 mile.

  • Eleven of the 15 fastest boys' 800 times came from this week. We have a feeling the race for an all-class gold is going to be entertaining.

  • Proud grandpa John Wick let us know that Alec Wick, a multi-podium distance guy at Blair/Doane, completed the Boston marathon last month in 2:47:23. Alec is married to Emily (Johnson) Wick, an Elkhorn South/UNO stud who was a consistent top-10 finisher in the Summit League championships. Emily also ran Boston and finished in 3:00:37. That's a speedy couple!


Nerd Athletes of the Week Ending 4/30

A boys - Malachi Coleman, Lincoln East - 10.53 100 and 21.58 200.

A girls - Brianna Rinn, Lincoln Southwest - 58.5 400, 2:13.4 800 and 5:08 1600

B boys - Mitchell Deer, Sidney - 49.18 400, 2:01.40 800

B girls - Kennedy Wade, Bennington - 12.30 100, 25.13 200

C boys - Ben Alberts, GICC - 1:55.83 800

C girls - Marissa Rerucha, GICC - 12-01 PV

D boys - Calvin Finley, Ansley Litchfield - 52.29 400, 2:01.92 800

D girls - Carli Bailey, Ansley Litchfield - 58.39 400, 16.65 100H, 46.37 300H


We've got cool graphics for all 8 award winners on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.


All-time awesomeness

The Metro and HAC meets on Tuesday featured eight new additions to the all-time top-ten lists:

Kate Campos, a junior at Lincoln Pius, notched the third-best mark in the 100 hurdles with a 14.19 and the second-best mark in the 300 hurdles with a 43.10. She's only 0.06 off the 300H mark set by Kianna Elahi of Millard North in 2007.


Maria Kimpson, a senior at Papio South, pole vaulted 12-05 at Metros to jump to #5 all-time. We're told that Maria was not set on vaulting on college, but last week may have changed her mind. If you've got a vaulting program in Colorado, Maria might like to talk to you.


Brianna Rinn of Lincoln Southwest, a Utah T&F commit, ran 4:54.75 (a 14-second PR) in the 1600 at HAC to move into 6th place all-time. Elli Dahl, a Nebraska commit, ran 4:55.77 to improve her PR by three seconds, and she now sits at 9th all time. Stella Miner (Westside sophomore) is 5th and Jaci Sievers (Elkhorn South junior) is 10th on the all-time lists. We've never had four sub-5:00 athletes in the same season.


Jaci Sievers ran a 10:38.49 3200 at Metros to move from 8th to 6th on the all-time list. Elli Dahl sits 13th on the list with her 10:47 from last season.


Gabe Hinrichs (Notre Dame) of Elkhorn South won the Metros 3200 in 8:57.80, his second career race under 9:00. He improved from 4th all-time to 3rd, jumping over John Nownes of Creighton Prep, and now sits behind Millard West's Seth Hirsch (8:54.12, 2017) and Kearney's Colby Wissel (converted 8:55.55, 2004).


Jaylen Lloyd of Omaha Central flew to a 24-01.75 long jump on a cool day at Metros. That puts him #7 on the all-time list, with Robert Rands of Bellevue East topping the charts with his 25-00.25 from 2005.


Finally, we had one near-miss on Tuesday at the Mid-States Conference meet. Carson Noecker of Hartington Cedar Catholic destroyed the Class C State 3200 record of 9:24.56 that he set in 2021, running 9:11.70. That also puts him at #13 on the all-Class all-time list. The Class C 1600 State record is held by Larry Kassebaum of Hebron; he ran 4:18.6 in 1967. I think it's only a matter of time before Carson gets that mark.


The media and our sport

During Tuesday's Metro meet, I got to talk to Peter Burtnett, a young sports reporter for Lee Enterprises who covers Sarpy County sports for the Papillion Times and other Sarpy-area publications. I had previously met Peter at a Platteview meet. A University of Dayton grad, he's been in Nebraska since March and has been a quick study of track and field.


Some complaints have been made about the lack of XC/T&F coverage by the World Herald (which is also owned by Lee), and that lack of coverage is why the Nerd team (and Dustin Llewellyn before us) dove into this hobby. The World Herald still posts articles about T&F; it has a photographer at some meets but it's my impression that most articles are based on phone interviews and internet results. I'm not dogging on the OWH; I will happily retweet any article they post.


I'm not a real journalist nor do I fully understand newspaper economics, but I do know that newspapers are struggling to make profits when they're competing with the entire Internet. Advertisers have fled newspapers for Google and social media, which for some purposes can be more targeted and more cost efficient than print advertising. Much in the same way that you can only find phone books in our grandparents' house, newspapers are now having to focus on reporting that drives subscription sales and web traffic. As a high school runner back in 1985, I couldn't wait to see the OWH's weekly top-ten lists, but does anyone under 25 years old even read a newspaper now?


Newspapers have to adapt. Collegiate sports, local politics, metro scandals... the reporters have great access to stories like these and can write semi-exclusive stories that draw followers and advertisers. High schools sports don't drive eyeballs until the State championships, which is why https://nebpreps.com/ and single-sports-focused venues like Prep Running Nerd have developed to cover those 8-12 weeks before State. How do the economics work for entities like us? In general, they don't. We're doing this as a hobby and we donate any profits we make from t-shirt sales. Other web outlets are selling advertising on their websites in order to avoid a paywall.


If you're expecting metro newspaper coverage to increase because you complain, it won't help. Their hands are tied. Stu Pospisil is essentially covering every high school sport while writing feature columns about Nebraska college teams; it's a six-man job and he's just one guy. The Lincoln Journal Star appears to have two reporters on the HS T&F beat - Brent Wagner and Clark Grell - and they provide excellent coverage. Marc Zavala (a great Twitter follow @markyz99 for folks in mid-Nebraska) at at the GI Independent seems to be at every sporting event within 100 miles of GI, radio guy Rich Barnett absolutely kills sports coverage around McCook, and there is no shortage of sports guys at small-town newspapers who do great work. The advertising/subscription may still work in small towns, which is why the small-town sports guys can still earn a paycheck.


What's the solution? Well, you can spend all of your free time being a Nerd, but that's probably not sustainable. A better solution is for high school journalism departments to dive into the field. If a high school can live-stream sporting events through Striv, they could certainly launch a Nerd-type production for their area. I talked to TV sports legend Ross Jernstrom at Metros; he's currently a 'Journalist in Residence' at Omaha Westside, teaching a few classes and going a hell of a job of mentoring kids. A Westside student, Carter Jankovich, wrote an excellent story about Stella Miner for the WestsideWired publication, and that's a great example of what high schools could be doing.


Is there a great future in journalism for high school students? Probably not as much as there used to be. However, the skills they learn in high school journalism can extend into any field. My two college boys have done a ton of Prep-related work this year, and I can see writing and analytical skills they've picked up by doing it.


Is your high school not on board with something like this? Well, you won't know until you pitch it to them. If that doesn't work, and you want to get involved, reach out to us. We're always interested in ways to expand our coverage to Class B, C and D.


Nerd gear is worth $3,500?

I provided our graphic to a Prep family who created a beautiful Nerd apron that was auctioned off at the annual Prep Bash fundraising event. The winning bid was $3,500, a new PR for us. Now, it's entirely possible that the bidder was more interested in the ten-person banana pancake breakfast and Mass by Father Tillman (Prep's XC coach) that was also part of the package. For several decades, Father Tillman has a tradition of having his varsity XC team to the Jesuit residence for pancakes and Mass, and clearly a Prep alumni has fond memories of those days.


On the topic of Nerd gear, we've been so busy this spring that missed our opportunity to sell gear. We'll try to do something in the lead up to XC season. As always, any profits will be donated to a running-related cause.


Junior high greatness

We don't the bandwidth to give appropriate coverage to collegiate and junior high athletes, but a few folks caught our attention.

  • Josiah Bitker of Lincoln Schoo ran a 2:11.10 and 4:46.03 at the LPS championships this week.

  • Eli Murillo, the junior high state XC champ last fall, has only one meet at athletic.net this spring while competing for Marrs Magnet, but he posted 2:11.6 and 4:49.6 at that meet. We believe he'll be at Junior High State next Saturday.

  • Landon Fye of Crete has run the 200/400 in 23.14 and 53.06, which are the fastest Nebraska times this year per athletic.net.

  • Katie Shafer of Cornerstone Christian has PRs of 12.91, 26.23 and 1:00.33 in the 100, 200 and 400, and she's got the top Nebraska marks in the 200 and 400. She'll run for Papio South next year.

  • Laura Blake of GICC has cleared 5-03 in the high jump this year.

  • Alyssa Onnen of Kearney Catholic leads the state with jumps of 17-01 (LJ) and 35-08.5 (TJ).


I had the chance to watch Leah Robinson of Elkhorn St. Patrick's at the PAL meet yesterday. She came into the meet with Nebraska's best 1600 mark at 5:26, and she won her second PAL 1600 title with a 5:19.67 (WOWT did a story on her first title). She's also got a state-leading 800 time of 2:26.29. Only a seventh grader, she plans to attend Elkhorn North in a few years. She also plays volleyball and AAU basketball, and her dad was a high-school All-American in the 4x200 while at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, NJ before competing at UConn for one year. Leah was in third place at the State junior high XC meet in October before collapsing with 50 meters, so it's great to see her bounce back this spring. We're excited to see what she does next year.


The junior high season is fairly short and some competitors may be looking to extend their seasons into the summer. Did you know that Nebraska has a vibrant USATF youth association? You can find general info on Nebraska USATF at http://nebraskausatf.org/main/ and a listing of clubs in Nebraska at http://www.nebraskausatf.org/2021/Active_clubs_2021-04-03.pdf. You can also compete unattached at the USATF meets. Both of my boys had great experiences with the USATF program, and it is not particularly time intensive.


Never too late to try

Speaking of athletes who are relatively new to running, a tweet from the Gretna T&F coach caught my eye. Isabella Bricker, who recently committed to the South Dakota T&F/XC program, did not join Gretna's program until the spring of her junior year. I e-mailed Isabella to ask about her athletic background, assuming she was club soccer player until last spring. She wasn't. She replied to me:


"I didn't do any sports in middle or and high school until I joined track my junior year. Before then, my only running experience was probably running laps around the school during elementary school run club. When COVID hit during my sophomore year, I didn't have a lot to do so I started running with my mom. I just ran for fun that summer and fall. I have a few friends who run XC and T&F, and they convinced me to go out for track last spring."


Isabella finished 13th in last year's State 1600 with a 5:24, was 13th in Class A State XC in October, and this spring she has PRs of 5:18 and 11:21.


Perhaps you're an athlete who has been cutting corners during high school. Maybe you've never gone out for a sport. Isabella will tell you that it's never too late to start.


My long lost nerd brother

Rich Barnett is the sports director for High Plains Radio in McCook, and he's also a big ol' track nerd. We connected by e-mail a few weeks ago, and he interviewed last week about all things T&F. We talked about the Fremont 4x800 team, the amazing female distance runners this, Story Rasby's 400 dominance, the field events, and so much more. The interview went so well that we're going to try to connect again on the Monday of State week. https://static.wixstatic.com/mp3/524de1_76210624881c4c71bd5f3492324d7e05.mp3


Speaking of Story Rasby

Story Rasby of Sutherland first caught our eye during the first few weeks of XC season, and we had her ranked 11th in Class D before she was injured. Just a freshman, she bounced back to finish 27th at State. According to our records, she leads the All-Class 400 rankings with a time of 57.36, just ahead of returning State champ Brynn McNair of Chase County. In addition, she's the Class C leader in the 200, 400 and 800, and in this season's top-10 All-Class marks for each event.


During my radio interview, Rich Barnett referenced the athletic talents of Story's parents, so I did a little investigating. Jessica Fox Rasby was a 3X All-American and 6x national qualifier while competing in springs at the University of Wyoming, and she was inducted into Wyoming's athletic Hall of Fame. Her uncle Chase Rasby was a 14-00 pole vaulter while at Sutherland High School, winning the Class C title in his junior year. He finished 6th as a senior with a vault of 13-06 and was also 8th in the 300 hurdles. Those are some seriously good athletic genes.


Burke bound

The Third and I spent most of Tuesday at Burke for the Metro meet, and we were disappointed to see that the huge scoreboard (previously at Rosenblatt Stadium) was not working. Rumor has it that the scoreboard can't be repaired, so two portable displays will be used for State. Burke is in need of a serious rehab but it's unclear whether any traction has been made for fundraising. I've been at most of the Class A track facilities in Nebraska, and I truly think that (a) the State meet needs to stay at Burke and (b) the community/OPS/State need to invest the money to make it the crown jewel of high school stadiums. I guess I'm going to need to sell a lot of t-shirts to make that happen.


State qualifying rules

In what turned out to be a fairly massive effort (so massive that he won't be doing Classes B-D, because passing his finals is kind of important), Nerd Junior prepared a spreadsheet at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings that attempts to project Class A State qualifiers based on season-best marks. We still have some tweaks to make to our spreadsheet, but in the process of explaining the qualifying rules to Junior, I realized that coaches represent the great majority of people who fully understand these rules. Here's a not-succinct summary.


Class A

Four district meets, and the top four athletes in each of the 14 individual events are auto-qualifiers for State. In the event of a tie for 4th, the athletes with the tie all auto-qualify. In addition, in all but the pole vault and high jump, the next eight best performances (comparing all four districts) are additional qualifiers; that number eight is reduced if there are ties for the 4th place qualifier. In theory, this means that a loaded District could have 12 qualifiers out of an event like the 1600. However, for the events with District finals (100, 100/110H, 200), you are only eligible for the extra qualifier spot if you are one of the eight finals qualifiers. If there is a tie for the last extra qualifying spot in running events, then none of those athletes qualify. If there is a tie for the last extra qualifying spot in the LJ, TJ, SP and discus, all of those athletes qualify.


There are only extra qualifiers in the pole vault and high jump if they meet the NSAA standard, which is the average of 8th place finish at State in the three prior years for that Class. For Class A, the standard is 13-06 (boys) and 10-02 (girls) in the pole vault and 6-03/5-01 in the high jump. As a final caveat for the pole vault, male athletes must clear 9-06 and females 6-06 to nab one of the auto-qualifying spots in any Class.


Finally, for relays the top three teams at each District will auto-qualify, but the next four fastest across the state to complete the State field of 16 teams.


Class B

The same general rules (extra qualifiers must be in finals, rules for ties) apply as in Class A, so I won't repeat those. There are six Class B Districts with three auto-qualifiers in each individual event, plus the six next best finishers in all but the pole vault and high jump. The standards for additional qualifiers in the PV and HJ are 13-02/9-10 and 6-03/5-01, respectively. Pole vaulters must clear 9-06/6-06 as the minimum to auto-qualify.


For Class B relays, the top two teams in each District will auto-qualify. The next four fastest teams across the state will also qualify.


Class C and D

The same general rules (extra qualifiers must be in finals, rules for ties) apply as in Class A, so I won't repeat those. There are nine Class C and D Districts with two auto-qualifiers in each individual event, plus the six next best finishers in all but the pole vault and high jump. The standards for additional qualifiers in the PV and HJ in Class C are 13-03/10-00 and 6-01/5-01, respectively; in Class D, the marks are 12-08/9-00 and 6-00/4-11. Pole vaulters must clear 9-06/6-06 as the minimum to auto-qualify.


For Class C and D relays, only the winner in each District will auto-qualify. The next seven fastest teams across the state will also qualify.


Is it fair?

The goal of the qualifying standards appears to be to get medal hopefuls to Burke. I think it does this to great success, but there will always be years where the approach isn't perfect. For example, the A-1 and A-3 Districts are absolutely loaded this year, and that means that there are going to some state-worthy sprinters who don't qualify for finals and thus aren't eligible for State. As in every year, we're going to see instances where an auto qualifier from one District might not even be a top-ten finisher at another District. One solution might be to eliminate Districts and let athletes qualify based on season-best marks (the NCAA does this), but I'm not sure that translates well to HS T&F given that not all meets are electronically timed. In addition, I'm guessing the majority of Class C and D athletes compete in winter sports, so they're probably not at their best until May. Regardless, these are the rules we have now, and it will be up to the coaches to come up with something better.


Club sports

I saw some Twitter chatter this week where parents were up in arms that basketball facilities were charging $10-$15 per person to enter youth basketball tourneys. A normal-sized family might spend $50-$100 in a weekend to watch their 10-year-old play basketball after they already paid hundreds of dollars for their 10-year-old to be on a competitive club team.


I have a solution. Quit club sports.


Someone may know better than I, but it's my impression that club sports became mainstream when soccer clubs were formed to encourage year-end skills development. After that came widespread select baseball, volleyball, and basketball. While club volleyball may truly be impactful - Nebraska's high school talent is among the best in the country - I truly question the value of club sports, particularly below 12 years old. There are examples of club athletes who captured huge scholarships from marquee schools, but I would argue that most of those kids had so much athletic talent that they would have risen to the top anyway. Conversely, I've seen many more examples of families who dumped thousands of dollars into select baseball, only to see their son out of the sport by high school. For every family whose investment in club sports leads to an actual college scholarship, I'm guessing there are 10-20 families that see no athletic financial aid during college. Simply put, for the majority of families, there is no financial return on club sports investments.


Don't give up on local sports organizations. There are great coaches everywhere. As a parent, you may be one of the best.


A thank you from the Nerd team

Westside Coach Preister appears to be the ringleader of a group of coaches who organized a service award for the Nerd from the Omaha Metro Conference. In addition to a nifty plaque that now sits next to my home computer, over a dozen Metro teams gifted us team t-shirts, sweatshirts, and a sweet stocking hat. We started Prep Running Nerd five years ago because we wanted to be more involved in this great running community, and we are honored to be able to wear your team gear. You are all awesome.


Notable Performances

Girls

100: Zakeirah Johnson (Burke) 12.25, Maggie Madsen (Elkhorn South) 12.54, Chloe Green (Westside) 12.57, Dakotah Ludemann (Sterling) 13.02, Dalli Anders (Crawford) 13.03

100h: Kate Campos (Pius X) 14.19*, Jaida Rowe (LSW) 14.38, Taylor Schuster (LSW) 15.24, Grace Pham (PLS) 15.58, Addison Webster (Gretna) 15.58, Aizlynn Krakfa (Northwest) 15.60

200: Lademi Davies (Westside) 24.92, Taylor Bredthauer (Norris) 25.28, Zakeirah Johnson (Burke) 25.50, Sadie Millard (MW) 25.69

300h: Kate Campos (Pius X) 43.10*, Jerzee Milner (Chase County) 46.54, Kailee Potts (Perkins County) 46.71, Kaitlyn Mousel (Adams Central) 46.93

400: Bryn McNair (Chase County) 57.52, Brooke Rose (Gretna) 58.53, Stella Miner (Westside) 58.64, Sadie Millard (MW) 58.75, Britt Prince (Elkhorn North) 59.25

800: Stella Miner (Westside) 2:15.59, Lucy Dillon (Fremont) 2:18.52, Deavion Deleon (PLS) 2:19.31, Taylor McCabe (Fremont) 2:19.94, Isabelle Hartnett (MW) 2:20.97, Sydney Stodden (Elkhorn North) 2:21.00, Britt Prince (Elkhorn North) 2:22.02

1600: Brianna Rinn (LSW) 4:54.74*, Elli Dahl (Fremont) 4:55.77*, Jaci Sievers (Elkhorn South) 4:59.64, Mia Murray (LE) 5:09.13, Berlyn Schutz (LE) 5:10.73, Brynn Hirschfeld (York) 5:17.54,

3200: Jaci Sievers (Elkhorn South) 10:38.4*, Claire White (Westside) 11:10.6, Isabelle Hartnett (MW) 11:13.6, Isabella Bricker (Gretna) 11:21.7, Reese Young-Oestmann (Westside) 11:35.5, Madison Seiler (Gering) 11:41.9

Shot put: Sage Burbach (Norris) 44-00.75, Kinsley Ragland (LNS) 41-00, Kaitlyn Nelson (Ainsworth) 40-08, Sierra H Kotschwar (McCook) 40-06.50, Avery Franzen (Kearney) 40-04

Discus: Abby Stallbaumer (South Loup) 133-04, McKinna Moats (Lexington) 132-02, Hadeley Dowty (Fremont) 126-06

Long jump: Lademi Davies (Westside) 18-04.50, Amari Laing (MS) 17-09, Keaton Musiel (LE) 17-07, Lilee Kaasch (MS) 17-06, Skylar Edmund (Sioux County) 16-09, Danika Hassel (Bayard) 16-08,

Triple jump: Lilee Kaasch (MS) 37-11.75, Amari Laing (MS) 36-03.75, Cassidy Hinken (GI) 36-02.75, Sara Iburg (Pius X) 36-02.25

High jump: Bianca Martinez (Central) 5-06, Ella Heckenlively (Gretna) 5-04, EJ Brown (Elkhorn South) 5-04, Alyssa Peoples (Burke) 5-04, Zoey Walker (Shelby-Rising City) 5-03

Pole vault: Maria Kimpson (PLS) 12-05*, Hailey Newill (Fremont) 11-06, Madeline Swanson (Beatrice) 11-00, Hailey Watermeier (LSW) 11-00, Melanie Driewer (York) 10-10, Olivia Broderson (PLS) 10-06


Boys

100: Jaylen Lloyd (Central) 10.73, Jack Gillogly (Creighton Prep) 10.86, LJ Richardson (BW) 10.93, Malachi Coleman (LE) 10.94, Dominic Sedlacek (Gretna) 10.98, Qwentin Coble (Broken Bow) 11.05

110h: Noah Smith (Gretna) 14.69, Xander Provance (Chadron) 14.89, Javon Leuty (Lincoln) 15.16, Rhett Cullers (Chadron) 15.16, Dahlton Wood (Cambridge) 15.66

200: Jack Gillogly (Creighton Prep) 22.00, Jaylen Lloyd (Central) 22.03, Quentin Moss (Lexington) 22.23, Kyrell Jordan (BW) 22.33, Micah Moore (Fremont) 22.33, Dillon Miller (Brady) 22.37, Kaden Miller (Kearney) 22.40,

300h: JP Mattern (Pius X) 39.37, Dash Bauman (LE) 39.42, Ezra Vedral (Creigton Prep) 40.65, Jacob Horner (Elkhorn North) 40.80, Daniel Puppe (LCC) 41.68

400: Tyson Baker (Fremont) 49.66, Caleb Mulder (Columbus) 49.97, Christian Lanphier (Creighton Prep) 50.35, Nathan Springer (Pius X) 50.38,

800: Cole Murray (Waverly) 1:54.36, Thomas Greisen (Pius X) 1:54.45, Tyson Baker (Fremont) 1:54.45, Tanner Cooper (Norris) 1:54.52, Gabe Hinrichs (Elkhorn South) 1:54.62, Braden Taylor (Fremont) 1:55.16, Matthew Dunaski (LNS) 1:56.03, Connor Wells (St Paul) 1:56.35, Nolan Slominski (Blair) 1:56.53, Jack Witte (MW) 1:57.08

1600: Gabe Hinrichs (Elkhorn South) 4:15.52, Carter Waters (Fremont) 4:21.95, Colby Erdkamp (Gretna) 4:22.17, Nolan Miller (Fremont) 4:23.38, Ian Salazar-Molina (Lexington) 4:26.19, Carson Nocker (Cedar Catholic) 4:28.76

3200: Gabe Hinrichs (Elkhorn South) 8:57.8*, Colby Erdkamp (Gretna) 9:24.33, Sam Kirchner (MW) 9:27.04, Isaac Ochoa (Norfolk) 9:28.11, Luke Johnson (Elkhorn South) 9:28.67, Cole Haith (MW) 9:29.27

Shot put: Sam Cappos (LE) 61-04, Nic Davis (NP) 60-00.75, Tad Dimmit (Sandhills Valley) 55-04, Daylin Mallory (Norfolk) 54-05, Dalton Gieselman (Bloomfield) 51-04,

Discus: Sam Cappos (LE) 181-04, Caiden Frederick (PLS) 175-00, Joe Keiny (Creighton Prep) 167-09, Landon Ternus (Columbus Lakeview) 164-04

Long jump: Jaylen Lloyd (Central) 24-01.75*, Chayton Bynes (Chadron) 22-11.75, Reece Grosserode (Pius X) 22-06, Preston Witulski (Beatrice) 22-05, Kolten Tilford (NP) 22-03.75, Rowdy Bauer (Norfolk) 22-00

Triple jump: Reece Grosserode (Pius X) 47-10, Jaylen Lloyd (Central) 46-00.50, Chayton Bynes (Chadron) 44-11

High jump: Malcom Tonje (Central) 6-04, Hayden Buman (GI) 6-03, Ben Hunzeker (LSW) 6-03, Isaac Stark (McCool Junction) 6-02

Pole vault: Drew Sellon (Fremont) 15-00, Grahm Peterson (LSE) 14-00, Jon Peterka (Sutherland) 13-10, Talon Krebs (Neligh-Oakdale) 13-08, Evan Hill (Bridgeport) 13-00


* - top 15 all-time mark


No room for fear or doubt

It's District week. The last obstacle before the State meet. You've worked hard all season, and the last thing we want is for your District performance to be diminished by fear or doubt. Need to get your mind straight? Do what Ella Buhlke of Central City did before 2021 State XC and read one of the most popular articles we've ever posted.


Coming this week

It's District week and, sadly, we still have work and finals. However, we're taking it up a notch and hitting three meets in one day. Junior will be at the Lincoln High A-4 District, Nerd the Third will be at Gretna's A-2 District, and I'll be at the Millard South A-3 District. We'd love to hit some District meets later in the week but, alas, work and finals are pretty important. Come talk to us if you see us at a meet; we'll be wearing Nerd gear and carrying very large cameras.


We also won't be at the Gothenburg State Junior High meet, but we strongly encourage others to attend. It's quite entertaining and one of the rare chances to see athletes from the small to very large schools all competing in the same events.


One final thought

I took a break from writing this to watch the Kentucky Derby. The TV coverage puts as much emphasis on the trainers as it does the horses and the jockeys. That gave me a thought: it would be incredibly entertaining to have a camera trained on coaches as their kids ran at State. Watching Matt Musiel of LNS, Jon Preister of Westside, Aaron Sasges of Homer - that would be almost as fun as watching the race.


Yes, we make mistakes

Did you find any errors in this article? We do this as a hobby, so we don't have editors looking over our shoulder. If you find an error, shoot us a DM on Twitter or Facebook, or e-mail us at jayslagle@hotmail.com. As always, thank you for all of your gentle corrections.


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Originally written for and posted at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle. Did you love reading about Nebraska high school running? Visit www.preprunningnerd.com for rankings, results, photos, long-form articles, frequent updates on our blog page, and a bunch of other cool stuff that only running nerds would think to do. If you want to see meet photos or just need to kill a few hours on social media, follow @PrepRunningNerd on Twitter and Instagram, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/preprunningnerd.

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