Nerdsletter 5/9/25

jayslagle
3 hours ago
14 min read

Contributor: The Nerd

The final lap

Since Nerd Junior's competitive running career started at St. Margaret Mary thirteen years ago, Nerd HQ has had more than its share of PRs, injuries, peaks, valleys, break-throughs, end-of-season disappointments, medals and lessons learned. On Saturday night, Nerd the Third ran his final collegiate race in Iowa City, and with that the curtain has fallen on the Nerds' competitive career. To be sure, Jack and Henry will continue to be active in road races and triathlons, but it was bittersweet to watch Henry's last race in a school uniform.

A few weeks ago I ran into one of my co-workers at a Saturday morning charity event. Knowing that she had three kids in elementary school, I asked what her weekend schedule looked like.

"I'm missing a soccer game and baseball game this morning, but we've got two soccer games and a baseball game this afternoon. Tomorrow we have a baseball tournament in Omaha and a volleyball tournament in Lincoln."

I must have had a shocked look on my face.

"I know, I know, we're overscheduled. But I love to see my kids compete, they love competing, and I know they're learning lessons about teamwork, resilience, and winning and losing gracefully, even if they don't realize it."

I had to agree.

Cherish it as much as you can. Before you know it, thirteen years have gone by in a flash.

Is four days the right number for State?

We've have considerable feedback on last week's article, "Is four days the right number for State?" that we posted at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/state4days. However, the feedback was mixed. Contrary to our expectations, about half of our Class C/D followers supported a change to the current format, while about half of the A/B were fine with the status quo. Once you've had a chance to read the article, please consider answering the following two poll questions:

What format would you prefer for a State meet?

Two days
Three days
Four days

One follower suggested that - contrary to the normal NSAA legislative process - the current format of A/B on Wednesday/Thursday and C/D on Friday/Saturday appears to be a decision made by the NSAA staff. The follower suggested we pose the following question in a poll:

Should the NSAA change the four-day State meet to have Class A/B competing on Wed/Thur in even years and Fri/Sat in odd years?

Record watch

With some near-perfect weather over the past week, we saw six new State records. Here's the run-down for the season:

#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. The West Holt boys were 0.10 seconds behind Battle Creek on Thursday, so look for the two squads to battle again at the C-4 District meet and at State.

#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. On his second of two warm-up throws before the prelim round, I watched him throw approximately 68 foot based on the chalk lines (which were accurate during competition) while stepping out of the throwing circle. I would put money on him taking down the All-Class record of 66-11.5 by Marty Kobza of Schuyler in the next two weeks.

#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. (It would be awesome if meets in Columbus would move to live results on athletic.net.)

#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.

Performance database

As a reminder, we have created what we believe is the most up-to-date and most-updated database of performances by Class and gender at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings. The database also includes the current State record mark in each event, allowing you to see how close this year's athletes are to the historical standard. Keep that tab on your phone over the next week as we get read for the State meet.

Districts

As the District meets get closer, we'll publish a list of the live results links for each site so that our followers can track the progress of at-large qualifiers. We'll also provide a list of which meets where we will have Nerds. With 28 District meets, our volunteers certainly can't cover all of them, but our goal is to take pictures at 14 meets.

State qualifying process

Each year there is considerable confusion among new varsity athletes and their parents about how athletes qualify for the Nebraska State track meet. In general, twenty-four (24) athletes qualify for individual events and sixteen (16) teams qualify in relays, but there are a number of caveats to those numbers. Here's a not-succinct summary.

Class A

In Class A there are FOUR district meets, and the top four athletes in each of the 14 individual events are auto-qualifiers for State (so that's 16 qualifiers). 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 auto-qualifier. In theory, this means that a loaded District could have 12 qualifiers out of a no-prelim event like the 400 or 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 to the thousand of a second for the last extra qualifying spot (i.e., the 24th 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 13-02 (boys) and 10-02 (girls) in the pole vault and 6-03/5-02 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. For example, if male athletes finish 3rd and 4th in a Class A District pole vault competition but both only clear 9-00, then neither advances to State.

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 13-06/10-08 and 6-01/5-01, 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 12-10/9-10 and 6-01/5-02, respectively; in Class D, the marks are 12-04/9-02 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. Each year there are 'loaded' Districts according to some observers, 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 other 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.

Junior high meets

By the time we post this Nerdsletter, the qualification period will have passed for the Nebraska Championship Meet being held on May 17th in Gothenburg. This is effectively the junior high State championship in Nebraska and it's worth attending if you have the time. While Lincoln and Omaha athlete attendance can be spotty, this meet brings together some of the best athletes in Nebraska. It's a well-run, invitation-only meet where you can see future high school stars. The meet's website at https://nebraskachampionshipmeet.com/ is a great source of information, including how athletes qualified.

This Saturday, May 10, Gretna is hosting an inaugural Omaha-area meet (the Nebraska Elite Classic) that should also feature great competition and a be a nice bridge between conference meets and the Gothenburg meet. The meet uses similar qualifying standards, taking athletes with the best submitted marks. Participating schools include the 23 Omaha-area parochial league schools, the EMC conference schools, and athletes from the Millard, Papillion, Westside and Bellevue school districts.

Middle school Mondays

Each Monday we ask our social media followers to highlight great junior high performances from the prior week. We'll cheat again and give a shout out to a performance from this week. On Thursday, May 8, 8th-grader Avery Arens of Crofton ran a 5:04:18 1600 at Battle Creek. Athletic.net lists the mark as the 7th-fastest junior high time in the US this spring. Even more impressive, the time is faster than the current Class C high school record of 5:05.23 set by Rylee Rice of Ainsworth in 2017.

With that said, here are a few top marks we saw from last week:

Evan Cameron, Scotus - 52.98 400, 6-04 HJ

Max Mora, Trinity Lutheran - 53.30 400

Donovan Johnson, McMillan - 11.34 100

Maddox Helgoth, Horizon - 2:08.9 800

Kamden Cupples (7th), Wencislaus - 4:51.46 1600

Jasper Semrad, Fremont - 4:52.7 1600

Norfolk 4x400 - 3:49.6

Sandy Creek 4x800 - 9:11.00

Grant Poessnecker, West Holt - 48-9.5 SP

Ben Frame, Sutherland - 11-2 PV

Arlan Lammers, Niobrara Verdigre - 41-8.5 TJ

Kinley Ford, Alma - 1:01.21 400, 2:23.34 800, 10-0 PV

Reagan Carey (7th), Minden - 1:01.57 400

Nevia McBride (7th), Sandy Creek - 2:23.62

Avery Arens, Crofton - 5:12.66 1600

Emily Hegge, Papillion - 5:14.38 1600

Kallyn Kassebaum, Lincoln Christian - 15.44 100h

Grace Means, Horizon - 29.32 200h

GINW 4x100 - 51.49

GINW 4x400 - 4:18.03

Sandy Creek 4x800 - 10:33.19

Lydia Cone, Pierce - 117-06 discus

Stella Peterson, Aurora - 35-06 TJ

Our followers contributed the following highlights:

Dayne Neujahr, Shelby-Rising City - 12.91 100, 26.86 200, 1:01 400, 34-04 TJ

Jack Radda (6th), St. James Seton - 59.46 400, 26.75 200

Will Kastl, Russell - 24.09 200, 54.02 400

Woodensky Senechal (7th), Omaha Concordia - 24.07 200 and part of three relay golds

Boyd County 4x100 - 49.88

Boyd County 4x400 - 4:00.9

Wes Paschal, Auburn - 147-08 discus, breaking Mike Schoff's 48-year-old school record

CJ Armstrong, St. Columbkille/St. Gerald - 140-03 discus

Johnathon Kreifels, St. Patrick's Elkhorn - 130-07 discus

Willow Sullivan (7th), Christ Lutheran Norfolk - 13.1 100

Madison Scott, Russell - 5:36 1600

Run for Kaiden

At the April 30 JV meet hosted by Papio South, the Titan boys offered a unique tribute to Kaiden Walsh, a Papio South junior who tragically died in a January car accident. Kaiden ran the 800 during his freshman and sophomore years with a career-best 2:42. On Tuesday, there were three heats of the 800, and Kaiden's younger brother and sister rang the bell for the final lap of each race. The third heat consisted of thirty-five Papio South boys, including throwers, who did their best to run a 2:42. I can't think of a better tribute for Kaiden.

Commitments

We continue to update the Class of 2025 college commitment list at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/25commit. If you spot an error or omission, please DM us or send an e-mail to jayslagle@hotmail.com.

Nerd gear

From now until May 10th, we're offering free shipping on our Nerd gear at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/shop if you use the coupon code BRUCE at checkout. You might think this is fake news, but wearing a Nerd shirt is scientifically proven to make you 53% more attractive.

Sprints

Fort Calhoun 2019 graduate Taya Skelton, now a second-year student at UNL Law School after competing for the Huskers, won Sunday's Lincoln Marathon in 2:54:09. It was her first marathon.
I ran the Lincoln half and warmed up alongside Bailey Schindler, who was running her first marathon. Bailey told me that she had half-heartedly competed in track during her days at Kenesaw High School, and that she was recently drawn to the marathon in part to lose some 'baby weight.' She asked for advice and I drew a blank. Fortunately, she didn't need the help, and she finished in 4:32. Bailey has no idea what or who Prep Running Nerd is, but I was thrilled to see her strong finish.
About thirty minutes after the EMC meet wrapped up in Gretna on Tuesday, there were two people still left in the stadium. Derek Fey packed up his timing equipment while he watched Braden Lofquest, who had run the 1600 about 90 minutes earlier, finish his day with a short workout... because running a 4:06 1600 wasn't enough work. I'm excited to see what Braden does in two weeks at State.
Jasper Semrad, an 8th grader at Fremont, ran a 4:52.7 1600 last week. I know, I already listed it above. However, I'm repeating it here for one notable reason: Jasper broke Juan Gonzalez's middle school record.
I've made this observation before, but I think parents would know how to better support their distance runners if they had even a taste of the pain and effort involved for an athlete to give his or her best effort during a race. Before I hurt my knee in 2020, I made a habit of running at least one timed and high-effort mile each summer to better understand that sense of hopelessness and fatigue that my sons felt during the last lap of a competitive race. On Sunday I felt that same despair when I ditched my conservative race plan and pushed the pace for most of my 13 miles. When you face your physical and mental limit, you quickly realize that yelling 'catch him' and 'go faster' just aren't that helpful when your child is racing. Even more than that, your hard effort will give you greater appreciation and respect for what your child does.
As distance running fans, we hear a lot of conversation about performance-enhancing methods that are both legal (super shoes) and illegal (PEDs). At the Omaha North meet on May 1st, I saw what may be the most impressive performance-enhancing tool of all - the mustache on the North Platte runner pictured below. It's a thing of beauty.

Photos

The Nerds had a busy week of shooting and editing. Since the last Nerdsletter, we've uploaded albums for the following meets: Wesleyan collegiate and Westside JV (both 4/26), Columbus Lakeview, Ponca (both 4/29), Beadle/Russel JH, Gretna, Omaha North, Hastings (all 5/1), Fremont junior high (5/2), SNC @ TriCounty, Gothenburg, SWC @ Ogallala (all 5/3), Cozad (5/6) and Plainview (5/7). We're severely backlogged with our editing (I'm the worst) so we still owe you albums for Fremont JV (4/29), Gretna (5/1), GPAC collegiate (5/3), O'Neill (5/3), Winnebago (5/3), Kimball (5/5), HAC (5/6), Metros (5/6 and 5/7) and York (5/6).

As a reminder, over 95% of our photos are uploaded as albums with meet names but unfortunately we can't control how FB labels individual photos. You can see albums at https://facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums or a chronological listing of all 60+ meets we've shot this season at https://preprunningnerd.com/2022.

Beadle/Russell MS dual (yet-to-be-named-Nerd Matt Scott)

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on May 8, 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.