Contributor: The Nerd
Welcome to track season, that magical time in Nebraska when a track meet could feature a 100-degree heat index of sub-zero wind chills. The Nerd team is excited to get back into gear but we're more than happy to stick with indoor meets this first week of the season.
What exactly is the Nerdsletter?
Starting with this issue, we should be pretty reliable in publishing a weekly report on Nebraska track and field. While our primary focus is on high school athletes, we'll also do our best to cover notable achievements in the collegiate and junior high ranks. Ideally we'll publish a Nerdsletter each Wednesday, but it could be Tuesday or Thursday depending on how busy we are with meets.
If you have suggestions of topics you'd like to see covered in a future Nerdsletter, send an e-mail to jayslagle@hotmail.com. Our goal is to build up the track and field community, so we'll do as much as we can to achieve that.
Big things coming this spring
The most important things we do during track season is:
Pictures! Our volunteer Nerds will shoot more than 100 track meets between January and July, and we post all of those pictures for free at https://www.facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums.
Top results! Starting in mid-April, we'll be hosting a database that lists the top 15 performances by event and class. While we pull much of that information from athletic.net, not all meet results are posted to that resource, so we collect...
Meet results! Each weekend we ask our followers on Twitter and Facebook to help us build the Nebraska high school and collegiate T&F meet schedule for the week. That schedule is always posted at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/trackresults. Our Nerds use that schedule to pick which meets they'll attend, and we use the schedule to track down meet results. We'll have the most complete list of results in the State, which is why our Top Results database is so good.
New Nerds
We're adding five new Nerds this spring - Nerd on the DL, Distant Nerd, Nerdtron, Nerdfoot and a Nerd who has not yet been named (no, it's not Voldemort, we just haven't picked his name). We have 33 volunteer Nerds who will shoot anywhere between one and twenty meets this season, and they're spread across the State. Each Nerd has a bio listed on our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/about.
Winter marks
Most of Nebraska is focused on wrestling and basketball during January and February, but in recent years Nebraska has become a hotbed for open indoor high school meets. In addition, a few Nebraska athletes have traveled as far as Boston and Las Vegas for winter competitions, and we've done our best to capture the best winter marks of Nebraska high school athletes. That listing can be found at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/winter2025.
A few marks stand out:
Jaiya Patillo of Bellevue West ran a 24.76 200 at Concordia in December. That would have been the fifth-fastest 200 during last year's outdoor season, and she accomplished it on a 200-meter indoor track.
Emma Steffensen of Waverly ran a 2:14.99 at UNL in February. While the time is three seconds off her PR from the 2024 State meet, it's an impressive time so early in the year.
Juan Gonzalez of Fremont ran a 4:04.63 at NWMSU's flat 300 meter track in February, and a 8:55.97 two mile and 4:07.44 mile at New Balance Nationals this past weekend.
Braden Lofquest of Gretna East ran a 4:07.85 mile at UNL in February and then a 1:52.64 800 and 4:07.70 mile at New Balance Nationals.
Cece Kramper of Duchesne/Roncalli ran a 5:10 1600 at College of St. Mary in February and a 11:10 3200 at the Chicago Hoka Misfits meet in January.
Jayla Woods, a Millard North freshman, long-jumped 18-06, a few inches ahead of Willow Petri of Omaha Marian.
Auzlyn Anderson, a junior at Westside, triple-jumped 38-04.75 at Concordia, matching Alyssa Onnen's winter-best mark from 2024. Alyssa won the Class C TJ title last spring.
Claire Hellbusch, a junior at Lincoln North Star, had the winter's best high jump at 5-06.5. Claire finished 2nd at Class A State last May to EJ Brown, who did not appear to compete this winter.
Amarae Krafka of GINW pole vaulted 12-07 at a Fargo meet in February. Pius freshman Sami Campos was tied for the second best mark at 12-02; unfortunately, Sami broke her ankle in a subsequent competition. We're rooting for her to be back by Districts.
Charlie Thorne, a senior at Lincoln Southeast, recorded the best 60 meter (6.87) and 200 meter (22.15 banked and 22.23 flat) times of the winter, topping the 2024 bests recorded by Ethan Baessler (6.90, Blair) and Asher Jenkins (22.26, Bellevue West), two studs who are now competing collegiately.
Vendell Juzyk (senior, Aurora) stands out among horizontal jumpers with his 45-03 triple jump at Concordia in December.
Ike Ackerman (senior, Omaha Central) and Brock Bailey (sophomore, Dundy County Stratton) stand out among large men throwing heavy things, heaving the shot 59-06 and 58-03, respectively. Ike had an undefeated shot put season in 2024, winning the Class A title, while Brock was the Class D runner-up with a 54-00.75 thrown, roughly six inches below his PR.
Three seniors topped 14' feet in the pole vault over the winter: Roe Patton, now jumping for Class B Aurora, Liam McGlynn of Elkhorn South, and Boston Irish of Cozad. Roe cleared 15-00 last March before suffering a season-ending injury in late April; he won the Class D title for Fullerton in 2023. Liam also has a PR of 15-00 and won the 2024 Class A State title at 14-00 after finishing 2nd in 2023. Boston is the defending Class B champ.
Thane Baker, legend
Last month a Nebraska meet official asked me if I knew about Thane Baker, a 93-year-old Omahan. Thane grew up in Kansas, competed at Kansas State, and at one time held the world record in the 100- and 200-yard dashes. He earned at total of three individual medals at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, plus a 4x100 gold medal and world record in 1956. His Wikipedia page is pretty dang impressive. His daughter, a college professor, wrote a book about his Olympic experience: Running in Borrowed Shoes: Thane Baker and the 1956 Summer Games. You can order a copy at https://www.tcupress.com/9780875658698/.
Still impressed
If you've been a faithful reader of the Nerdsletter the past three years, you already know we're big fans of Berlyn Schutz. She was a junior high and freshman XC phenom before hitting a performance lull in high school. Here is her arc of 1600/mile times: 7th grade (5:06), 8th grade (5:01), 9th grade (COVID year), 10th grade (5:22), 11th grade (5:10), 12th grade (4:50), college freshman (4:37), college sophomore (4:35 and UNL mile record). Nearly every athlete has peaks and valleys, and we're a firm believe in the mantra espoused by Berlyn's dad: "Just keep running."
National champs
Over the past three weeks Nebraska had the good fortune to claim a few T&F national champions:
Kaylee Pribyl, Doane sophomore - pole vault 13-03.05. Kaylee was a two-time State PV champion at Meridian HS in Nebraska.
Madison Sutton, Doane senior - weight throw 63-07.75. Madison was a four-time State throws medalist at Lexington.
Zach Turner, Doane senior - 60m hurdles 7.70. Zach earned three State medals while competing for Crete.
Robert Atwater, Midland junior - heptathlon 5396 points. He is from Lincoln Park, Michigan.
Alexina Johannson, UNL senior - shot put 19.28 meters. The Sweden native earned her second national title.
Tyus Wilson, UNL senior - high jump 7-05.75. The Sterling, Kansas native improve upon his runner-up finish at 2024 outdoors and is now a four-time NCAA First-Team All American.
Dajaz Defrand, USC junior - 60 meters 7.09.
At the NAIA women's meet, Doane finished 2nd with 48 points and Concordia finished 20th with 13 points. On the men's side, Doane finished 3rd with 39 points while Midland finished 6th with 28 points. At the D1 meet, the UNL men finished 12th and the women finished 20th.
College recruiting
The landscape for college recruiting has changed significantly due to the transfer portal and NIL (name, image, likeness) rules. For non-revenue sports like cross country and track & field, those changes will likely lead to reduced opportunities to compete at the D1 level. We wrote an article last fall that provides an overview of the changes at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/house.
If you or your child is just starting their search for a college at which to compete, here's the good news: Nebraska colleges offer participating and growth opportunities for athletes at almost every skill level. Several years ago we wrote a guide about how to select a college (click here); we also have a listing of all Nebraska college programs (click here) as well as some that are nearby.
This and that
UNK's roster mostly consists of Nebraskans so the signing of Lily Brewer of distance powerhouse Olathe West (KS) stuck out when I saw the announcement on X. However, she comes from a Nebraska background. Her father Kevin Brewer was Nebraska All-Class Gold Medalist in 800 for Minden in 1994, her mother Melissa Wilson was Nebraska All-Class Gold in Medalist in 1600 for Scottsbluff in 1995 (when Scottsbluff was Class A), and her grandfather Ron Brewer was a coach at Minden for decades. He was also on a 4x400 relay from 1968 that is still #3 on the UNK All-Time Top 10 list. Lily's parents were UNL teammates of UNK coach Brady Bonsall.
Josh Peterson, an Omaha sports radio media guy, is also a marathoner who started the 'Chasing Three Hours' podcast a few years ago. His latest interview was with Milo Greder, a standout distance runner who ran at Westside, Iowa State and Cincinnati. Milo clocked a 2:19 debut marathon in Mesa and has now set his sights on qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Trials. We enjoy all of Josh's interviews but Milo's is especially relevant to the high school T&F scene. The podcast is available on all major podcast providers (Apple, Spotify, etc) and at Josh's website at https://joshtweeterson.substack.com/.
During the Super Bowl Nike premiered a 60-second commercial focusing on girls' & women's sports, so I was predisposed to love it. However, the overall message was that naysayers are always telling females that they can't do this or that in sports, so let's prove them wrong by sticking it to them. During my time at Nerd HQ, I don't think I've met one person who was telling girls that they can't be successful in sports. Indeed, the people I know who coach females are incredible. I'm no marketing guy, but I would have spent the $4 million telling female athletes how awesome they are.
Former UNK standout Wes Ferguson opened his 2025 season with a 1:44.92 800 to finish 3rd at the USATF indoor national championships, just missing a berth at World indoors by one place. His time was the 6th fastest indoor time in US history. Wes continues to train under Coach Bonsall in Kearney.
If you think you have to be a high school standout to perform well in college... well, here's Example #2643 of a late bloomer. Doane junior Michael Grigsby, who played soccer instead of running track at Elkhorn North, won the GPAC mile and finished 6th at NAIA Nationals, improving his PR to 4:11.08. He ran 4:24 as a sophomore.
Papio South alum and current SDSU sophomore was named Summit League Field Event MVP after finishing 2nd in the weight throw and 3rd in the shot put.
South Dakota senior Mason Sindelar, a Pierce HS alum, won the 800 and mile at the Summit League meet. He registered PRs of 1:49.34 and 4:03.07 this year. Those are his first two Summit titles. Speaking of late bloomers, Mason's high school PRs were 1:58 and 4:35.
Gering alum and current Kenesaw State sophomore Maddie Seiler finished 2nd in the Conference USA 5000 in 16:51 and 6th in the 300 in 9:39. Maddie was a three-time Class B State XC champ.
NDSU sophomore and Superior alum swept the Summit League long jump and triple jump. She won eleven State T&F medals including three horizontal jump titles.
The votes are in. According to a Twitter poll we conducted in February, 92% of respondents call a career best a 'PR' (personal record) compared to 8% who refer to it as a "PB" (personal best).
One of the hot topics on track Twitter was the video of a relay runner who used her baton to assault one of her competitors who passed her during an indoor meet. The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZVKyjezTZQ. The accused says that the video was a bad angle and she didn't strike her competitor; the victim says she incurred a concussion and a possible skull fracture from the attack. Charges have been filed.
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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on November 17, 2024. 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 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 Hassenstab," a story about a high school triple jumper who became a quadrapalegic after a swimming accident.