Nerdsletter 4/23/25

Contributor: The Nerd

Performance database

We continue to make manual fixes to our performance database when athletic.net leads us astray, but we're confident our Top-15 list is the best resource available. Go to https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings and click on the spreadsheet link under '2025 Track.'

If you find something wrong or missing, please DM us or email jayslagle@hotmail.com with the info. We can't fix everything. For example, in the Class D girls long jump, Addisyn Sweeney is listed twice because one mark is outdoors and one mark is indoors. It's easier to add data than delete what athletic.net feeds us, so that particular problem may be a tough one to fix.

We update our spreadsheet at least twice per week, so just be aware that marks aren't added immediately.

Seven more records

When I was interviewed by Rich Barnett of the McCook radio station on Thursday morning, I told Rich that we would not have the 30+ State records we had last year but we'd still have at least ten more before the season was over. Since we had three new records at the time of the interview, the over/under would be set at thirteen. You might want to bet on the 'over' because seven records have been tied or broken in the past five days. We'll keep a running narrative of the State records in the Nerdsletter, starting with the most recent.

#10 The Dundy County Stratton boys 4x100 squad (above) 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.

Clara Spargo @ Chase County Invite (Nerd Stammpede)

#9 Clara Spargo (above) 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 breaks the record of 12.30 set in 2024 by Adi Hunt of Southern Valley, which now competes in Class C. Clara also ran a wind-legal 12.30 (+2.0 m/s) in the finals later that day.

#8 The West Holt boys 4x400 team of Drake Nemetz, Andrew Rentschler, Lincoln Konrad and Brody Galyen ran 3:21.22 in the KU prelims on Friday night, just missing the Class C record of 3:21.17 set by Chase County in 2024. However, they had the second fastest time in prelims and qualified for the Saturday night finals where they ran 3:18.75 to finish 2nd and break Chase County's record. The All-Class record of 3:16.48 is held by Millard West, and that seems to be in reach now. Galyen is the only underclassmen on the team so the other three boys will be motivated to make these last four weeks count.

#6 The West Holt girls 4x400 team of Pavan Larson, Hollynn Konrad, London Konrad and Ainsley Galyen ran a 4:00.79 on Friday night at the KU Relays to tie the Class C record set in 2024 by... wait for it... the West Holt squad of Pavan Larson, Taylor Walnofer, London Konrad and Ainsley Galyen. According to the live results, West Holt ran the 8th fastest time at KU but was not advancing to Saturday's nine-team finals because two teams with slower times had won their heats. However, the meet officials decided that they hadn't fully communicated the advancement plan, so two heats of five teams were advanced to the finals. West Holt is not submitting their record-tying time to the NSAA because...

#7 The West Holt girls ran 3:58.52 on Saturday night, smashing their previous Class C record by over two seconds. Here's the scary part: there is plenty of time left this season to improve upon their record... and Ainsley Galyen is the only senior on the team.

(Are you starting to think the Konrad and Galyen kids have good genetics? Based on this season's results from 8th-grader Blake Galyen and 7th-grader Brynnlinn Konrad, it seems likely.)

Charlie Thorne @ Omaha Central Invite (Nerdy by Nature)

#5 Charlie Thorne of Lincoln Southeast has improved by leaps and bounds since his junior season, and it's been evident since his first indoor meet when ran a 49.52 400. He was primarily a hurdler and 4x400 guy last year but he's expanded his horizons this year. His All-Class rankings as of Monday at noon: 5th in the 100 (10.61), 2nd in the 200 (21.57), 1st in the 300h (36.96), 1st in the 400 (47.34) and 3rd in the 4x400 relay (3:19.68). He recorded his 36.96 300h at the Omaha Central meet on Friday, 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. Now a senior, Charlie's high school career includes just one outdoor open 400 - the 47.34 he ran on April 11. That time is only 0.36 seconds away from the All-Class record of 46.98 set by Lukas Hulett of Bellevue East in 2006. Stu Pospisil wrote an interesting article about Charlie behind the World Herald paywall at this link.

Ike Ackerman @ Omaha Central Invite (Nerdy by Nature)

#4 Ike Ackerman of Omaha Central has been chasing Larry Station's school and Class A shot put record of 64-09.5 the past two years, and he came within 1.5" of matching it on March 29. At his 'home' meet at Omaha Bryan on April 18, he had some extra motivation thanks to Barrett Wilke of Stanton. Barrett came into the meet with the #2 throw in Nebraska after he threw 61-05 on April 8th, and he opted to go outside Stanton's normal meet schedule to have a head-to-head matchup with Ike. The extra competition paid off, with Ike at 65-04 and Barrett 64-06 after two rounds. That was the final result. Station's record of 64-09.5 had stood since 1982. If you're not familiar with Larry, he was also a linebacker who led Iowa in tackles for four years and played one year for the Pittsburgh Steelers before a back injury forced him to retire from football.

#3 Clara Spargo of Dundy County Stratton was 2nd in the 200 on Saturday, April 12 at Cambridge, finishing behind Adi Hunt of Southern Valley, but her time of 24.86 was plenty fast enough to break the Class D record. Karol McKenzie of Elwood had the oldest girls' record on the books, running 25.20 in 1975. Clara set her record running into a slight headwind, measuring -1.8 meters/second. 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.

What should we break next?

If you want to get a better feel for how close this year's top athletes are to breaking a State record, go to our performance database listed under '2025 Track' at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings.

In addition to the top 15 performances for each Class, we list the current State record. Based on those comparisons and ignoring the athletes who set a record this season and might break it again, here are our guesses for five more records likely to be broken this season:

The Class A boys 1600 record of 4:08.61 was set by Juan Gonzalez in 2024. Juan ran a 4:04 indoor 1600 in February and should get this record, and possibly the All-Class record of 4:06.80, if weather conditions permit. Juan could also break his All-Class 3200 record of 8:51.83 if the conditions were right, but I'm not sure that's a priority for him.
Charlie Thorne of Lincoln Southeast seems likely to break the boys 400 All-Class and Class A record of 46.98 if he runs it a few more times. Remember, he's run the open outdoor 400 just once in his high school career.
I think we'll see at least one pole vault record fall this season. The two best possibilities are Alyssa Onnen and Boston Irish. Alyssa holds the current Class C pole vault record at 12-09.25 and seems to be the best candidate to break the All-Class record of 13-4 set by Jaidyn Garrett of Columbus in 2019. Boston has jumped 16-00 this season and is shooting for the 16-07.25 All-Class and Class B record set by Tyce Hruza of Gothenburg in 2019. If you're looking for a third possibility, Marcus Hernandez of Bertrand is 7.75" away from the Class D record. Fun fact: Marcus is also a distance guy who qualified for the State cross country meet all four years and previously qualified for the State track meet in the 3200 (twice) and 1600 (once).
The Bennington girls 4x100 squad is 0.31 seconds from the Class B State record of 48.12 set by GI Northwest in 2022. They've got the talent to break it.
Two girls - Addisyn Sweeney of Cedar Bluffs and Sheridan Falk of Nebraska Christian - are within six inches of breaking the Class D long jump record of 18-05.75 set by Claire Cornell of Elm Creek in 2018. If they're going to multiple meets that take wind measurements, I think one of them breaks the record. If the State meet is the only time they have access to wind measurements, a new record becomes less likely. Given that big IF, our next likely candidate would be the Class D girls discus. Kennedy Bailey of Dundy County Stratton is within ten feet of breaking the mark of 147-08 set by Samantha Musil of Pawnee City in 2006. Another fun fact: on Tuesday Kennedy ran the lead-off leg for the Dundy County Stratton's 4x100 team, which has the best time in Class D this year.

We should see at least a dozen more records that could fall if the weather is right, a top athlete is rested and... there's a wind gauge.

Commitments

It took us a while to get our act together, but last weekend we posted our list of Class of 2025 T&F and XC commitments at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/25commit. If you see an error or omission, please let us know.

Boston marathoner finishers

We've compiled a list of Nebraska and Nebraska-adjacent finishers from Monday's marathon at this link. Congratulations to all of you who qualified and finished. There are many running nerds out there who wish they could do the same.

JH studs

Our Middle School Monday social media posts are finally taking off. We identified the following outstanding performances:

Kellen Jones, Kearney Horizon, 23.97 200

Quin Armstrong, North Bend Central, 2:13.28 800

Maddox Helgoth, Kearney Horizon, 4:54.90 1600

Mark Doyzha, Beatrice, 15.32 100h

Hayden Hoffman, Boyd County, 156-3 discus

Evan Cameron, Scotus, 6-02 HJ

Ben Frame, Sutherland, 11-00 PV

Bentley Masek, Col Lakeview, 12.38 100, 26.76 200, 15-03.75 LJ, 33-06.5 TJ

Hailee Mapson, Palmyra, 26.76 200, 1:00.58 400

Emmersyn Lawless, Lexington, 2:26.4 800

Jazi Frey, HTS, 54.98 300h

Maywood Hayes Center 4x800 10:48.74

Camryn Sutton, Lexington, 110-02 discus

Finley Rotherham, Gering, 5-03 HJ

Kinley Ford, Alma, 9-06 PV

Joy Trimble, Pender, 33-11 TJ

Our followers deluged the Facebook post with comments, and here are a few of the athletes they mentioned:

Canton Skomp of Chase County and Andrew Goodell of Perkins County, both 7th graders, ran 5:08 and 5:09 1600's last Wednesday at the Perkins County meet.
Teddy Haake of Norfolk Catholic ran a 5:08 1600.
The McCool Junction girls 4x100 team of Kenley, Kensingtyn, Klaire and Kayliana (the "K-squad") broke a McJ record that has stood since 1981.
Lynae Nielsen of Niobrara-Verdigre ran the 100 hurdles in 17.0.
Cole Burg of Kearney Catholic won the 100 (11.61) and 200 (23.88) at Centura.
Kyler Francis of Logan View broke the pole vault school record with his 10-06 vault.
Reagan Carey (7th) of Minden tied the school record with her long jump of 16-02.5.
Braxton Spicer of Hay Springs posted marks of 12.35 (100), 17-02.5 (LJ) and 33-04.5 (TJ).
Jase Bornemeier of Elmwood Murdock dropped 16 seconds off his PR on Thursday, four months to the day after he suffered two broken femurs and a broken clavicle in a car accident.
Yanathan Perez of Wood River set new school records in the 1600 (5:09) and 800 (2:24) at Centura.
Carter Ribble (7th) of Beatrice ran a 5:03 1600 and 2:21 800 in his first JH meet.
Chloe Selk of Oakland-Craig ran a 31.91 200 hurdles to set a school record.
Graham Jansen (7th) of Gretna Middle School long jumped 18-05.
The Adams Central girls (Harper, Elle, Kinlee and Alaina) ran a 52.74 4x100.
Peter Lickteig of St. Margaret Mary in Omaha ran a 4:48.77 1600 to break Nerd Junior's 11-year-old school record. Nerd Junior is officially a has-been.

Sprints

Papio South girls distance coach Jeremy Haselhorst will be speaking at the Nebraska Coaches Association clinic this summer on the topic of training female high school distance runners. He is asking for coaches to send him questions on the topic so his talk will be more helpful. Please e-mail at jeremy.haselhorst@plcschools.org if you have questions to submit.
Records are meant to be broken, and we appreciate former record holders who celebrate new records. On Friday, Charlie Thorne broke the Class A 300 hurdles record that had been held by Jeremy Buckner since 1991. Sadly, Jeremy passed away in 1999 in the line of duty as a police officer. After we posted on X and Facebook that Charlie had set the new record, Jeremy's sister and brother both responded. Stacia Buckner Rice posted on X: "Bitter sweet! What an amazing race for this young athlete!!! I’m really proud of how long my brother had it actually. With all the new training and sports performance now a days, I’m sure this one will stand for another 30 years. Way to go Charlie! Our family is proud!" Erick Buckner replied on Facebook: "Congrats, Charlie! My brother is Jeremy Buckner and I got to watch that race where he broke the record in 1991. He has passed on but if he was here he would be so happy for you. That's moving dude. So sweet!" The Grand Island Independent has a story behind its paywall that talks about Jeremy's record day.
I received an e-mail over the weekend informing me that Robert Rand's eight-year-old son is active in USATF and will definitely be the person who breaks Robert's All-Class long jump record of 25-02.25. I can't wait.

Photos

The schedule last week was consolidated due to Easter so the Nerds weren't able to catch as many meets as normal. We have uploaded photos from Homer (4/11), Sioux City Relays, Wisner-Pilger (both 4/12), Lincoln JV, Boone Central (both 4/15), Perkins County JH (4/16), Elkhorn, Homer, O'Neill, Deshler, OPS Buffet/King JH (all 4/17), and Doane and Omaha Central (4/18). We still owe you photos from Wayne (4/15) and Fremont (4/18). Here is a sampling of our photos posted last week:

Summer camps

Here are a few that have crossed our desk. If you have a camp you'd like to publicize, please email jayslagle@hotmail.com.

Eyes Up camp at Creighton - Coach Gannon offers two two-day camps in July. Details at https://www.bluejayrunningcamps.com/nextlevel.
Cozad cross country camp - Cozad offers a five-hour camp on Tuesday, July 15. Speakers include college coaches Matt Beisel (Concordia), Brad Jenny (Doane) and Ryan Mahoney (Hastings). Click here for the flier.
Caleb Franklin, assistant track coach at Anselmo-Merna, and his track club Quantum Athletics will be holding its 4th annual Summer Elite Speed Camp two days a week all of June and July for incoming 9-12th graders looking to improve their sprinting. Contact Caleb at cfranklin.sprints@gmail.com for more information.
From June 17 to July 31, O'Neill St. Mary's coach Micheal Peterson (aka Hurdle Nerd) will be offering Hurdle School classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7:00-8:00 am. The Tuesday sessions are tentatively set for O'Neill and the Thursday sessions will be at West Holt. There is no cost but a parent must sign a waiver. Contact micheal.peterson@icloud.com for more info.

Summer races

The Omaha Running Club and Lincoln Track Club are better resources for races in Omaha and Lincoln, but here are a few that we've been asked to share:

I'm hoping to be healthy and near Valentine on Saturday, June 7th for the Sandhills Marathon. I wrote about the marathon at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/sandhillsmarathon after I ran it last year. It's a great race, particularly if you want to get away from the crowds.
The non-profit Abide organization is hosting a 5k in Omaha on Saturday, June 14, giving children and families and the North Omaha community opportunities to be a part of our great running experience. You can find more details at https://www.abideomaha.org/better-together-5k.
Friend-of-the-Nerds Matt Musiel is one of the organizers for the annual North Bend Old Settlers 5k being held on Saturday, June 21. A few Nebraska coaching legends got their start at North Bend. Details at https://secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=140672.
Former Omaha North XC coach Mark Gudgel is launching a race in Valentine on August 2 with distances from one mile to fifty-two kilometers, and the marathon will be a Boston qualifier. The majority of the course is along the Cowboy Trail and you can even sign up a 7-person team for the 5k. Go to https://valentinemarathon.com/ for more information.

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on April 23, 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.