Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney 2020-21 home athletic season comes to a close this weekend with the Loper Twilight #1 and Loper Twilight #2.

Both of these "Last Chance" meets will be held at Kearney High School and run from 3-8:45 p.m. The schedules for the meets are slightly different with student-athletes from Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Wyoming expected to attend. Live results are available and both meets are free and open to the public.

The Lopers have five currently sitting in good position for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships May 27-29 at Grand Valley State in Michigan. Kearney redshirt freshman Brayden Sorensen has automatically qualified in the high jump (4th/7-0.25) while six other marks/times rank in the national top 11.

That large group includes McCook redshirt junior Tiara Schmidt (6th/shot put: 50-2.50; 8th/hammer: 191-1), Colorado redshirt junior Logan Prater (9th/hammer: 189-1; 10th/discus: 165-7), Hastings redshirt sophomore Seth Simonson (10th/800: school-record 1:50.09) and O'Neill freshman Abby Everitt (11th/high jump: 5-8).

With the national meet being cut by 25% due to the on-going pandemic the NCAA "bubble" is even bigger this spring. UNK has nine marks/times ranking between 18th-26th with those Lopers needing to slightly improve this weekend in order to go to Allendale, Mich. That group includes Florida junior Montrez Jackson (19th/high jump: 6-9), Central City redshirt junior Andrew Schuller (18th/discus: 173-4) and Kansas freshman Jaida McEwen (19th/javelin: school-record 147-9).  

The NCAA qualifiers will be announced early next week.