Busy Last Chance Weekend; NCAA Qualifiers Announced Next

5/10/2025 10:01:00 PM

Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney track and field team prepped for the NCAA Championships by competing in three different Last Chance meets this weekend.

On Friday, select Lopers were in Seward for the annual Concordia Twilight meet, a larger group competed Saturday at Kearney High School in the Loper Twilight with four distance runners taking part in the very large Franson Last Chance meet late Saturday night in Southern California.

Just past midnight (Central time) Sunday morning at Azusa Pacific, Omaha junior Nick Abdalla punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships Memorial Day weekend in Pueblo, Colo., by running an 8:57.18. The effort allowed him to finish fifth out of 29, move up to third in UNK history and to 21st nationally. The new selection process takes 22 in each event with Abdalla sitting in the 30's before his big run. Next, David City senior Payton Davis ran a career-best 3:46.33 in the 1,500 to finish 17th out of 172 runners. Davis now ranks second all-time, trailing only Luke Stuckey (3:44.24/2021), and moves to 40th in D2. Finally, McCool Junction freshman Kassidy Stuckey broke a 38-year-old record in the women's 1,500. Her 4:27.08 nips the 4:27.12 Loper Hall of Famer Donna Spickelmeier ran back in 1987 and ties her for 39th in D2.

At Concordia, redshirt junior Lily Novacek (Kearney H.S.) won the discus with a season-best toss of 156-0. That moved her up to 24th on the national list; she had another crack at it Saturday at KHS and threw 153-0 in the invitational discus. Next, Kansas sophomore Toree Slavik and Stamford junior Brianna Russell tied for first in the high jump (5-3.75), Omaha sophomore Reed Emsick was runner up in the 800 with the program's fifth best effort (1:50.52), South Sioux City sophomore Mesuidi Ejerso won the 1,500 with a time (3:52.73) just outside the all-time Top 10 with Kansas sophomore Wyatt Hammond (javelin/201-0) one of four others to place second. Finally, Kansas sophomore Charis Robinson finished fifth with a time (2:13.71) just shy of her career-best.

In the final home meet of the year, Ord redshirt freshman Sam Boettcher vaulted up to fifth place on the all-time list in the hammer as he had a heave of 192-3 to be fourth in the invitational section. The throw places him 31st nationally. On the track, Brady sophomore Dillon Miller ran a 21.32 in the 200 to now rank sixth all-time with Sidney junior Mitchell Deer slightly improving on his top time (52.78) in the 400-hurdles to remain fourth in Loper lore. Finally, Kearney senior Colby Spangler was runner up in the triple jump (season-best 48-9.50), Hastings junior Landon Eckhardt won the 800 (1:51.71) with Emsick a close second (1:51.86) and Hastings sophomore Nolan Studley was second in the high jump (6-8.25).

The women saw Holdrege senior Samantha Schemper and Hastings freshman Megyn Scott both clear 12-0.50 in the pole vault. That ties them for sixth all-time with Scott finishing second after tie breaks. Next, Novacek won the invite hammer (207-10) and Grand Island freshman Maddie Schneider was runner up in the open discus (141-8) and finished fourth in the open shot put (42-6).

The NCAA will announce national qualifiers on Tuesday (May 13) at 5 p.m. Central with UNK slated to have five (two women and three men). The list will be at www.ncaa.com.

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