SimpleSoleProject

The Nebraska State Track Meet is by far the largest of all of our state events. 10,000+ will watch hundreds of athletes compete over two days this weekend.

As always a number of great athletes to watch. This is simply off the top of my head, so please add any more if you wish. I am partial to the Class A distance events, so my apologies to the springs and field events.  Events and athletes that are catching my interest. (Full disclosure I coach at North Star, though the beauty of running is that the clock doesn’t lie, so I don’t have to)

Girls

4×8 relay- favorite is Pius X after throwing down a mid 9:30 at districts.  Contenders are Norfolk and North Star

Aubrey Worden- Senior from Scottsbluff (B) Florida State Recruit, 1600/3200

800- Taylor Johnson Lincoln Southeast, a group of contenders from Millard South, Pius X, and North Star

1600- should be competitive with a whole bunch of folk.  Shout out to my Lincoln ladies of Sarah Larsen and Mary Hillis, toss in some of the gals from Lavista-South and Millard West and Norfolk

3200-  Same as the 1600

Boys

can’t speak to the lower classes on this one, not to hate, just not enough time to stat informed.

4 x 800m- Fremont is the favorite, North Star and Millard North are not far behind.

800- Mach Djiok (11)-Benson is the state leader.  Jacob Olsen (11) of Kearney and Mohamed Hamdan (10) of North Star are by far the favorites.

1600 -Olsen and Hamdan have gapped the rest of the state by a few seconds.  Olsen is the favorite.

3200m- Danny Aldaba (10) of Fremont set a 9:29 out earlier this season.  That mark has not been approached since.  Whole bunch of guys running in the mid 9:30s right now.  Should be a great race as people double from the 4 x 8 or are fresh for this.

On Friday, May 6th Evan Michael Wandzilak set a number of records.  At the ripe old age of 4 days, 7.5 hours (AGE GROUP=  super-mini bantam) he set the following marks, pending IAAF certification. Completing the circuit in a time of 7 minutes, 26.85 seconds Evan  1)  Youngest ever on the Lincoln North Star Track 2)  400m age group best on the North Star Track  3)  400m age group best for Lincoln 4)  400m age group best for Nebraska  5)  International record for his age group.  Evan was on the track with Sara Domeier and his parents, Brenda and Brian.  His inexperience caused him to make his way around the oval in lane 2.  Overcoming that rookie mistake, he still managed a successful lap.   Congrats to Evan!

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Some days discretion is the better part of valor.  I have been looking forward to the Lincoln Marathon for a long while.  Sadly, I have been battling some health issues and some other conflicts that will be highlighted here at some point in time, maybe.  Regardless I lined up on Vine Street this morning at less than full strength.  No matter though, I love to run and there was no way I was going to miss this.

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There has been an explosion of running events over the last ten years.  I am not just talking the crazy numbers that marathons like Chicago and Boston garner.  Or even the shorter distances seen at Boulder Bolder or Beach to Beacon.  I mean the sheer number of events available to runners to compete in.  From small 5ks in Wahoo, NE that support a local cause to big time ultra trail events, runners have greater selection of events than at any other time in running history to choose from.  Depending on where you live (even here in Nebraska, this is the case) on any given weekend there is a race with decent organization within an easy drive.  The nice thing about of lot of these is that they are grassroots events.  No corporate sponsorship, no huge expo, no bands playing.  You just pick up your number, maybe a t-shirt, and you race.  Usually some food after you get done, maybe some awards.  This explosion of events means nothing but good things for runners and the promotion of running/fitness in a country that is already struggling with their waistlines.  So here is my wish list of events that I would love to see around here:

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Boston Marathon is this upcoming Monday.  Likely the greatest distance race in America, if not the planet.  It is the longest continuous running event, now on its 115th edition.  It started when some Americans witnessed the first Olympic Marathon in London and then the next year doing their own thing.  Something like 30 people started the first Boston and this past fall the damn event sold out in less than 8 hours.

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posted by: Scott Wandzilak

So I don’t want to use this place as a name drop, but some of the interactions I’ve had over the past 6 months have been too cool not to share with all of you.  I’ve been working in the athletic department at UCLA for about a year and a half now, and one of the biggest perks of my job has been the interaction with various alumni/coaches in the running community. Fortunately for me, UCLA happens to have one of the, if not THE, best track program in the history of collegiate athletics.  I work in the development portion of the athletic department, which basically raises money for various entities around campus.  As each of us handle individual sport donations as well, I made it a point to work with the Track & Field teams – while I work with men and women, I’ve had the opportunity to work with the men on a far larger scale. Below are some of the interactions of who I’ve gotten to speak with and some notes about them:

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