Kearney, Neb. – Sophomore southpaw Rylan Basart broke a 32-year-old school record in the javelin and four-time national champion Wes Ferguson turned in Division II’s top 800-time for the moment at the Central Nebraska Challenge on Saturday.
This annual event is co-hosted by the Lopers and Hastings College at Kearney High School with competition coming from around the Midwest and including Division I Nebraska-Omaha.
Basart (Stockton, Kan.), also a specialist on the Loper football team, uncorked a toss of 212-9 in his first attempt in the jav. That was not only good enough for first place but also topped the 212-0 Darren Grauerholz threw back at the 1992 NCAA Championships in Texas. He also was a kicker on the football team. Also in this event, Kansas senior Evan Prohaska had one of UNK’s 14 runner up finishes as he had a season-best throw of 200-6. He almost got Grauerholz’s mark back in May 2022 (211-9).
Running for the first time since winning another NCAA indoor national title, Ferguson (Fremont) managed a 1:47.78 to pace the field by nearly six seconds at 800-meters. In the very early going, that effort leads D2 with Colorado State-Pueblo’s Kaleb Tipton currently second (1:50.03). This was a strong event for UNK as Fremont sophomore Tyson Baker was runner up (1:53.48) with Firth sophomore Tanner Cooper a very close third (1:53.73).
At 200-meters, Alliance senior Brock Brass turned in the eighth best time in Loper lore (21.54) to place second with Kearney senior Nicole Messbarger second as well after a career-best 24.94. That moves into sole possession of 10th place in the UNK annuals. Both Bass (100/10.82) and Messbarger (400/56.99) were second in other events too.
The winners on the track were Omaha sophomore Nick Abdalla (9:19.80) and York sophomore Brynn Hirschfeld (11:26.0) in the steeplechase, Gothenburg senior Hannah Harrison in the 800 (2:15.05), David City junior Payton Davis in the 1,500 (3:52.91), Iowa senior Myles Bach in the 5,000 (14:47.23) and both 4×4 relay teams; men (3:19.31) and women (3:58.04).
Next, Giltner graduate Alex Goracke had another big meet as he won the invitational hammer (197-2), was first in the invitational shot (54-1.75), and was runner up in the invitational discus (150-11). Finally, Kearney senior Brayden Sorensen and Hastings freshman Nolan Studley both cleared 6-8.75 to make the national list in the high jump, Creighton junior Alex Homan soared a career-best 16-6.75 in the pole vault and Kearney junior Colby Spangler won the triple jump (47-7).
Back on the women’s side, Dannebrog Sydney Davis led the UNK women as she won the high jump (5-5) with Kearney sophomore Lily Novacek second in the invitational discus (143-7).
UNK heads to Seward next Friday for the Concordia Invitational.
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