We have two Junior High State Track Qualifiers this year. The Nebraska State Championship Meet was started in 2010 as a way to give junior high athletes a chance to compete at a high level against the best athletes across the state. This is not an NSAA managed event like the High School State Championships, it was started by a group of track enthusiasts to quote their website.

Only the top 24 athletes in each individual event and the top 16 relay teams across all classes and schools are invited to participate. Any athlete is able to register, but they are not guaranteed a spot. All athletes ranked in the top 24 of their event statewide are considered auto-qualifiers as long as they are registered by their coaches.

This year our team had one girl who met this requirement. Megan Anderson was ranked third in Long Jump with her PR of 16’8.5″ & ranked 19th in Triple Jump with her PR of 32’5″.

Our second athlete to qualify, who was not an auto-qualifier, was Arian Mata in the 1600M, or 1-mile. Arian was ranked #36 when registrations opened and ended up 23rd out of the 24 total athletes allowed in.

These athletes will compete this Saturday, May 11th in Gothenburg, Nebraska. The entire meet is slated to be televised and information can be found on the meet website: https://nebraskachampionshipmeet.com/