Big Break, Let’s Catch Up

We took a break after the winter sports season. Hey, we needed it. Plus, we are chasing performances around the track. You’ll see some more of that coming soon.

Today we will get you caught up the best we can on the spring sports season (so far) and also give you some of our recaps from the winter sports season as well. And, of course, we need a final girls Nebraska Girls Hoops Power 20.

Thanks for being with us, we hope to get you some more contest and the spring season races continue to heat up. Let’s have breakfast and dive in.

Also, a favor. As you are reading this we are teeing it up at the Central Nebraska Golf Marathon in Hastings. We don’t ask that you pay to subscribe to our content, but maybe a small donation to our cause would be worth it. It is our goal to raise over $10,000 so that Nebraska high school students can attend summer sports camps and hear the Gospel.

Winter To Remember

Our team was proud to partner with the Nebraska School Activities Association to again provide previews and recaps for all of the winter championships. If you missed them here are the links to our recaps from the winter season. A big thanks to NEWrestle for helping with our wrestling coverage and Steven Biedeck for his wonderful work on state swimming.

Dual Wrestling. Lincoln East, Battle Creek win first dual titles.

Bowling. Columbus, Pius boys; Norfolk, Northwest girls take state titles.

Girls Wrestling. Norfolk, Yutan win first two-class girls wrestling event.

Boys Wrestling. Creighton Prep, Skutt roll; Battle Creek, Burwell win thrillers.

Swimming and Diving. Lincoln East, Omaha Marian capture team titles.

Girls Basketball. Millard West, Pender win again. Skutt gets first title. (All-Tournament Teams)

Boys Basketball. Historic 3-peats for Johnson-Brock and Omaha Skutt Catholic. (All-Tournament Teams)

Nebraska Girls Hoops Power 20

Sure, it took too long. But we are happy to finally give you our final girls hoops Power 20 recap. If you missed our “all-state” teams, you can see them here. 

1 - Millard West (28-1): As impressive of a season as we expected. But, still really, really hard to complete. The final coronation, a 70-44 state title game win over Omaha Westside. Last ranking: 1.

2 - Omaha Skutt Catholic (28-1): A first title for the Skyhawks in Class B which was led by a stingy defensive effort in Lincoln. Last ranking: 4.

3 - Lincoln Christian (28-0): If there was one game that we didn’t get to see that we wanted to, it would have been Skutt and Christian. For this ranking, Skutt’s more difficult schedule wins out. Last ranking: 3.

4 – Lincoln North Star (19-6): A possible curious pick here, but if you take out that silly three-game losing streak around Christmas, the Gators were likely the best team in Class A after Millard West. This was manifested with their to-the-buzzer performance against the Cats in the state semifinals. Last ranking: 7.

5 - Omaha Westside (21-7): The Warriors played their best basketball late in the year, including a 42-40 upset of Millard North in the state quarterfinals during their run to the Class A championship game. Last ranking: 11.

6 - Bellevue West (18-9): One of Class A’s youngest teams could be a state title contender for 2026. Also played better and better as the season moved on. Last ranking: 8.

7 - Millard North (22-4): A tough fall for Millard North after their opening loss to Westside at the state tournament. Last ranking: 2.

8 - Omaha Westview (21-5): A historic Wolverines season ended in a close one to North Star at state. Next year could be even better. Last ranking: 6.

9 – Bellevue East (21-5): Two late losses to Bellevue West, the last that ended their season in Lincoln, shouldn’t take anything away from a fantastic year for coach Eric Lenear on the Chieftains. Last ranking: 5.

10 – Milford (25-2): Only two losses all season, both to Lincoln Christian and the final one in the Class C-1 title game. Only six wins under 20 points on the season. That’s how you get this high. Last ranking: 16.

11 – Millard South (16-10): The young Patriots had a great run to the state tournament with some big wins during the regular season. Big things ahead in 2026. Last ranking: 10.

12 - Gretna East (20-7): The Griffins threw together three defensive gems in Lincoln in a run to the Class B state finals, including beating second-seeded Pius in the opening round. Last ranking: 12.

13 - Lincoln Pius X (22-5): The Bolts, in their first year back in Class B, took on all comers. You could argue them ahead of Gretna East with two regular season wins. And they were the only team to beat Skutt. Last ranking: 11.

14 - Pender (28-2): As good of a small school team as we have seen in some time, the Dragons rolled through the Class D-1 field and shot 38% from 3-point range in Lincoln. That’s better than the Nebraska women for the season, and they led the Big Ten. Last ranking: 20.

15 – Omaha Marian (13-10): In a topsy-turvy season for the Crusaders, they finished with wins over Lincoln Southwest and Papillion-LaVista, which lands them just head of each here. Last ranking: 13.

16 - Lincoln Southwest (16-8): After a 14-2 start, the Silverhawks lost six of their last eight and four of those games were to state semifinalists. In all six of eight losses came to the Class A tournament field. Last ranking: 14.

17 - Papillion-LaVista (15-10): The Monarchs stay put in our final ranking. Much like Southwest, eight of their 10 losses were to teams that advanced to Lincoln, including Class B champion Omaha Skutt. Last ranking: 17.

18 – Kearney (17-6): A promising opening season for new coach Drew Danielson. The Cats lacked a signature win, lost to Southwest by a point in December, but after that the other five losses were to the Class A state field. Last ranking: 18.

19 - Bennington (22-5): The Badgers run to the state semifinals lands them here and with a young nucleus returning they could be the 2026 Class B favorite. Last ranking: 19.

20 - Oakland-Craig (26-3): Our fourth state champion in the Power 20, the Knights saved their best basketball for Lincoln. Last ranking: NR.

Special Mention (listed alphabetically by class): Omaha Central (12-12), Norris (16-9), Waverly (21-4), Gothenburg (21-5), Minden (26-3), Crofton (25-4), Elkhorn Valley (28-1).

Spring Has Sprung

Over the next 25 days we will have a whirlwind of content for the NSAA state championships which will begin next Monday, May 12 for state soccer at Omaha’s Morrison Stadium on the Creighton campus. The single site tournament for Classes A and B will have eight days of action in it’s nine day run.

SOCCER. The Lincoln Southwest girls (13-1) and Gretna East (14-0) are the top two teams heading into this weeks districts. On the boys side, Creighton Prep (14-1) and Bennington (16-1) are the top seeds. Class A will have seven districts champions and one wild card to state, while Class B will use their sub-district / district format with district finals set for Saturday, May 10. NSAA Soccer Page

BASEBALL. The spring baseball heads down the home stretch with district play this week. Class B and C districts have been set with those tournaments on Thursday and Friday. Class A districts will be Friday and Saturday leading into the state tournament in Omaha. State championship games will be Friday, May 23. NSAA Baseball Page

TRACK AND FIELD. We continue with the four-day state track meet this year with a newly renovated Omaha Burke Stadium from May 21-24. Classes A and B will go on Wednesday and Thursday, while Classes C and D with go on Friday and Saturday. Is four days the right amount? The records keep falling throughout the spring in what is sure to be another historic state meet. Track districts will be held May 13-15 and , as always, your best source for awesome photos and coverage is Prep Running Nerd. NSAA Track and Field Page

GIRLS TENNIS. Spring tennis will wrap it’s way around Memorial Day as the Class B meet will take place on May 22-23, while the Class A meet will go on May 26-27. Both tournaments will be at Woods Tennis Center in Lincoln. Lincoln East is the returning team champion in Class A, while Elkhorn North has won the past three titles in Class B. NSAA Girls Tennis Page

BOYS GOLF. It’s a bit of a new look for boys golf this spring as three of the four meets will move locations. Class A will be held at Kearney Country Club for the first time, Class C moves to Grand Island’s Jackrabbit Run and Class D will be at Quail Run in Columbus. The Class B meet continues its annual rotation out west as Gering’s Monument Shadows will host. Omaha Westside and US Junior Amateur champion Luke Gutchewski will try to defend their title in Kearney. NSAA Boys Golf Page