For a program that keeps an eye on track and field as a recruiting metric, Nebraska coaches stayed busy this weekend. Homegrown Husker prospects competed at the Nebraska State Track & Field Championships in Omaha. Idaho, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Missouri were among other states hosting at least partial state track meets last weekend.
Nebraska 2023 signee Jaylen Lloyd, who will also compete in track for the Huskers, earned Class A gold in triple jump and long jump. The Omaha Westside senior measured 47 feet, 11.75 inches in the triple jump and 23 feet, 2.25 inches in the long jump. Lloyd also ran on a medaling Westside relay team.
Lloyd finished second in the 100, an event packed with Husker recruiting targets. He ran a 10.47, Bellevue West’s Isaiah McMorris ran a 10.65 (sixth), Westside’s Christian Jones ran a 10.89 (seventh) and Bellevue West’s Dae’vonn Hall ran 10.91 and finished eighth. McMorris and Hall are not only teammates but are both set to take official visits to Nebraska on the weekend of June 23. Jones is the top in-state recruit in the 2025 class and currently ranks in the top 125 recruits nationally. The 6-foot-3, 190-pound linebacker gained an offer from Iowa during the weekend. That goes along with early offers from Nebraska, Oklahoma, USC and Notre Dame, among others.
Hall also finished second in the high jump at 6-foot-6. Nebraska 2024 commit Ashton Murphy of Elkhorn South finished seventh in the shot put with a heave of 52 feet, 2 inches. Incoming Nebraska walk-on Grant Seagren of Oakland-Craig finished sixth in the discus with a toss of 154 feet, 9 inches. Ainsworth 4-star standout Carter Nelson finished fourth in the high jump by clearing 6-foot-4. A lingering ankle injury marred his track season and state meet—he registered no height in the pole vault.
Battle Creek’s Trent Uhlir earned second both shot put (61 feet, 11.5 inches) and discus (174 feet, 11 inches). Uhlir’s shot threw set a new Class C record until Norfolk Catholic’s Kade Pieper’s winning throw (63-7.5) immediately after. Pieper, a 3-star defensive lineman, signed with Iowa in December. The Battle Creek junior has gained a smattering of interest from Nebraska and Iowa State thus far. Blair standout receiver Ethan Baessler won the 100 and 200, setting a new state record in the 100 with a 10.53. Baessler is a 2024 recruit with offers from Northern Iowa and North Dakota. He’s garnered interest without offers from Nebraska and Wyoming.
Recruit Watch
Meanwhile out west, 4-star Idaho standout Gatlin Bair crushed records. Bair won the 100 with a new state record 10.15 and won the 200 after setting a new state record 20.41 in the prelims.
“June’s going to be full of official visits and focusing on my football dreams and figuring out where I want to spend the next couple years,” he told Jordan Kaye of the Idaho Press over the weekend. Bair is heavily considering Nebraska among his final schools, along with Boise State, Oregon and Michigan. The top-100 recruit has not scheduled an official visit to Nebraska yet.
Freshman Jackson Cantwell of Nixa High School in Missouri is off to the state meet next weekend after throwing 63 feet, 5 inches in the shot put this weekend. Nebraska offered Cantwell shortly before he came to Lincoln for a visit during the spring game.
The aforementioned Carter Nelson received an invitation to the 2024 All-American Bowl in San Antonio next January. Nelson is locked into an official visit to Nebraska on June 23 weekend.
Your boy has officially been invited to the All-American Bowl!! #AllAmericanBowl #blessed pic.twitter.com/HIE6oT6n1S
— Carter Nelson (@Carter83854638) May 21, 2023
ICYMI
>> The Nebraska baseball team won its final regular-season series against Purdue and earned the Big Ten Tournament’s No. 4 seed in the process. Nebraska next plays Rutgers on Wednesday for a 2 p.m. pitch at Charles Schwab Field.
>> Fred Hoiberg joined Greg Sharpe for an episode of Sports Nightly last week. Their discussion spanned multiple topics, from the Huskers’ 2023 recruiting class, to spring workouts and an upcoming trip to Spain.
>> Bellevue West junior Danny Kaelin capped an eventful week in quarterback recruiting when he flipped his commitment to Nebraska on Saturday. Last week began with No. 1 overall recruit Dylan Raiola committing to Georgia. Then Kaelin decommitted from Missouri on Friday, making way for his commitment.
