NSAA's fall champs often competed against Washington County foes

Season ended with last week's football championships

Posted

The NSAA all-but wrapped a bow on its fall sports season last week with the state football championship games.
With just the Unified Bowling state tournament to go, the governing body of Nebraska high school sports has crowned 29 championship teams this fall. Washington County teams battled and interacted with several of those champions.

Football
Bennington and Columbus Lakeview won their Class B and C1 state championship games last week.
The Badgers routed Aurora 42-14 less than two months after defeating Blair by just the same margin, 28-0. The champs' point total against the Bears tied for their lowest of the season as they also beat Elkhorn 28-7 during the Class B semifinals.
Lakeview, meanwhile, swept through the C1 bracket after going 7-2 during the regular season. The Vikings defeated Pierce — a team Arlington lost to 58-13 — in the final, 37-25.
Fort Calhoun reached the C1 playoffs this fall, dropping its first round game to Columbus Scotus, which lost to Lakeview in its regular season finale.
The other 2021 state champions were Blair's former Eastern Midlands Conference (EMC) foe, Gretna, in Class A, Fremont Bergan in C2, Howells-Dodge in D1, Kenesaw in D2 and Cody-Kilgore in the six-man division.

Volleyball
Omaha Skutt beat Blair's toughest opponent in the Class B state championship game.
The Skyhawks defeated Norris 25-17, 23-25, 25-11 and 25-15 for the title after the Titans ended the Bears' season during the district finals round. For the season, BHS played in three tournaments and one regular season match inside Norris gyms this past season.
Fort Calhoun, meanwhile, had first-hand experience against the Class C1 champions in 2021. Lincoln Lutheran beat Kearney Catholic for the championship, but also swept the Pioneers during September's Malcom Invitational.
Papillion-La Vista South (Class A), Oakland-Craig (C2), Howells-Dodge (D1) and Falls City Sacred Heart (D2) also won state championships this fall.

Cross-country
Washington County crowned its own state champions in Class C cross-country action.
The Fort Calhoun boys won the title by 12 points, 46-58. Jacob Rupp, Ely Olberding, Lance Olberding, Johnathon Schwarte, Lawson Tjardes and Travis Skelton claimed gold, while Arlington's boys were seventh in the team standings.
The Sidney girls, meanwhile, won their own Class C title. They were four spots ahead of fifth-place Arlington, which was led by individual state champ Keelianne Green. Fort Calhoun's girls were 11th, too.
The Lexington boys and the Norris girls were each six places ahead of the seventh-place Blair girls and boys in Class B. Though Lexington and the Bears rarely cross paths, the BHS girls often competed against the championship Titans in Eastern Midlands Conference battles.
The Fremont boys and Lincoln East girls, meanwhile, won Class A crowns as the Norfolk Catholic boys and Crofton girls earned Class D gold.

Softball
Unfortunately for them, the Blair Bears stood in the way of Omaha Skutt's unbeaten Class B state softball championship run. The Skyhawks hosted and defeated BHS in B2 Subdistrict play before the champs eventually dispatched Hastings 14-2 in last months finals.
Wahoo Neumann, meanwhile, bested both Blair and Fort Calhoun during its Class C1 state championship season. The Knights bested the Pioneers 19-0 on Sept. 2 before edging the Bears 7-4 on Sept. 27.
Neumann defeated Yutan/Mead 6-0 in the C1 finals after the Patriots hosted Arlington for its subdistrict tournament.
All told, Lincoln Southwest — Class A's champ — was the only title-winning team to avoid Washington County competition in 2021.

Golf
The Blair girls golf team saw Elkhorn North dominate during the regular season and then saw the Wolves win the Class B state title by 19 strokes in Scottsbluff.
The Bears' Anna Moore medaled during the state tournament, but it was the EMC's top golf team — which qualified for state at River Wilds Golf Club — that won it all.
In Class C, Broken Bow won the title ahead of second-place Columbus Scotus, which played multiple times within Washington County borders at River Wilds, too.
Lincoln Southwest, meanwhile, won the Class A championship.

Other sports
There are two NSAA fall sports Washington County schools don't participate in. As previously mentioned, the Unified Bowling championships are Dec. 6, while state boys tennis took place in mid-October.
Lincoln East won the Class A tennis crown, while Elkhorn Mount Michael earned Class B honors.

NSAA Fall Sports