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N-V track competes in the Neligh Relays…
On Thursday, March 27th the N-V Cougar track & field team traveled to Neligh to open the 2025 season by participating in the Neligh Relays. Six schools competed in this fun, relay-style track meet... Niobrara-Verdigre, Neligh-Oakdale, Elkhorn Valley, Summerland, Wausa, and Creighton. What a beautiful day Thursday’s weather was for a track meet! Scoring for this meet involves adding the combined best marks from up to four competing athletes in each event. Top four teams in each event score team points (10-8-6-4). The list of events includes sprint relays, distance relays, hurdle relay, medley relays, and all of the field events.
Both the girls team and boys team finished in 3rd place overall. Girls… 1st place Elkhorn Valley and 2nd place Neligh-Oakdale. Boys… 1st place Summerland and 2nd place Elkhorn Valley. The highlight of the day was Taylor Pavlik breaking her own school record in shot put (by nearly 3 feet!) with a throw of 37-4.
Here are the relay teams scoring points:
GIRLS
Long Jump (Allison Sucha, Kaydence Jones, Reina Coffman) – 4th place
Shot Put (Taylor Pavlik, Aliyah Yunker, Maura Hoferer, Emmarie Pavlik) – 1st place
Discus (Chloe Hanzlik, Taylor Pavlik, Aliyah Yunker, Emmarie Pavlik) – 2nd place
Hurdle Relay (Allison Sucha, Nora Kucera, Chloe Hanzlik, Maura Hoferer) – 1st place
4x200M Relay (Allison Sucha, Chloe Hanzlik, Nora Kucera, Delani Runnels) – 1st place
4x400M Relay (Allison Sucha, Chloe Hanzlik, Maura Hoferer, Delani Runnels) – 2nd place
Sprint Medley Relay (Kaydence Jones, Aliyah Yunker, Nora Kucera, Delani Runnels) – 3rd place
Field Event Relay (Taylor Pavlik, Aliyah Yunker, Emmarie Pavlik, Reina Coffman) – 3rd place
BOYS
Long Jump (Carter Nelson, Connor Thomson, Alex Motacek, Lucas Keeble) – 4th place
High Jump (Arlan Lammers, Alex Motacek, Wyatt Shabram, Bryan Coffman) – 3rd place
Discus (Jacob Motacek, Isaac Pavlik, Wyatt Shabram, Gage Vesely) – 3rd place
Hurdle Relay (Wyatt Shabram, Arlan Lammers, Carter Nelson, Kasen Kazemba) – 3rd place
4x100M Relay (Connor Thomson, Gage Vesely, Isaac Pavlik, Carter Nelson) – 3rd place
4x400M Relay (Wyatt Shabram, Arlan Lammers, Alex Motacek, Bryan Coffman) – 3rd place
Field Event Relay (Isaac Pavlik, Jacob Motacek, Gage Vesely, Lucas Keeble) – 4th place
The next meet will be the Hartington CC Invite on Tuesday, April 1st. GO COUGARS!
Niobrara-Verdigre Powerlifters Class D state champions!
The 2025 Class D High School State Powerlifting Championships were held at Harvard High School this past Saturday, March 22nd. It featured 125 lifters representing the top Class D powerlifting schools in the state. Schools represented were Amherst, Blue Hill, Boyd County, Bruning-Davenport-Shickley, Centura, Fullerton, Harvard, Johnson-Brock, Niobrara-Verdigre, Red Cloud, Riverside, Silver Lake, Staplehurst, and Summerland. The Niobrara-Verdigre Cougar lifters came home Class D state champs… boys, girls, and co-ed!
All Cougar lifters had impressive performances with many personal bests set again. Special congratulations goes to Melody Bonham who was crowned the outstanding female lifter of the meet by strength index (total lifted divided by body weight)! We also had two Cougar boys team records broken and a girls team record broken! Isaac Pavlik reset his own deadlift record with 505 lbs and his own total record with 1225 lbs. Raquel Morales-Montalvo reset her own squat record with 335 lbs. Many lifters again moved up to new weight clubs… Beckett Wessendorf is now in the 900 lb club; Wyatt Shabram and Praeson Klug moved to 800 lb club; Zack Bolling and Gage Vesely moved to 700 lb club; Logan Collingsworth, Braden Collingsworth, and Levi Hoferer moved to the 500 lb club; and Christine Mechaley moved to the 400 lb club. Congratulations to all lifters and teams on a fine performance. Thank you for your outstanding behavior while representing our schools and for showing a lot of class towards all competitors. Thank you also for your respect shown towards all meet officials and for helping Harvard High School set up for the meet & clean everything up after the meet. Everyone appreciates it!
Niobrara-Verdigre had a total of 11 individual state champions in their respective weight classes! Two earned silver medals; 7 earned bronze; two earned fifth place medals; and one finished in sixth place. Congratulations to all individual lifters. You are all to be commended for your high ranking in the state meet!
Boys individual state champions were Alex Motacek (123 lb class), Connor Thomson (148 lb class), Jacob Motacek (165 lb class), and Isaac Pavlik (220 lb class). Boys silver medalist was Levi Hoferer (114 lb class). Boys bronze medalists were Charles Frame (114 lb class), Danny Pease (132 lb class), and Praeson Klug (275+ lb class). Other boys medalists were Arlan Lammers (5th-181 lb class), Beckett Wessendorf (5th- 198 lb class), and Wyatt Shabram (6th- 181 lb class). Boys lifters that just missed out on medaling were Logan Collingsworth (148 lb class) and Gage Vesely (165 lb class) in extremely deep weight classes.
Girls individual state champions were Christine Mechaley (97 lb class), Sydney Kumm (105 lb class), Melody Bonham (123 lb class), Emmarie Pavlik (148 lb class), Aliyah Yunker (165 lb class), Taylor Pavlik (181 lb class), and Raquel Morales-Montalvo 198+ lb class). Dayna Sharp (132 lb class) was a silver medalist. Gwen Bonham (114 lb class), Miranda Stohlmann (148 lb class), Nyla Wright (165 lb class), and RaeLynne Nelson (181 lb class) were bronze medalists.
This year’s state competition also had a jr. high portion to the meet. Braden Collingsworth (123 lb class), Mykel Murray (132 lb class), Lennix Chavez (148 lb class), Austin Sharp (165 lb class), and Holly Pavlik (148 lb class) were gold medalists. Carter Sharp (132 lb class) and Zack Bolling (165 lb class) were silver medalists.
The season isn’t over quite yet! The final meet of the school year will be the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet next Friday, April 4th & Saturday, April 5th at the Orchard Gym. The Orchard meet is another two-day event this year as a National AAU Meet! Because this is a sanctioned AAU event, the talents of both the high school and middle school Niobrara-Verdigre girls and boys lifters will be on display along with many other lifters from across the midwest including numerous adult professional lifters. This meet is THE largest sanctioned meet in the state. Over the past 18 years we have seen numerous State, American, and World records set… hopefully we can have another amazing performance this year. There are 200 registered lifters, so the Orchard gym will be rocking next Friday & Saturday! Lifting begins at 1:00 pm Friday, Apr. 4th and at 9:00 am Saturday, Apr. 5th. GO COUGARS!
Ten lifters from the Niobrara-Verdigre powerlifting team traveled to Peru State College this past Saturday, February 15th for the Peru State Powerlifting Meet. After all the dust had settled, N-V came away with the runner-up team trophy! The only team scoring higher was Lexington. This marked the first time for either Verdigre OR Niobrara-Verdigre earning a team trophy from the Peru St. powerlifting meet. The Cougar lifters were smaller in numbers (no boys BB players or wrestlers) but ready for the challenge and were AWESOME. We can be very proud of our kids. They did an amazing job of representing our schools and communities.
Aside from ALL lifters bringing home a medal, some other individual highlights included: Isaac Pavlik breaking his own N-V school records in squat (445 lbs), deadlift (500 lbs), and total (1190 lbs); and Raquel Morales-Montalvo breaking the Peru St. meet record deadlift (380 lbs) along with tying the N-V school record squat (325 lbs). This school squat record is also held by Gabrielle Pavlik and was set in March 2023.
The Niobrara-Verdigre Co-Ed team finished in 2nd place! Top 3 team standings… 1st place Lexington; 2nd place Niobrara-Verdigre; 3rd place Crete; 4th place Nebraska City; 5th place McCook; 6th place Columbus. Other teams competing were Columbus Lakeview, Omaha Gross Catholic, Lincoln High, Conestoga, Johnson-Brock, Grand Island CC, and Boyd County.
We had two individual gold medal winners… Isaac Pavlik in the 220 lb class (boys) and Christine Mechaley in the 97 lb class (girls). Our only other boy competitor was Mykel Murray, and he earned the bronze medal in the 132 lb class, beating all but two high school boys in that weight class!
Then on the girls side… silver medalists were Melody Bonham in 123 lb class and Raquel Morales-Montalvo in the 198+ lb class. Bronze medalist was Taylor Pavlik in the 181 lb class. Other medalists included Gwen Bonham 4th place 105 lb class, RaeLynne Nelson 4th place 181 lb class, Aliyah Yunker 5th place 165 lb class, and Emmarie Pavlik 6th place 148 lb class.
The Verdigre High School gymnasium will be rocking March 1st with the 4th annual Verdigre Powerlifting Meet. The Cougar lifters are looking forward to the opportunity to lift in their home gym and put on a show for the local fans. We have 200 lifters from across the state registered to compete at our meet. It is extremely tough competition and should be a fun day! Lifting begins 9:00 am.
Looking ahead… the Class D State Meet is on Saturday, March 22nd at Harvard High School. And then the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet is a National AAU meet again this year and is a two-day event set for April 4th & 5th. GO COUGARS!
2025 Verdigre Powerlifting Meet a huge success…
The fourth annual Verdigre Powerlifting Meet was held this past Saturday, March 1st with 227 lifters representing fifteen different schools from around the state. It was an outstanding day of lifting for the Cougar competitors in front of their home crowd. And what an awesome crowd it was, packed in the Verdigre gym with standing room only! Nearly every Niobrara-Verdigre lifter set personal bests, and five Cougar powerlifting records were broken Saturday. Isaac Pavlik broke his own squat record with a lift of 455 lbs and his own total record with 1215 lbs. Isaac also broke Gunnar Shabram’s school bench press record with 265 lbs. Alex Motacek broke his own school record in strength index (total weight lifted divided by body weight) with a new index of 6.76. Raquel Morales-Montalvo broke Gabrielle Pavlik’s school squat record with 330 lbs. This year we again honored the Hrbek family by naming the outstanding individual lifter awards after Tom & Dale Hrbek. Our own Taylor Pavlik earned the Dale Hrbek Memorial outstanding female lifter of the meet based on strength index. The Tom Hrbek Memorial outstanding male lifter award was earned by Niobrara’s Alex Motacek.
After a busy day of lifting (10 ½ hours!), the Cougars were crowned team champions in Co-ed and Girls categories! The high school boys earned 3rd place behind only two other powerhouse schools, Lexington & North Platte. The jr. high team tied Boyd County for 1st place.
The top 6 co-ed teams… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre (79 pts); 2nd place North Platte (78); 3rd place Lexington (53); 4th place McCook (43); 5th place Grand Island (22); 6th place Boyd County (20).
The top 6 girls teams… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre (74 pts); 2nd place North Platte (66); 3rd place Lexington (42); 4th place Boyd County (20); 5th place McCook (18); 6th place Seward (12).
The top 6 boys teams… 1st place North Platte (64 pts); 2nd place Lexington (43); 3rd place Niobrara-Verdigre (37); 4th place Centura (33); 5th place McCook (25); 6th place Johson-Brock (22).
The top 4 jr. high teams… 1st place (tie) Boyd County (88 pts) & Niobrara-Verdigre (88); 3rd place Summerland (27); 4th place Centura (10).
With 227 total registered lifters, that ensured EVERY WEIGHT CLASS WAS LOADED WITH A DEEP FIELD OF EXTREMELY STONG ATHLETES! Niobrara-Verdigre had an amazing 12 individual gold medalists: Alex Motacek 123 lb class, Braden Collingsworth 123 lb class (jr high), Mykel Murray 132 lb class (jr. high), Lennix Chavez 148 lb class (jr. high), Austin Sharp 165 lb class (jr. high), Sydney Kumm 105 lb class, Holly Pavlik 148 lb class (jr. high), Aliyah Yunker 165 lb class, Taylor Pavlik 181 lb class, Raquel Morales-Montalvo 198+ lb class, Emilee Babcock 198+ lb class (jr. high), and Riley Fuchtman 114 lb class (jr. high) push-pull. Eight lifters won the silver medal in their weight class... Rader Frame 114 lb class (jr. high), Carter Sharp 132 lb class (jr. high), Zackary Bolling 165 lb class (jr. high), Isaac Pavlik 220 lb class, Christine Mechaley 97 lb class, Violet Pavlik 123 lb class (jr. high), Dayna Sharp 132 lb class, and Emmarie Pavlik 148 lb class. Seven lifters won the bronze medal in their weight class… Danny Pease 132 lb class, Sam Sucha 132 lb class (jr. high), Carson Janak 148 lb class (jr. high), Arlan Lammers 181 lb class, Maddox Tramp 181 lb class (jr. high), Gwen Bonham 114 lb class, and Melody Bonham 123 lb class. Other medalists were… Levi Hoferer 4th place 114 lb class, Connor Thomson 4th place 148 lb class, Jacob Motacek 4th place 165 lb class, Miranda Stohlmann 4th place 148 lb class, RaeLynne Nelson 4th place 181 lb class, Praeson Klug 5th place 275 lb class, Charles Frame 6th place 114 lb class, and Wyatt Shabram 7th place 181 lb class. We had three other lifters competing in even more difficult weight classes… Nyla Wright 9th place 165 lb class, Beckett Wessendorf 11th place 198 lb class, and Gage Vesely 17th place 165 lb class.. It was an impressive display of power Saturday as many of the Cougar lifters bumped up to stronger lifting clubs. We now have seven boys lifting 800 lbs or more… Isaac Pavlik, Jacob Motacek, Arlan Lammers, Beckett Wessendorf, Alex Motacek, Connor Thomson, and Wyatt Shabram with Mykel Murray, Austin Sharp, and Praeson Klug moving into the 700+ lb club. On the girls side we have Raquel Morales-Montalvo lifting over 800 lbs, Taylor Pavlik totaling 700 lbs, and three girls in the 600+ lb club… Holly Pavlik, Aliyah Yunker, and RaeLynne Nelson. The kids are working hard!
This event would not have happened had it not been for our very generous sponsors and the help of many volunteers from our communities. There were over 70 volunteers from Verdigre and the surrounding communities helping run this meet as judges, spotters & loaders, score table workers, ticket takers, hosts & hostesses, photographers & filmers, concession stand workers, and post-prom fundraiser workers. This broke last year’s record for participants by 21 lifters! Thank you to everyone who came and volunteered their time Saturday to help support these kids. It takes effort from multiple communities to pull off this big of an event, and it was wonderful to see everyone come together to help! Thank you to Verdigre Public School (including administration, staff, and boosters), to all the parents & lifters who helped with set-up and clean-up, and to the Village of Verdigre for hosting this powerlifting meet. And thank you to everyone who came out to cheer on these hard-working lifters!
Our next powerlifting meet is the Class D State Meet March 22nd at Harvard High School. Then the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet is a two-day event this year as a National AAU Meet which will be held on Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th at the Orchard gym. This is a sanctioned meet with lifters eligible to set AAU State, American, and World records. That meet will be another large meet and a fun two days of lifting!
Go Cougars!
Here are our local sponsors…
2025 Niobrara-Verdigre Powerlifting Sponsors
Tom’s Family Foods
Verdigre PrintWorks
Bohemian One Stop
Avery Welding
Simons Trucking & Pumping
Moody Motor Company
Verdigre Farm Service
Pinnacle Bank
The Verdigre Eagle
Pease General Store
Sportsmen’s – Niobrara
ReNew Salon
Herbert Feed & Grain
Verdigre Collision Repair
Sucha Repair
Reiman Coffee Company
Schreier’s Lumber
Jedlicka’s Hardware Hank
Brunswick State Bank
Mossy Oak Properties/Ryan Vesely
Big Red Car Wash & Storage
Sonder Well
N & B Gas
Verdigre Bakery
Niobrara Trading Post
Country Creations
Hoferer Construction
Superior Turf
4/11 Bar & Grill
Verdigre Booster Club
Around the Horn Sportscards
Jack & Karen Allemang
Monte Shabram
Board Meeting Agenda
March 10, 2025
Niobrara Public Schools - Board of Education
March 10, 2025 6:00 pm Office Board Room
247 N. Highway 12, Niobrara, Nebraska 68760
Opening the Meeting
Nebraska Open Meetings Law-posted in room
Publication of Meeting-notice was provided according to policy. (Policy 204.01)
Board Member Roll Call: (excused/unexcused)
Pledge of Allegiance
Approval of Agenda
Public Comment-agenda item specific
Reports
Superintendent
Principals
Board Committee
Correspondence
Consent Agenda (Unless removed from the consent agenda, items identified will be considered under one motion.)
Minutes of February 10, 2025 and February 11, 2025 meeting of the board
Bills-(See check report)
Special Building Fund Bills
Financial Report
Discussion/Action Items
Certificated Hire(s)/Reassignment(s)/Resignation(s)
Outdoor Complex Update
Board Policy Review and Legal Representation
Approve Classified Compensation 25-26
Adjourn
This agenda contains a list of subjects known at the time of its distribution on March 5, 2025. A copy of the agenda reflecting any changes will be kept in the Superintendent’s office and will be readily available for public inspection during normal office hours. Except for items of emergency nature, the agenda will not be enlarged later than twenty-four hours before the scheduled commencement of the meeting. The Board reserves the right to change the order of business discussed.
Niobrara Public Schools
School Board Meeting
February 10, 2025, at 6:00 PM Main Office Board Room
I. Opening the Meeting
I.A. Call to Order
I.B. Nebraska Open Meetings Law is posted
I.C. Meeting date, place and time was published.
I.D. Roll Call
I.E. Pledge of Allegiance
II. Approval of Agenda
III. Public Comment
IV. Reports
IV.A. Superintendent
IV.B. Principal
IV.C. Board Committee
IV.D. Correspondence
V. Consent Agenda
V.A. Minutes of January 13, 2025
V.B. Bills
V.C. Financial Report
VI. Discussion/Action Items
VI.A Approve NASB Annual Membership
VI.B Certificated Hire(s)/Reassignment(s)/Resignation(s)
VI.C Approve Certified Staff Negotiated Agreement
VI.C Approve Administrative (Principal) Compensation/Contracts
VI.D Approve Classified Compensation 25-26
VII. Adjourn
If, during the meeting, discussion of any item on the agenda should be held in a closed meeting, the
board will conduct a closed meeting in accordance with the Nebraska Open Meeting Law.
This agenda contains a list of subjects known at the time of its distribution on February 5, 2025. A copy of
the agenda reflecting any changes will be kept in the Superintendent’s office and will be readily available
for public inspection during normal office hours. Except for items of emergency nature, the agenda will not
be enlarged later than twenty-four hours before the scheduled commencement of the meeting. The Board
reserves the right to change the order of business discussed.
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