Park Hill graduate Chris Nilsen keeps on racking up awards during the indoor track and field season.
The South Dakota standout won the Summit League pole vault championship after a jump of 18 feet, 1 inch last month. That was his third time to accomplish such a feat and he added a sixth-place showing in the high jump, clearing 6-6 ¾.
On Friday, march 6, he was named the Midwest Indoor Field Athlete of the year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
He won the award as well in 2018 and his fourth overall regional athlete of the year award.
Next up for Nilsen is the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. He will compete in the pole vault event on Friday, March 13, at 6:15 p.m. Nilsen can be seen on ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app.
After jumping 19-5 ½ earlier this season, Nilsen is the favorite to win the meet and has the highest jump by four inches in the field.
In other noteworthy accomplishment, Nilsen still appeared on the watch list for The Bowerman, given to the top college track and field athlete. This marked his 21st appearance on the list and tied for the third most for an award that debuted in 2009.
Nilsen is a two-time finalist for the award but hasn’t won it yet.
SOUTH DAKOTA ATHLETICS
South Dakota’s Chris Nilsen celebrates clearing the bar during the pole vault competition during a meet earlier this season in Vermillion, S.D. The Park Hill graduate was named the USTFCAA indoor field athlete of the year.
Wrestling notes
Cody Phippen made quite the debut for Air Force.
The freshman from Platte County ended up taking fifth place at the Big 12 Tournament, which wrapped up on Sunday, March 8 at the BOK Center in Tulsa.
Phippen opened with a win over No. 10-nationally ranked Jay Schwarm of Northern Iowa, 4-2, and then won 10-3 to beat Christian Moody of Oklahoma.
That sent Phippen into the semifinalis, the first wrestler from Air Force to reach that round since the school joined the Big 12.
In the semis, Phippen came up short to No. 3 seeded and No. 11 nationally ranked Alex Mackall of Iowa State to fall into the consolation semis. In the consi semis, Phippen rematched with Schwarm, and was felled by tight 5-4 decision. This placed Phippen in the fifth place match against No. 6 seeded and No. 31 nationally ranked McGwire Midkiff of North Dakota State. A reversal from Phippen with about 15 seconds left gave him the 2-0 win and the fifth place finish.
George Mason’s Colston DiBlasi (Park Hill) took fifth place at the MAC Championship and earned a spot at the NCAA Wrestling Championships. He will represent the Patriots for the second year in a row after beating Old Dominion’s Kenan Carter, 4-3, in the fifth-place match. He went 3-2 and lost two matches by a combined three points. The NCAA meet is held March 19-21 in Minneapolis.
Central Methodist Updates
James Byrd, a senior at Central Methodist that attended Park Hill South, earned honorable mention honors on the Heart of America Athletic Conference all-conference team.
Byrd led CMU with 18.2 points per game and finished 11th in the HAAC with 62 3-pointers. He added 4.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game, while hitting 43.6 percent of shots from the field.
Byrd was an all-state, all-conference and all-metro pick at Park Hill South and helped the Panthers reach the state semifinals. His collegiate journey has taken him from Seward County (Kan.) Community College, Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley and Central Missouri. He also spent a redshirt season at Missouri State.
The CMU Envy competitive dance team member Kaitlin Larison, a sophomore from West Platte, earned All-American honors. She is the first member in program history to earn an All-American honor above honorable mention status.
Larison is one of two local members on the team. The other is Hannah Redding, a freshman from Park Hill. The Envy dance team was fourth at the Heart of America Athletic Conference event last month and was fourth at the Midwest Regional Qualifier in Baldwin City, Kan. They failed to get a national bid, which was announced on March 1.
Notes
Oklahoma’s Justin Mitchell (Platte County) was named to the College Classic All-Tournament for his performance in the event last week. He hit .429 with one double, a home run and caught a no-hitter throw by Dane Acker against LSU. …. MLB.com announced its prospect rankings for each team and the No. 5 ranked prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers systems is Aaron Ashby, a Park Hill graduate. MLB.com said his expected big league debut would come in 2021. … Northwest Missouri State’s Jordan Hammond will compete in the penthatlon, 60-meter hurdles and 4x400-meter relay at the NCAA Division II meet. The Park Hill South product, now a senior, qualified for the finals the previous two years. … Missouri State’s Parker Lacina and Derek Kohler (both from Platte County) were named to the Missouri Valley Football Conference academic award list. Lacina was on the Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award list and it requires a GPA of 3.2 the previous two semesters. Kohler was one of 23 Bears on the MVFC honor roll list. … Northwest Missouri State’s Ryan Welty became the all-time leader in 3-pointers made at the MIAA Tournament on Saturday and the Bearcats beat Missouri Southern in the MIAA Championship game on Sunday. Welty, a Park Hill South graduate, made 30 3-pointers in four trips to Kansas City. Welty became the first MIAA player in league history to play in and win four postseason tournament titles in a career. He joins Southeast Missouri’s Michael Morris, Central Missouri’s Ron Nunnelly (82-85) and Tyrone Lee (82-85) and Washburn’s Jordan Canfield (93-95, 97) to play in four MIAA title games.