Vote: Who should be SBLive’s Nebraska high school athlete of the week (10/9/2023)?
Here are the candidates for SBLive’s Nebraska high school athlete of the week for Oct. 2-8. Read through the nominees and cast your vote. Voting will conclude Sunday at 11:59 p.m. If you would like to make a nomination in a future week, email athleteoftheweek@scorebooklive.com.
Editor’s Note: Our Athlete of the Week feature and corresponding poll are intended to be fun, and we do not set limits on how many times a fan can vote during the competition. However, we do not allow votes that are generated by script, macro or other automated means. Athletes who receive votes generated by script, macro or other automated means will be disqualified.
Payton Burbach, Central City Softball
Burbach was electric for the Bison in the district final and helped push Central City over the finish line and qualify for the program’s second straight trip to the state tournament. The sophomore had seven RBIs during the subdistrict and district round but saved her best for the elimination game of the district tournament. Burbach drove in five runs on three hits and blasted two pitches for home runs. She now has 47 RBIs for the season on 48 hits, 17 extra-base hits and five long balls.
Liston Crotty, Auburn Cross Country
Crotty has a firm grip on the East Central Conference and doesn’t look like she won’t be letting it go anytime soon. A sophomore, Crotty is a perfect two for two in winning the conference title, capturing it again on Oct. 3 when she ran a season-best 19:52.5 and took the top spot by more than 45 seconds over second place. It was Crotty’s fourth win of the season and second in a row to go with a win at Syracuse on Sept. 29. She now has nine career wins and has finished inside the top three in all seven meets this fall.
Halle Dolliver, Malcolm Volleyball
Nearly 100 kills in just three matches. That’s the total Dolliver nearly achieved last week during a span of matches Monday, Wednesday and Friday that totaled 92 kills. She started with a modest, by her standards, 17 in a game against Nebraska City, piled up 33 against Beatrice then stacked her total even higher by collecting 42 against Platteview. Those kind of numbers put Dolliver at 480 kills on the season and the top figure in the state of Nebraska. The sophomore surpassed 1,000 kills for her career and will go over 500 for the season within the next week.
Reese Fisher, Ashland-Greenwood Softball
Fisher has had a lot of games with an RBI this season – 20 driven in during 30 games. Earlier this year she had a five-RBI game and had six games in a row with an RBI during that stretch. She put together another streak this past week, producing at least one RBI in all four of the Bluejays subdistrict and district games. Fisher had eight total hits in 11 at-bats, scored four times and drove in six others. In the district final contest against FCEM, she was at her best with two hits in two at-bats and three driven in. Fisher heads to state with 30 RBIs and 14 extra-base hits on the season.
Anna Fitzgerald, Doniphan-Trumbull Cross Country
Fitzgerald is another member of this list who is now a multi-time conference champion. The Doniphan-Trumbull junior did it Oct. 3 in Cairo with her top time for the season and a second straight LouPlatte Conference crown. Fitzgerald did it by running her fastest time of the season and finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of the runner-up. She has won three of her last four races and now has six wins in her varsity career. Fitzgerald was also a dominant conference champ last year with a win by more than 40 seconds but she also shaved about 40 seconds from that time for the 2023 title.
Stella Miner, Westside Cross Country
Last year’s Class A state runner-up won her first race of 2023 but had yet to return to the top of the podium when she lined up for the Metro Championship on Oct. 5. But while it had been five races since her last win, she entered the race at Walnut Creek as the reigning champ. And she left that way as well. Miner shaved about five seconds from her championship time from a year ago and made it back-to-back Metro crowns while also pacing the Warriors to a runner-up team finish. Miner now has eight wins in her career.
Mikah O’Neill – Sumner-Eddyville-Miller Volleyball
O’Neill ranks in the top five in Nebraska as one of the most efficient hitters in the state. Through 54 sets played she’s hitting a blistering .428 while piling up 290 kills on 545 swings. She has had double-digit kills in each of the past 10 matches and had a max of 18 during that stretch to finish off two strong performances last week. O’Neill started by putting 13 shots to the floor while hitting .579 in a win over Hi-Line on Oct. 3. Two days later was the match with 18 on 42 swings and an attack percentage of .310. She also had four aces and 11 blocks between those two matches.
Lyla Pearson, Duchesne Softball
The Duchesne coaching staff and Cardinal fans couldn’t have asked for much more from Pearson during the most important time of the season. The sophomore has 24 runs driven in this year and pushed 11 of those across the plate in the last five games. In the subdistrict and district round she had eight of those, collected five hits, two doubles, two home runs and overall went 5 for 12. Her top performance was in Game 1 of the district final when she went 2 for 4 with three RBIs, a double, home run and a run scored.
Josie Reiff, South Loup Volleyball
Reiff has double-digit digs in every match but three this season. She’s on a current streak of 14 matches in a row with at least 12 digs and continued that this past week with six matches and 134 total digs. Reiff’s top performance was 36 digs in a five-set match with Cozad. The senior is averaging over seven digs per set and has one of the top five dig totals in Nebraska. Based on her averages, sometime this week she will surpass 500 digs for the season.
Skylar Scholting, Pierce Volleyball
Scholting could be on this list every week based on the numbers she’s posting at the setter position. She earns her way on for last week and three matches in which she totaled 112 assists including 47 in a win over O’Neill. Scholting has had at least 16 assists in every match this season and has gone over 50 once, 40 five times and 30 nine times. She’s averaging over 10 assists per set and has 770 assists total. Her numbers have her currently fourth in the state for the most assists.
Jamari Allen, Burke Football
Allen was a superstar for the Bulldogs on Friday and helped deliver Burke its first win of the season after a big day of catching the football. Well, perhaps big day isn’t the right way to phrase it. Allen had just three catches, but he made each one of them count for three touchdowns. Those three catches also added up to 139 yards – an average of over 46 yards per catch. He had a long of 83, but even with that play left out, he averaged 28 yards on his other two catches.
Jack Bullis, Hampton Football
Bullis scored on 67% of his carries during a Thursday win over Heartland Lutheran. It’s a bit like the days of the Steelers’ Jerome Bettis taking the goal line duties and scoring nearly every time he touched the ball. But Bettis never had a night like this. During a 77-20 eight-man victory, Bullis carried it nine times, found the end zone on six of those and racked up 170 yards rushing. He averaged 18.9 per carry and had a long of 47. It was his fourth game of the season with more than 100 yards rushing and the second time he’s scored six touchdowns.
Logan Buresh, East Butler Football
It’s difficult to be more efficient than Buresh was in Friday’s eight-man win over Humphrey/LHF. Buresh caught three passes, scored on all three and racked up 114 yards receiving for an average of 38 per catch. For those who follow the Tiger football program, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Buresh has always had a knack for getting the most out of his catches. The East Butler junior has 24 catches in his career for nine touchdowns and is averaging more than 21 yards each time he makes a catch.
Dennis Chapman, Creighton Prep Cross Country
Chapman had four career victories coming into the 2023 Metro Conference Championship on Oct. 5 but picked up his biggest win that day when he crossed the line first ahead of 137 other competitors at Walnut Creek. Chapman’s time of 15:51.3 was five seconds ahead of second place and the sixth time out of seven races this season he’s broken the 16-minute mark. He’s been in the top 10 of all of those races and also has victories at his home invite and Papillion-LaVista.
Jorgan Condon, Creighton Football
Condon had back-to-back 200-yard rushing performances the first two games of the season but then had been held to four straight games with less than 100. One of those was just six carries for eight yards in a loss to Elgin/Pope John. Condon was back to his old form in Week 7 against Randolph. The Creighton sophomore scored four times and racked up 254 yards on 19 carries for a mind-boggling 13.4 yards per carry. Condon needs just 16 more yards to go over 1,000 for the season.
Leyton Connell, Sandhills Valley Football
Connell passed for over 200 yards in a game last season and has over 2,000 career passing yards. But he’s never had a game like he did on Thursday when he tossed six touchdowns and threw for nearly 300 yards. Connell was 16 for 23 on the night while setting a new career-best total of 274 yards, six scores and a long of 47. He threw touchdown passes to four different receivers and now is within 45 pass yards of a 1,000-yard season and has 17 touchdowns to four interceptions.
Sage Giddings, Omaha South Football
Giddings was a workhorse for the Packer offense during a dominant win over Omaha Northwest that ended a three-game skid. The Omaha South freshman took 26 handoffs and churned up 161 rush yards while finding the end zone three times. Each of those numbers represented a new career-high for a rookie back who is averaging 4.7 yards per carry in his first season of varsity football. Giddings looks to have a bright future and is a talent to keep an eye on over the next three years.
Hunter Luther – Howells-Dodge Football
Howells-Dodge has a history of elite running backs, 1,000-yard seasons and all-state honorees. Luther isn’t one of those yet but he’s making a case to be the Jaguars’ next great ball carrier. Just a sophomore and not the lead back in the offense, Luther has 664 yards in five games, is averaging over eight yards per carry and has scored 12 touchdowns. In Friday’s eight-man win over Winside, Luther rushed for 185 yards on 10 carries and found the end zone four times. Luther had just six carries as a freshman but now has four games with more than 100 yards.
Ryan Manning, Lincoln Southwest Football
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by Manning’s big game during a Thursday win over South Sioux City. But whether we’re reminiscing on Payton, Eli or Archie, Ryan did the Manning name (no relation) proud by throwing four touchdown passes and completing 75% of his throws. He needed just 12 attempts and connected on nine of those for an average of 25.8 per completion and a quarterback rating of 156.3. Manning was the backup until an injury elevated him to his first start. He responded with a game that might create a QB controversy at Southwest.
