April 2014 – Page 42 – North Platte Post Archive

Burwell Schools Maintain Tighter Security

Posted on April 14, 2014

(AP) — Officials are maintaining the tighter security at Burwell schools more than a month after a menacing letter was sent to Burwell police containing what’s been called a “hit list.”

On the list received March 6 were the names of more than a dozen Burwell administrators, teachers and students at the district’s junior-senior high school. Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Dennis Leonard said there’s no new information on the case and that investigators are awaiting laboratory results.

After the school board met on March 10, Burwell’s two schools were closed for a day before reopening with new security procedures in place. Burwell Junior-Senior High School principal Dave Owen says students have adjusted well.

Burwell is a central Nebraska community of about 1,200 residents.

NP Woman Charged in Menards Theft

Posted on April 14, 2014

A North Platte woman has been charged in connection with a theft from Menards earlier this month.

On April 2, the North Platte Police Department investigated a theft from Menards, and arrested Matthew Rauterkus.

Police say that as the investigation progressed, evidence was gathered that indicated a female had helped Rauterkus conceal the stolen merchandise.

The female was eventually identified as 28-year-old Jessica Carstensen.

A bulletin authorizing the arrest of Carstensen was issued for aiding and abetting shoplifting.

An officer had contact with Carstensen on an unrelated matter on April 11, and placed her under arrest.

Carstensen was processed and released from the Lincoln County Detention Center.

Hershey’s Hiatt Named to NCA All-Star Basketball Team

Posted on April 14, 2014

The Nebraska Coaches Association (NCA) is pleased to announce the athletes and coaches for the 2014 NCA Boys’ and Girls’ All-Star games. The coaches are NCA members selected by their coaching peers. The athletes, graduating seniors, are selected by a committee of NCA member coaches. Athletes will be placed on specific teams in June.

The only local athlete to be named to one of the all-star teams is Hershey senior Maegan Hiatt. Hiatt led the Lady Panthers to a 23-4 record in the 2013-14 season. She played her final game as a Hershey Panther in a district finals loss to Chadron, 50-21.

The 35^th Annual NCA Girls’ Basketball All-Star game will be played at Lincoln North Star High School on Monday, July 22 followed by the 46^th Annual Boys’ Basketball NCA All-Star game.

The rosters for the boys and girls teams can be seen by clicking on the links below.

2014 NCA Boys Basketball All-Star Roster

2014 NCA Girls Basketball All-Star Roster

Driver Dies After Crashing on Snowy Night in Omaha

Posted on April 14, 2014

(AP) — Police say an Omaha man who was driving too fast for the snowy conditions has died after crashing in his van.

Omaha police say the accident occurred just after 9:45 p.m. Sunday as the van was heading south off westbound Storz Expressway onto U.S. Highway 75.

Police say the van went out of control and struck a guardrail twice, ejecting the driver. Police say he died later at Nebraska Medical Center. He was identified as 58-year-old Roy Tiller, of Omaha.

Officials say an inch or more of heavy, wet snow followed rain that pelted much of eastern Nebraska on Sunday, slickening streets and sidewalks.

Program Brings Ben Franklin Actor to Neb. Schools

Posted on April 14, 2014

(AP) — Some Nebraska elementary students will get a chance to learn good financial habits from someone portraying Ben Franklin.

The Nebraska Treasurer’s office is bringing the Franklin character to 16 elementary schools in eastern Nebraska. First National Bank is also supporting the program.

The Franklin character will visit with students about the importance of saving money.

And every fourth-grader who hears the presentation will get a backpack with more materials.

Treasurer Don Stenberg says he’s proud to help teach children the value of saving and making good financial decisions.

Supremacist ID’d as Suspect in Kansas Attacks

Posted on April 14, 2014

(AP) — A Johnson County jail official says the man accused of killing three people outside of Jewish sites near Kansas City is Frazier Glenn Cross.

The official confirmed that Cross is the suspect in Sunday’s attacks in Overland Park. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Public records show that the 73-year-old Cross also goes by the last name Miller. The Southern Poverty Law Center says he has long been an outspoken white supremacist and was once a “grand dragon” of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

The group reports on its website that it spoke to Miller’s wife, Marge, by phone Sunday and she said police told her that her husband had been arrested in Sunday’s attacks.

Vera Anna May Cross

Posted on April 14, 2014

Vera Anna May Cross, age 87 formerly of North Platte, passed away in Lincoln, NE on Friday April 11, 2014.
Vera was born on March 9, 1927 in a sod house in rural Lincoln County near Stapleton, NE to Charlie and Lula (Myers) Cassell. She grew up in the area and attended school in Stapleton and North Platte, graduating from NPHS in 1946. On October 25, 1947 she married Leonard Cross at the 1st Presbyterian Church in North Platte. She was a member of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church and enjoyed gardening and flowers.
Vera is survived by her children Richard (Jen) Cross of Carr, CO and Eunice (Byron) Fischer of Lincoln, NE; grandchildren Trisha (Brady) Clappsaddle of Littleton, CO, Kevin (Kim) Fahnholz of Oswego, IL, Pamela Sue (Nico) Henry of Ft. Collins, CO, Kelly (Summer) Fahnholz of Omaha, NE, Kristy Kay (Curt) Nixon of Omaha, NE, Kory (Haley) Fahnholz of Bennington, NE; 4 step grandchildren Todd Shelton, Kera Franklin, Christopher Shelton and Rachel Leach; 20 great grandchildren; a sister Darlene Williams of North Platte; a brother LaVonn (Ruth Darlene) Cassell of Lincoln, NE; and many other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Leonard; and brothers Leonard, Charles, Francis and William; and infant siblings, Ura and Vivian.
Memorials are suggested to the American Diabetes Assoc. or Our Redeemer Lutheran Church and online condolences may be shared at www.adamsswanson.com. Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m. Wednesday April 16, 2014 at Adams and Swanson Funeral Home with the Reverend Robert Wiest presiding. Burial will follow at Ft. McPherson National Cemetery. Visitation will be from noon until 9:00 p.m. Tuesday at Adams and Swanson Funeral Home which is in charge of arrangements.

Unruly Passenger Forces Flight to Divert to Omaha

Posted on April 14, 2014

(AP) — A California-bound Southwest Airlines flight was diverted to Omaha, Neb. after witnesses said a passenger tried to open a door midflight.

The airline said the Chicago-to-Sacramento plane landed on Eppley Airfield Sunday to “have an unruly passenger removed” before continuing on to its destination. The flight with 5 crew members and 134 passengers arrived in Sacramento about two hours behind schedule.

Once on the ground, a doctor onboard told KCRA-TV he and two other passengers tackled the man in the back of the cabin and restrained him until air marshals escorted him off the plane. Scott Porter said the man “was going to do bad things to the plane.”

The airline had no further details about the passenger. A call to the Omaha Airport Authority wasn’t immediately returned.

Vecchione, Union Capture National Championship

Posted on April 14, 2014

vecchione-trophy-Union Tri-City Storm Hockey — Former Tri-City Storm Forward Mike Vecchione Raising the NCAA Hockey National Championship Trophy

KEARNEY, Neb. – Former Storm forward Mike Vecchione helped the Union Dutchmen capture the school’s first ever national championship on Saturdaynight in Philadelphia, defeating the University of Minnesota by a score of 7-4.

Vecchione scored a goal in the game, while putting a team-high seven shots on net and finishing with a plus-one rating.

The freshman was the first center on the team’s depth chart, playing between wings Daniel Carr and Daniel Ciampini.

The Dutchmen took a 4-2 lead after the first period, and never looked back. Although Minnesota had a 2-1 lead 10 minutes into the opening stanza, Vecchione scored his 14th tally of the season at the 15:09 mark, evening the game.

Vecchione’s strike began a stretch of three Union goals in under two minutes, giving them that two-goal lead to take into the locker room. After Minnesota brought back the lead to within one at 4-3 and 5-4, the Dutchmen got their sixth of the night with less than two minutes to play and added an empty net goal to seal the win.

The Saugus, Mass. native led Tri-City with 26 goals in 2012-13. In 114 games with the Storm over two seasons, Vecchione had 36 goals and 55 assists.

Former Storm goaltender Adam Wilcox started in net for the Golden Gophers, coming up short in the final game of the season, despite making 41 saves.

In his sophomore season, the netminder was one of the best in the country, being named the Big Ten Player and Goaltender of the Year.

Tri-City is preparing for the two annual USHL Entry Drafts, which will take place May 5-6. The Storm will have the No. 3 overall pick in both drafts.

The Phase I Draft will include eligible players with a 1998 birth year and the Phase II Draft will include multiple birth years from 1994-1997.

Nebraska’s Wong and Wiedel Earn Big Ten Medal of Honor

Posted on April 14, 2014

Rosemont, Ill. — As the Big Ten continues to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Big Ten Medal of Honor, Nebraska announced that Emily Wong and Seth Wiedel captured the prestigious awards at the Student-Athlete Recognition Banquet at the Embassy Suites in downtown Lincoln on Sunday. Wong and Wiedel are the fifth and sixth Huskers to earn the honor since Nebraska joined the Big Ten for the first season of competition in 2011-12. Wong and Wiedel were also named Nebraska Female and Male Student-Athlete of the Year.

Well over 700 people attended the 24th annual banquet, which also featured the announcement of Nebraska’s most prestigious team awards. Coach Scott Jacobson’s Nebraska women’s tennis team captured the Herman Team Grade-Point Average award for the fourth consecutive year and sixth time in program history after posting a combined cumulative GPA of 3.485 in 2013. Coach Bill Spangler’s Husker golf team also claimed its fourth consecutive Herman Award on the men’s side with a 3.250 GPA in 2013. It was the program’s fifth Herman Award in history, since the men’s and women’s team awards began in 1994 thanks to a generous contribution from Dick and Dale Herman. Coach Mark Manning’s Nebraska wrestling team and Coach Pablo Morales’ women’s swimming and diving team repeated as winners of the prestigious Life Skills Awards of Excellence, for their exceptional commitment to NU’s award-winning Life Skills program.

As Nebraska’s Student-Athletes of the Year, Wong and Wiedel will be NU’s recipients of the Big Ten Medal of Honor. The conference’s most exclusive award was the first of its kind in intercollegiate athletics to recognize academic and athletic excellence. The Big Ten Medal of Honor was first awarded in 1915 to one student-athlete from the graduating class of each university who had “attained the greatest proficiency in athletics and scholastic work.” Big Ten schools currently feature more than 8,200 student-athletes, but only 24 earn this prestigious award on an annual basis. In the 99 years of the Medal of Honor, over 1,300 student-athletes have earned this distinction.

As a senior, Wong led Coach Dan Kendig’s Husker women’s gymnastics team to the Big Ten title while powering NU to the 12-team NCAA Championships this coming weekend in Birmingham, Ala. Along the way, Wong cemented her position as one of the nation’s top all-around student-athletes. The 2014 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, Wong won the Big Ten title on floor after posting just the second 10.0 on the event in Nebraska history. She added a Big Ten title on beam with a career-high 9.95 on the event in 2014, after winning four individual Big Ten crowns in 2013.

The 2014 Seattle Regional All-Around champion, Wong shared event titles on floor and bars at the Seattle Regional to help the Huskers punch their ticket to the national championships. An eight-time All-American at the NCAA Championships through the first three seasons of her career, Wong will take aim at more honors in Birmingham, April 18-20.

In addition to her remarkable accomplishments in competition, Wong was a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2013 and was named the winner of the Big Ten’s Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship. She is a finalist for the 2014 AAI Award presented to the nation’s top women’s gymnastics student-athlete. The native of Grand Forks, N.D., is a three-time NACGC/W Scholastic All-American and a three-time academic All-Big Ten selection. She is a two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar as a nutrition science major at Nebraska.

Wong is the fifth women’s gymnast in Husker history to win Nebraska’s Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Year award and the first since Stephanie Carter in 2007. Nicole Duval (1995), Shelly Bartlett (1997) and Richelle Simpson (2005) were also exceptional representatives of Coach Kendig’s gymnastics program as winners of the award.

Wiedel battled to a runner-up showing at the 2014 Big Ten Indoor Championships in the long jump with a season-best tying mark of 24-7 1/4 (7.50) for Coach Gary Pepin’s track and field team. Wiedel also finished 11th in the triple jump at the league meet. He added an eighth-place finish in the long jump and a ninth-place showing in the triple jump at the 2013 Big Ten outdoor meet.

A Hebron, Neb., native and graduate of Thayer Central High School, Wiedel was a 2013 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and claimed academic All-Big Ten honors in both 2012 and 2013. He was also a recipient of a Nebraska Student-Athlete HERO Leadership Award in 2013. He earned spots on the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team in both 2011 and 2013. Wiedel is majoring in business administration at Nebraska.

Wiedel becomes the fourth consecutive Nebraska Male Student-Athlete of the Year from the Husker track and field squad, following Bjorn Barrefors (2013), Tyler Hitchler (2012) and Nicholas Gordon (2011). Overall the men’s track and field program has claimed five Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Year awards, including Aaron Plas (2006), since the award’s inception at Nebraska in 1991. Seven NU women’s track and field student-athletes also have captured the award, giving Coach Pepin’s program 12 of the 48 all-time awards.

Wong and Wiedel were among the 279 Huskers to earn academic medallions at the banquet. Gold medallions were presented to those for highest academic honors (3.75-4.0 grade-point average). Silver medallions were awarded to those for high honors (3.5-.3749 GPA), while bronze medallions were presented to student-athletes with honors (3.0-3.499 GPA).