It was so nice that he had to do it twice.
In Lincoln on Feb. 2 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invite, redshirt senior Alex Goracke broke the school record in the weight throw, throwing a 66-1-50. That record stood for 23 years, by Brett Wetton holding the previous mark.
“I’ve been chasing this record for a while now,” Goracke said. “I’ve been seeing marks in practice that have been really good and for just to be so close for so long and finally see the right couple numbers pop up on the big screen at UNL was pretty awesome.”
After the record had been held for 23 years, it didn’t last another 24 hours. Goracke went and broke it the very next day at the Fred Beile Classic in Crete. Goracke had a throw of 66-8.50.
“If you could have asked me a million different ways that I would break the record, that certainly would not have been my answer,” Goracke said. “To do it again in less than 16-18 hours, with two meets in a single weekend. It still really just doesn’t feel real.”
Goracke’s freshman year was halted due to a knee injury, and then his second year at UNK was COVID. Goracke wasn’t able to fully take the field for the Lopers until he was a junior.
Thanks to added years of eligibility and starting a masters degree, Goracke has extended his time with UNK to get to this point in his career.
“This team and this program means everything to me,” Goracke said. “The people that we bring in here at UNK with the coaches that we have and the culture that we’ve built here is just really special because we’ve done it with Nebraska kids especially on the throw side.”
With the incredible throw at Doane, Goracke is now ranked sixth in Division II in the weight throw, and he hopes that leads to more milestones.
“The next goal here is to hopefully land in the top eight at the national meet and get my first first team All American,” Goracke said. “Along with that I just want to have a great last go around here in my last year. A lot of the time we’re focusing so much on the number and how far everything’s going that sometimes we don’t take a step back to really see how far we’ve come.”
