Lincoln natives Schutz, Chot find home at Nebraska

That was evident Saturday morning at Mahoney Golf Course for the accomplished Nebraska runners competing at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational.

For Chot, now in his senior season, his family watched him race for only the second time in his college career. For Schutz, her former Lincoln East teammates practiced as the sun rose so they could cheer her on.

“I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to race and my family could just drive here 15 minutes to watch,” said Chot, a Lincoln North Star grad who transferred to Nebraska from Temple this offseason.

Schutz added: “In high school and middle school, probably younger, I would videotape all the college runners and be like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ Now I’m running here and my teammates from high school come watch and my friends and my grandparents, my whole family. It’s really special.”

The sky’s the limit for both of them this season, as they were both named as Nebraska’s representatives for Big Ten preseason runners to watch.

The Journal Star caught up with both runners this weekend.

While at Temple, the two-time Nebraska Gatorade player of the year in boys cross country had four different coaches. He’d been thinking about transferring for years, but after yet another coaching change, he’d reached his limit.

“It’s really hard to improve when your training is constantly changing,” Chot said. “I didn’t want to risk that again, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna go to Nebraska. I know people there. My high school coach trusted the coaches there.’ And, plus, I love training in Lincoln. My family’s here. A bunch of factors contributed to it, but my last straw was that I didn’t want to be in an unstable program anymore.”

The transition was nearly seamless.

He’s spent countless hours on Lincoln’s 183-mile trail system, dating back nearly a decade. He was reunited with his high school teammate Grant Wasserman. He’d also spent several high school years competing against a few of the other guys on the team, like Southwest graduate Trevor Acton and Gretna grad Colby Erdkamp.

“The familiarity makes it a lot easier to adjust and go back to the way things used to be,” Chot said. “I love training in this city. I love the resources we have.”

Due to illness, Saturday’s race didn’t go as planned for Chot — placing 123rd in the 8K with a time of 27 minutes, 38.39 seconds — but he’s still grateful for the opportunity to run at home.

“In the last three years (my family) only watched one of my races, and that was seven hours away,” Chot said. “They had to drive all the way to Minnesota to watch that race. So being here is gonna be great, even better for track, too, because during indoor, that’s a five-minute drive.”

Even though Chot’s race Saturday wasn’t up to his normal, he’s not worried about that affecting the rest of his season. His fitness is there. He’s logging 80 to 90 miles per week on weeks when he isn’t racing.

Looking ahead, he’s more focused on team-oriented goals than personal ones.

“If we could get this team to top five in the region — that sounds bold — but based on where we are not, it’s not out of the question,” Chot said. “Obviously top five in the Big 10 would be great, but it’s hard. It’s really, really hard to get that. I think this is a really good team. If we could get that, it would be a pretty solid season for us.”

Schutz burst onto the scene quickly as a freshman last season.

The standout Lincoln East runner won three meets out of the gate in 2023 — including last year’s Greeno/Dirksen — to earn two Big Ten women’s cross country athlete of the week honors.

How does she build off of that success?

“I have to look at the same goals and then even bigger goals than I did, just to keep building,” Schutz said. “I don’t want to hit a time and be like, ‘OK, that’s good enough.’”

But breaking out on the track last season could change the game for her in cross country.

Not only did she win the mile at the Tyson Invitational, she broke the school record in the indoor event at 4:37.45. She shaved a little time off at indoor Big Tens, winning the bronze medal at 4:37.34.

Earlier this year during the outdoor season, her time of 4:17.31 in the 1500-meter at the Bryan Clay Invitational catapulted her to No. 7 all-time for Nebraska.

“I think track season showed me that I can compete with a lot of the big dogs or the big names,” Schutz said. “I would be side-by-side racing a mile with a girl who’s made it to nationals before, and that just helps to know that you’re not always the underdog. You can match people who maybe you thought you couldn’t. So that’s good to keep in mind.”

Not only is it a mental game, but a physical one.

Two years ago, as a senior in high school, she averaged 30-35 miles per week. Last year, she stepped it up a little more. Now, she’s running roughly 60 miles per week.

It’s already paying off.

Two weeks ago, Schutz won the Augustana Twilight 5K, setting a personal best of 16:20.80 in the process.

“That was really fun,” Schutz said. “I just felt amazing. And that race is really fun, it’s a night meet. Our team went out and we did our thing.”

On Saturday, Schutz admits the heat got to her a little bit — running the 5K distance in 18:03.10 to place tenth. “It was a rough one,” she said. “But my goal was to make it to the line and I finished. Just in my eyes, I probably raced worse than people think I did, but that’s just in my head.”

Moving forward, what does Schutz hope for herself and her team?

“We really want to place well at Big Tens,” she said. “I also want to place at Big Tens individually. I’d like to do really good at regionals, and hopefully see how far I get.”

Nebraska has one more regular season meet before the postseason begins. Nebraska will compete at Oregon’s Bill Dellinger Invite on Oct. 11 and then Big Tens are on Nov. 1 in Champaign, Illinois. NCAA Midwest Regionals are set for Nov. 15 and nationals are scheduled for Nov. 23 in Madison, Wisconsin.