Nebraska isn’t only adding transfer athletes in the sports of football and men’s and women’s basketball.
The Nebraska track team added a big-time transfer in the offseason, too, one that could even contend for a national championship.
Nebraska men’s track athlete Alex Talley is 4-for-4 in winning events after the opening two meets of his season, winning both the shot put and weight throw at each meet.
On Saturday, Talley won the shot put at the Graduate Classic at the Devaney Sports Center. Earlier in the weekend, he won the weight throw during his first home meet with the Huskers.
The season is still early, but Talley ranks No. 3 nationally in the weight throw (73 feet, 3½ inches) and No. 4 in the nation in the shot put (65-7).
During his first meet, he set the school record in the weight throw, and he’s No. 5 all-time in the shot put.
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Talley transferred to Nebraska this summer from North Dakota State. He qualified for the NCAA indoor meet twice and the outdoor meet twice. Last season he finished third at the NCAA indoor meet in the shot put.
And last summer he finished seventh at the Olympic Trials in the hammer throw (the top three qualified for Tokyo).
“I think I was the top collegiate performer in the men’s hammer throw at the Olympic trials, which is a pretty cool title to have,†Talley said.
This is Talley’s sixth season as a college athlete, and he’s using the extra season of eligibility due to COVID-19.
During his first season at North Dakota State he redshirted. He was still relatively new to the sport and had never done two of the throwing events -- indoor tracks weight throw and the hammer throw outdoors.
Talley’s event coach at North Dakota State, Justin St. Clair, became an assistant coach at Nebraska last summer. Talley put his name in the NCAA transfer portal, and then St. Clair recruited him.
But just as important to Talley as his coach was finding something productive to do with the time he’d have to be in school. His undergraduate degree is in civil engineering, and at Nebraska, he should be able to get a master’s degree in engineering management by next fall. He may also try to do professional track after that.
Talley is from West Fargo, North Dakota, and he hadn’t even heard of the hammer throw before college.
“Coach St. Clair called it,†Talley said. “The first day I picked up the hammer he said, ‘You’re going to be good at this and I believed him and it’s worked out so far.â€
In his first meet with Nebraska in December, Talley set the school record in the weight throw at the Kansas State meet.
Getting an athlete like Talley was huge for the program, head coach Gary Pepin said.
“He’s a three-time All-American and it’s pretty unusual that indoors and outdoors he scored in the NCAA meet in two events,†Pepin said. “We haven’t had hardly anybody that’s done that.â€
Talley doesn’t look like some of the other top college throwers, who are tall and lean. Talley is 5-foot-10.
“I’m very short, especially on a national level, but I try to make up for it in other ways,†he said. “I like to think I’m pretty strong. I have good speed through the ring, and I try to be pretty technical.â€
It looks like Nebraska could score a lot of points at the conference meet in the throwing events. On Saturday, Nebraska swept the top three spots in the shot put, with Burger Lambrechts taking second and Maxwell Otterdahl (another North Dakota state transfer) third.
“We got a great team,†Talley said. “I know I’ve won the past couple, but really I feel like any of those guys could have taken it.â€
Also on Saturday Taylor Latimer (a Kansas State transfer) from the Nebraska women’s team won the shot put with a throw of 53-8¼. That ranks ninth all-time at Nebraska.