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Omaha, Nebraska native Matt Brailita is headed to Baltimore in the fall. He announced his commitment to Johns Hopkins University earlier this spring, writing on social media:

“I am very excited to announce my commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at Johns Hopkins University ! I’m extremely grateful for everything my family, friends, and teammates have done to support me every step of the way. A special thanks to Coach Tom and Coach Andy for always pushing me beyond what I believed in. Also a huge thanks to Coach Scott and Coach Chris for giving me this opportunity of a lifetime. GO BLUE JAYS!”

Brailita swam for Omaha’s Millard North High School under coach Andy Cunningham. He wrapped up his senior season with a pair of runner-up finishes at the 2026 NSAA Championships, earning lifetime-best times in both the 200 IM (1:50.84) and 100 breast (56.01). He also notched a PB in the 50 free (20.76) while leading off Millard North’s 200 free relay in prelims. He anchored the same relay in finals, splitting 20.01. Brailita leaves Millard North High School as a 10-time State medalist and a multiple-event team record-holder. He was 2026 Metro Conference champion in the 100 fly and as a member of 2 relays, and he was nominated for Metro Omaha World Herald Swimming Athlete Scholar.

Brailita swims year-round with Greater Omaha Aquatic Leopardsharks under coach Tom Beck. In addition to IM and breast, he excels in fly and free. In March, he competed at Columbia Sectionals, where he finaled in the 50 free (15th), 100 breast (11th), 50 fly (8th), 100 fly (10th), and swam prelims in the 50 breast (8th) and 200 IM (10th). He left the meet with new PBs in the 100 free (46.30), 50 breast (26.25), 50 fly (22.51), and 100 fly (49.86).

Last summer, Brailita hit LCM lifetime bests in the 50 breast (30.81), 100 breast (1:06.84), 200 breast (2:29.93), and 200 IM (2:11.12) at Madison Futures, making finals in the IM. He opened the 2026 long-course season with a pair of PBs (24.83 in the 50 free and  27.09 in the 50 fly) at the GOAL Sprint Cup in April.

Brailita will join the Blue Jays’ class of 2030 with Alistair Guth, Finn Nelson, Lukas Funderburk, Matthew Ko, Nicolas Aldana Huelga, Samuel Zhang, and William Thurk. His best times would have scored in the ‘A’ finals of the 200 IM, 100/200 breast, and 50/200 free, and the ‘B’ finals of the 100 free and 100 fly at the 2026 Centennial Conference Championships.

Best SCY times :

• 200 IM – 1:50.84
• 100 breast – 56.01
• 200 breast – 2:06.83
• 50 free – 20.76
• 50 free relay split – 20.01
• 100 fly – 49.86
• 200 free – 1:41.83
• 100 free – 46.30

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Nebraska right-handed pitcher Cooper Katskee entered the transfer portal on Monday night. Katskee had a tremendous junior season for the Huskers.

He served the roles of both midweek starter and a beacon reliever for Nebraska. He began his career with the Indiana Hoosiers and stayed there from 20223 to 2024. He then transferred to Miami (Ohio) before landing in Lincoln.

Katskee posted a 5.71 ERA over 63 innings. One of his best performances of the regular season came against Omaha on March 3. He struck out 10 batters across six scoreless innings.

This is the fifth departure for the program in the transfer portal. Nebraska has made several solid additions as well, looking to revamp the roster after a successful season.

KEARNEY, Neb. (KOLN) — Outside of Lincoln or Omaha, the vast majority of the state utilizes rural health care. Understanding the disparities between urban health and rural health could greatly improve the lives of those living in rural areas.

A new organization launched Monday at the Rural Health Conference in Kearney aims to do just that.

The Greater Nebraska Rural Research Network, part of the Nebraska Rural Health Association, hopes to connect researchers to hospitals to get patients involved in rural research projects.

“And it’s frustrating that there are disparities in health that have persisted now for a while, where living in a rural area means a higher likelihood of death, of depression, and worsening of a lot of other conditions,” said Ryan Larsen, CEO of Community Medical Center in Falls City.

Participation in research has been shown to improve health outcomes, even before results are known.

“If we’re concerned that you have decreased quality of care or you have decreased lifespan or decreased health in rural America, just simply having them involved in something automatically, statistically, has been shown to improve that,” said Brian Shelmadine, chief medical officer at Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance.

Some hospital leaders are concerned they don’t have the numbers to make a meaningful impact, but the network hopes to change that by pooling patients across multiple facilities.

“If you’ve got a hospital that’s only got five or six people with a specific condition, there’s a bunch of hospitals across Nebraska that might have five or six people with a given condition. And all of a sudden, you’ve got enough people to do a study and try and figure out something to make their world better,” said Jeff Ordway, operations manager of the Greater Nebraska Rural Research Network.

Researchers are already starting to look at doing projects in rural Nebraska, including one woman from Dartmouth College studying the use of elective induction in rural areas.

Part of the motivation for studying rural landscapes is to build trust with patients and conduct research in settings like their own.

“And that’s an issue that gets raised by providers in rural settings. Like, how do I know that, you know, I’m not going to make things worse for my patients? Because the study was conducted in urban areas,” said Sanam Roder-Dewan, associate professor at Dartmouth College.

For her research to work, hospitals need to participate. The Rural Research Network is recruiting hospitals now to get a large enough sample size for her research and other research projects to succeed.

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