Jaci Swart

For the third straight season it was a title Nemaha Central girls (Nemaha Valley last two years) at the Hiawatha Invitational mid-season tournament. The Thunder captured the crown last week and are now 9-4 on the season.

While the Thunder have been a balanced team all season with multiple gals stepping up with solid games all year; senior, Jaci Swart has been a relative steady hand helping lead the charge for Nemaha Central throughout the season and had a solid tournament week.

The Hiawatha Invitational opened up with Swart and company downing Rock Creek in the opening round picking up the 44-30 win, as Swart posted seven points in the competition. In the Semifinals, Jaci took over the game early as she scored 14 of the team’s first 20 points and posted 21 points in the first half to give Nemaha Central a cushion at the half. The Thunder went on to top Marysville 60-47 to head into the Championship game and Swart finished with a new season high 23 points in the game. In the Championship game the Thunder took on the host Hiawatha Red Hawks and this time around picked up the win on the Red Hawks court, winning 43-34 and Jaci posted 11 points in the win.

On the year the Swart has lead the charge for the Thunder averaging 11.5 ppg, while registering double figures in 10 of the teams 13 games this year. To go along with her 11.5 points per game, Jaci fills the stat sheet in multiple other ways game in and game out, averaging nearly three assists per game, over four rebounds per game and nearly four steals per game.

Winning the HIT last year gave then Nemaha Valley a great push towards a run in postseason play and this year Coach Hadden Hiltgen hopes that Jaci and the rest of the gals can make another push like that this year in the first year as the Nemaha Central Thunder.