HASTINGS, Neb. – The Hastings High Tigers are sending three athletes to play collegiate sports, and two of them will play at the Division I level next year.

Today was the first day this year where high school athletes could sign their letters of intent to play sports next year at the college level.

Dozens of athletes across the state used that as an opportunity to put pen to paper today to give them one less thing to think about in their senior year of high school.

Chance Vertin is a football and baseball player for the Hastings High Tigers, and he’ll be taking his talents to the Cowley County Community College Baseball program down in Arkansas City, Kansas. He’s a four year varsity player who led the team in batting average last spring.

"To represent Central Nebraska will be pretty awesome, they (CCCC) have only one other guy in the last 40 years to go down there to play," said Vertin. "I'm very honored to honor the state and Central Nebraska to go down there and play my best ball, and be the best version of myself."

Abbey Fish is a swimmer and is headed to Cincinnati to become a Muskateer at Xavier University. She’s placed 8th or better at state swim in each of her three years in high school including a bronze medal finish last season.

"It's nice to be able to represent a small town on a big stage, and just show all of the hard work we've put in out here," said Fish. "It's like a nice big weight off my shoulders. We start swim season next week, so that was kind of something I had in the back of my mind, just be committed before the season and take that pressure off."

Grayce Beck is continuing her softball career at the Division I level at the University of North Dakota. She hit a team high 14 home runs this fall part of a Tiger team that finished as state runners up.

"When I started playing at Nebraska Gold, I really pushed myself, they push really hard there," said Beck. "Just to see the coaches there and actually interact with some college coaches I really started to push, and this could be my future, and now it is."

This is the first year that Hastings had a Division I commit since 2022.