10/2/25 Nerdsletter

Contributor: The Nerd

There's no 'I' in team

Millard West, A-1 Districts, 2021

Last week I received an email from a coach requesting a picture of the 2021 Millard West team. The top-ranked team all fall, they steamrolled their way through the regular season. At the 2021 District meet, they ran as a pack for much of the race before their top five boys finished together in 3rd through 7th place. Their other two runners finished five and nine seconds behind, respectively, in 8th and 10th. At the State meet, the team had several bad breaks, and their season-long 6th and 7th runners were their 3rd and 4th finishers for a team that finished three points behind Fremont. They rebounded three weeks later, finishing second in the team standings at Nike Regionals. In a normal year they would have been the first Nebraska team to advance to Nike Nationals. Unfortunately, NXN was not held in 2020 or 2021.

The coach who requested the photo was looking to shift his team's focus from individual results to team results. That's a common theme in the final four weeks of the season as teams solidify their varsity rosters and formulate postseason race strategies. Unsurprisingly, the third-ranked Elkhorn boys team has been discussing its State ambitions, and those discussions were top of mind last Thursday when they competed at the Nebraska City meet. With Elkhorn the only ranked boys squad in the field of eight teams, it was an ideal meet to work on a pack running strategy.

Nebraska City (photo by Kathryn Roberts)

Consequently, it wasn't a surprise when a trio of Antlers turned the final corner together. Class B#13 Brayden Romero, #15 Garrett Barreras and Gerardo Hernandez-Tapia (watch list) pushed the pace down the final 200 meters and took each other's hands approximately forty meters from the finish. They all crossed the line in 17:26, twenty-two seconds ahead of the fourth-place finisher. Elkhorn placed five runners in the top seven, easily winning the team title.

But they didn't win. The official results do not reflect a team score for Elkhorn because their first three runners were disqualified for, apparently, "receiving assistance from any other person."

The NSAA and Nebraska officials follow the 2025 National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Book. Under the Track and Field category, Rule 4, Section 6, page 26, the manual indicates that runners will be disqualified from the event under these circumstances: "Article 5: It is an unfair act when a competitor receives any assistance. Assistance includes... c. competitors joining or grasping hands with each other during a race." Rule 8, Section 6, page 72, pertains to cross country meets and specifically refers back to the provisions of the Track and Field rule.

Last week I spoke to an experienced Class A coach and a 40-year T&F official about the scenario. Both responded that they would not expect the runners to be disqualified. The official noted that he would assume they were "freely and loosely holding hands with no clear and apparent pushing or pulling." He also noted: "Honestly, after the race I'd probably find and praise them for their camaraderie, unselfishness, etc." A few days ago I spoke with two other officials who immediately acknowledged that hand-holding was a disqualifying event, but they also intimated that they hoped a coach wouldn't force them to make that decision because it was clear that the teammates did not gain an unfair advantage by displaying their unity.

Based on the manual, the hand-holding scenario is black-and-white if another coach protests the activity. It doesn't matter that the runners in question did not assist each other or impede another runner. As for Elkhorn, they did not dispute or appeal the decision. They had intended to run as a team and they accomplished that goal.

As for the rest of you, take heed. The NFHS manual isn't a fan of team unity. There is no 'I' in 'team' but there are four 'I's in 'disqualification.'

Setting the pace

PAL junior high meet

One NFHS rule that I do agree with is also included in Rule 4, Section 6, article 5, which states that unfair assistance also includes "Pacing by a teammate not in the race or persons not participating in the event." I see pacing regularly but usually at the back of the race where runners are struggling to, well, run. In these instances, the assistance doesn't affect team scores to any significant degree. For example, on Saturday I saw a particularly heartwarming encounter (above) where a little brother decided to join his junior high sister.

However, in these back-of-the-pack situations, I'm not a fan of parents running or walking alongside the athlete unless there is a medical concern. If there isn't a medical situation, in my opinion the parental assistance is short-circuiting life lessons that athletes learn by facing challenges alone.

Unfortunately, in the last few weeks we have seen a situation where a high school race leader was assisted in pacing by a non-participant. The pacing wasn't needed and it probably didn't help, but it does put an unnecessary blemish on an outstanding result.

Once the gun fires, let the kids run their own races.

Sports parents, play your role

On that topic, Saturday's junior high meet was preceded by an 800-meter fun run for elementary school kids. These races are the running equivalent of T-ball: let the kids have fun, teach them the rules, give out a bunch of ribbons, and cross your fingers that they eventually join their junior high or high school team.

No more than sixty seconds into that race, I watched a mother scream at her athlete 50 meters away, "Make your move now, make your move!" As she walked away, I looked at another spectator who looked like a seasoned runner and said, "wow, that was a lot for a fun run." She replied, "that sounds like a future case of burnout."

To be clear, most parents struggle with how to support a distance runner. It's easy to know when to cheer at a football or volleyball game, but what do you say to your child during a race, after a bad race or when they have an injury? How do you talk about distance running without inadvertently putting more pressure on them?

I asked this question last fall, and Papio South girls coach Jeremy Haselhorst came to the rescue. In addition to his coaching and teaching duties, he's also a certified performance coach, and he wrote the article, "Sports parents, play your role". You can find the link here. I highly recommend it.

State JH XC meet

2023 State JH meet

The October 7th deadline to register for the State JH XC meet is fast approaching. The meet is held on Saturday, October 11 with the first of five races starting at noon. I've been to at least five of these meets, and they are second only to the State high school meet in terms of environment, fan support and competition. Three former JH medalists are currently ranked 1st in State - Emily Hegge in Class A, Scout Bell in Class C and Eli Goodell in Class D. Past champions also include legends Carson Noecker, Berlyn Schutz and Rylee Rice.

You can find more information about the meet at https://jhaselhorst.wixsite.com/nestatejhxc. It's an incredibly well-run meet, and the Nerd team will be there with cameras and drones. You can see our video from last year on the State meet home page.

UNK recap

Here's a quick recap of the eight races on Monday.

Class D girls

The UNK Class D field only featured seven of fifteen ranked girls; among the missing were #1 Avery Arens of Crofton, Delani Runnels of Niobrara-Verdigre, Kayleigh Betka and Leah Dawson of McCool Junction, and a number of northeastern Nebraska athletes. We also missed a chance to see the Gordon-Rushville girls, who arrived late to Kearney after spending an hour waiting for road construction.

There was still plenty of star power in the race, and there was a large pack of leaders as they approached the 1,000-meter mark that included Angela Frick (North Central), Madison Shaw (Sandy Creek), Lily Daly and Emery Vargas (Hastings St. Cecilia), Ainslee Woltman and Dakota Horstman (Hemingford) and Sage Holtmeier (TriCounty).

Madison Shaw, Emery Vargas and Sage Holtmeier had a five-meter lead over Lily Daly and Ainslee Woltman just after the halfway point with a 20-meter gap over the rest of the field. The most difficult section of the UNK course is from 3200 to 4400 meters, and that's where Holtmeier established her lead. She finished in 20:14 followed by Vargas (20:32) and Shaw (20:40). Vargas had not been ranked this season but jumped to #5 in the post-UNK rankings.

TriCounty entered the meet ranked 5th in Class D. Because of absences and late buses, Nebraska Christian was the only other top-5 team in the field. TriCounty won with just 17 points and three girls in the top 11: Holtmeier, 8th-place Isabelle Peters and 11th-place Emma Loxtercamp. Nebraska Christian edged Hemingford for second place, 48 to 52. In the post-UNK coaches rankings, TriCounty moved up to 3rd behind Crofton and McCool Junction. Complete results are at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023707.

Class D boys

The Class D boys' field featured 11 of 15 ranked runners; we were only missing two boys from Norfolk Catholic, Sully Jackson from Cornerstone Christian and top-ranked Eli Goodell, who opted into the Class A race.

Second-ranked Kaser Johnson of Doniphan-Trumbull pushed from the start and had a 10-meter lead over third-ranked Jacob Swanson of Nebraska Christian at the 900-meter mark. Fourth-ranked Colton Ham and unranked Bladen Rainforth of Doniphan-Trumbull were another five meters back, with the rest of the field stretched out.

By 2700 meters, Johnson had stretched his lead to 30 meters over Swanson. Ham was another 20-30 meters back, with Sammy Holsing and Drew Siems of TriCounty twenty meters behind Ham. The tide turned over the next half mile.

On Monday we saw several DNFs among top performers. Temperatures weren't particularly high - in the high 70's or low 80's - but the high-pressure race and difficult course always takes their toll. Jacob Swanson, who has been one of Nebraska's most consistent performers over the last four years, fell to his knees around the 3500-meter mark before eventually staggering to a 23:13 finish. Kaser Johnson had no such difficulties, cruising to a 16:30 win, the eighth-fastest time of the day. Ham finished strong in 17:02, followed by Sammy Holsing (17:08) and a hard-charging Austin Benda of Hemingford in 17:19.

Top-ranked TriCounty finished its sweep of the Class D titles with an 18-point score and medalists finishing 3rd, 5th, 10th, 16th and 17th. North Platte St. Patrick's (49 points) edged Doniphan-Trumbull (56) for second. Perkins County (10th, 130 points) and Nebraska Christian (11th, 132 points) were hurt by, respectively, Eli Goodell's absence and Swanson's difficult day, but TriCounty proved that they are the team to beat at State. The most impressive feature for TriCounty is their depth; two of their boys could have bad days at State and they would still be huge favorites to win the title. Complete results are at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023706.

Class C girls

The UNK meet is often the only meet before State where athletes from different sides of the state get to compete against one another. One of Monday's best match-ups was C#1 Avery Heinrich of Columbus Scotus and C#2 Scout Bell of Gothenburg. By our count, both girls had won their first five races of the season after finishing 2nd (Heinrich) and 4th (Bell) at last year's State meet.

In theory, the girls field should have included every ranked runner in Class C except Madelyn Barnard of Bishop Neumann and every ranked team except #8 Omaha Concordia and #9 Boone Central. In addition to those absences, we don't believe that C#14 Liston Crotty of Auburn competed.

Freshman Tayla Hurner of Wayne, ranked 7th prior to UNK, charged out to an early lead at 300 meters. By the 900-meter mark, a group of serious contenders had formed at the front of the field: Heinrich, Bell, Emilyn Kavan of Scotus, Hailey Hengtgen of Palmyra, Jaelyn Witter of Kearney Catholic and June Lehn of Adams Central.

Heinrich and Bell were side-by-side at 2700 meters with Witter 20 meters back, Kavan and Hengtgen another 40 meters back, and Hurner, Lehn and Milford freshman Macie Carter strung out a further 20 meters behind Kavan and Hengtgen. With 400 meters remaining, the first nine girls were all separated by 20-40 meter gaps, led by Bell. She held her lead to the finish, winning by 14 seconds over Heinrich in 19:47. Heinrich was 2nd in 20:01, Witter third in 20:21, and Kavan finished 4th in 20:32, a half-second ahead of the fast-closing Macie Carter. This race may have held the fewest surprises of the day, with 12 of the pre-UNK ranked girls still in the top 15 in the post-UNK rankings.

Columbus Scotus took home the team title with 54 points bolstered by three medalists - Avery Heinrich, Emilyn Kavan and 10th-place Hannah Heinrich. Chase County finished a surprising second at 74 points with top finishers Addison Hauxwell (9th, freshman), Alayna Smith (15th, sophomore), Tess Smith (21st, senior) and Liz Hanna (32nd, junior). The Class C field was young - eight of the top fifteen were freshmen or sophomores - and the UNK meet is the ideal learning environment for the State meet. Scotus will keep their #1 ranking for another week but there is no shortage of teams who could vie for the title in three weeks.

For complete results, go to https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023705.

Class C boys

Thirteen of the fifteen pre-UNK ranked boys were expected to be in the field on Monday, with only Payton Day of Omaha Concordia and Miles Claussen of Battle Creek missing. Unfortunately, we had several ranked boys who did not appear to start the race: Sam McQuistan and Michael Golus of Holdrege, Sawyer Laflan of Ogallala and Seth Waters of Fort Calhoun. In terms of ranked teams, the UNK field was only missing #9 Omaha Concordia, so the race was a good preview of what we'll see at State.

Twelfth-ranked Mesach Nkurubujango of Mount Michael pushed to an early lead at 900 meters, followed by freshman Owen Erickson of Boys Town, Trevin Huskey of JCC, and Trevin Opp and Shawn Arnold of Lincoln Christian. Tyler Hetz and Bryson Neels of Gothenburg took a more controlled start and were at the front of the second group of leaders.

Tyler Hetz had broken free by 2700 meters, running hard and a good 40 meters ahead of Trevin Opp. The fast pace was evident with the first 20 boys effectively running solo races with 5-10 meters between each competitor.

Hetz had a 50-meter lead with 400 meters remaining but, from my perspective, he had a stilted running style that suggested his legs were being ravaged by lactic acid. Trevin Opp took advantage of the opportunity and finished strong, winning in 16:35 to Hetz's 16:51. Nkurubujango maintained his third-place mid-race position all the way to the finish and Koang Deng of Cozad improved from 9th to 4th over the last 2000 meters.

The unique nature of the UNK/State course is one of the biggest reasons to compete in the UNK meet. Fourth-ranked Brenden Bolling of Pierce, running the course for the first time after playing football the first three years of high school, had his worst outcome of the season. We expect him to have a better result in October using the lessons he learned on Monday.

The biggest surprises of the day came from Lincoln Christian. This was Trevin Opp's third race of the season after coming back from a significant injury, and it was Nolan Engel's first result of the season. Engel was in 16th place at 2700 meters before finishing 5th, adding more evidence to the theory that starting slow at the UNK course is the best path to a high finish. They weren't the only Lincoln Christian medalists: Shawn Arnold and Amos Glenn, both missing from our pre-UNK rankings, finished 9th and 11th. Lincoln Christian won with just 26 points, ahead of a three-way tie for second at 110 points between Holdrege, Syracuse and Gothenburg. Based on these results, Lincoln Christian is the clear favorite to win the State title. However, Holdrege had its first disappointing result of the season in the absence of their two best runners, so look for the defending champs to have a better showing at State.

You can find full results at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023704.

Class B girls

Twenty-five of Class B's thirty-two girls' teams had team scores at UNK. Lincoln Pius was the only ranked team that did not compete and Pius' Malia Woosley was the only ranked girl not competing at Kearney. Consequently, this was an excellent preview for the State meet.

While we don't recommend a fast start at the Kearney course, we'll be adding a Cece Kramper exception to that rule: if you're clearly the fastest athlete in the field, feel free to take the lead at the gun. Kramper had a five-meter lead at 300 meters and it was clear by 900 meters that the rest of the field had no plans to chase her. A loose pack formed about 50 meters behind her that included the rest of the Class B stars: Leah Robinson (Elkhorn North), Sophia Reynolds (Hastings), Annah Perdue (York), Lucy Zabloudil (Gretna), Haylen Holliday (Seward), Mallory Robbins (Plattsmouth), Amalia Doty (Omaha Gross) and Brooklyn Kermoade (Platteview).

Kramper expanded her lead by 2700 meters while the rest of the field fractured. Leah Robinson, Sophia Reynolds, Annah Perdue, Lucy Zabloudil, Haylen Holliday, Amalia Doty, Brooklyn Kermoade, Emma Cappel (McCook) and Addison Washburn (Elkhorn) rounded out the top 10 at the midway mark, with none of the girls running side-by-side.

There were few changes in the final 2000 meters. Kramper won in 18:20, the fastest girls' time of the day, followed by B#2 Robinson (18:41), B#3 Reynolds (19:15), B#5 Zabloudil (19:49) and B#10 Holliday (19:50). B#4 Annah Perdue and B#7 Mallory Robbins were DNFs - not an unusual outcome given the heat, difficult course and aggressive pace. We've kept Perdue at #4 in the post-UNK rankings while Robbins dropped slightly to #10.

The Class B team rankings have been interesting to watch as Elkhorn North, Gretna and Pius have battled for the top spot. Gretna entered UNK as the #1 team after topping Pius and Elkhorn North at the Harold Scott meet on 9/18, but Elkhorn North took the UNK title with 36 points compared to Gretna's 45. Elkhorn North had four medalists: Robinson (2nd), Jenna Polking (7th), Paityn Christoffels (8th) and freshman Riley Keisling (19th). Gretna's medalists included Zabloudil (4th), Sierra Regan (9th) and Kelsey Van Waart (11th), while freshman Brylie Wennstedt continued her consistent results with a 21st-place finish.

You can find complete results at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023703.

Class B boys

The UNK race featured 26 of the 31 Class B boys teams, with one notable exception: top-ranked Pius and its four ranked runners, including #1 David Krier and #2 Joe Majerus. Despite their absence, this promised to be an entertaining race with ranked runners from eastern and western Nebraska meeting for the first time this season.

At the 900-meter mark, five ranked runners led the field: #3 Jared Schroeder (Waverly), #11 Samuel Robinson (Norris), #7 Lincoln Wolfe (Skutt), #5 Caleb Larsen (Gretna) and #12 Trevor Zurn (Alliance). A second lead group included #4 Ethan Smith and #10 Jaxon Cushing (Northwest) and #9 Axton Stone (Gering).

Schroeder had established a 50-meter lead by 2700 meters, followed by the threesome of Stone, Smith and Zurn. By the time the leaders reached the 3k mark, Schroeder had expanded his lead, while Stone, Zurn and Smith had splintered. They were followed by Robinson, Cushing, Lincoln Wolfe (Skutt) and Derek Rieck-Capellan (Elkhorn North).

Schroeder's aggressive pace bit back over the next 1200 meters, the most difficult section of the course. Over the same expanse, Lincoln Wolfe moved up from 7th to 1st, and he led Stone and Zurn by 30 meters at the 4600 meter mark. He held off a late charge from those two boys to win in 16:18, followed by Stone (16:20) and Zurn (16:21). Rieck-Capellan improved from 8th to 4th over the final 2k to finish in 16:29, and Ethan Smith rounded out the top five with his 16:40. Schroeder hung on for 9th in 17:47, a remarkable feat given his mid-race pace.

Marc Zavala of the Grand Island Independent reported that Northwest won its first UNK team title since 1977 with 75 points, propelled by three medalists: Smith (5th), Cushing (7th) and Joe Sutherland (20th). Gretna and Elkhorn tied for 2nd with 96 points, while Elkhorn North was 4th with 98 points. Pius remains the overwhelming favorite to win the Class B title, but with six teams scoring between 75 and 110 points at UNK, the fight for the second podium spot at State is going to be spectacular.

Full Class B results are at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023701.

Class A girls

The two Class A races were the least instructive of the eight races, at least in terms of a State preview, since so many ranked teams were missing. Fifteen of the thirty-one Class A schools were at UNK, but missing teams included #1 Millard West, #2 Lincoln Southwest, #7 Norfolk and #7 Lincoln High (tied in the latest rankings). The race featured seven girls ranked in the top 15 prior to UNK; in addition to the athletes from missing teams, Ashlyn Carter of Papio South and Grace Volzke of Elkhorn South did not start the race.

While the field may have had a limited number of ranked runners, it made up for it in the quality of those runners. The top four girls in the pre-UNK rankings were at the meet - Emily Hegge (Papio South), Tatum Nielson (Bellevue West), Kori McClain (North Platte) and Abbi Durow (Millard South) - and they pushed from the start. The picture above reflects the four leaders at the 900-meter mark, when they had already separated from the rest of the field.

Despite attending high schools that are ten miles apart, this was the first time that Hegge and Nielson met this season. The two came into the meet with nine combined victories, all sub-19:00 results. Nielson and McClain previously met at the Kearney Meadowlark when Nielson won by thirteen seconds, while Durow had finished second behind Hegge at their last two meets.

While Hegge was the early aggressor, Nielson had a one-step lead at the 3K mark with McClain about 50 meters behind. There were three girls trailing McClain by 40 meters: Durow, Dawson Kreycik of Kearney and Mabel Henningsen of Marian. Hegge regained the lead over the next 1000 meters, and cruised to the finish line in 18:24 - just four seconds off the fastest time of the day. Nielson finished 2nd in 18:56, McClain third in 19:09, Kreycik fourth in 19:35 followed by Henningsen in 19:56 and Durow in 19:58.

While the top two teams in the rankings were missing, Omaha Marian is beginning to make a strong case for the top spot. They won the UNK title with 45 points with Kearney second with 82. Marian had six medalists placing 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 14th and 16th by three sophomores, two freshmen and one junior.

The UNK meet marked the return of Papio's Alexis Chadek, a three-time State XC medalist who has been dealing with a significant injury for the first half of the season. She finished 12th for the Monarchs who had three medalists and six girls in the top 40. They finished 3rd as a team and should only get better in the last three weeks. Marian may race again on Friday at the Millard West meet - although I hope they rest their varsity - and that would be a good opportunity to see how they stack up against #1 Millard West. Millard West has already faced Lincoln Southwest at the Fremont meet where Millard West won 68-73. The tight team competition should make for a compelling race at State.

Class A boys

The Class A boys field featured six ranked teams but we were missing #1 Lincoln North Star, #3 Creighton Prep, #7 Millard West and #8 Lincoln Southwest. We were missing nine boys from pre-UNK rankings - from the teams above as well as from Norfolk, Omaha Central and Lincoln Southeast.

Papio South sophomore Aiden Gehring was the highest-ranked Class A boy in the field - 3rd in pre-UNK rankings - and he bolted to the lead at the outset and had a five-meter lead over Zander Carson-Koestner (Elkhorn South) and Collin Krahling (Westview) at 800 meters.

One of the most compelling stories from the Class A race was how Eli Goodell, a junior at Class D Perkins County, would fare against big-school competition. The UNK meet allows competitors to opt up into a higher class, an option that only Goodell took this year. As is his custom, he started slow and was in approximately 50th place after 800 meters. However, he had a 40-meter lead over Gehring by the 3K mark, a lead he never relinquished. He posted the fastest time of the day, 16:01, following by Gehring in 16:23 and Ben Schlegelmilch of Lincoln East in 16:28.

Lincoln East came into the meet as the second-ranked team in Class A, but the UNK meet was their best effort of the season. They had five medalists who placed 3rd, 7th, 13th, 14th and 19th to register a win with 51 points, 22 points better than a Millard North team that had four boys in the top 21.

As we look to State, Lincoln North Star still appears to be the heavy favorite. We'll get a better read on the Gator's position after they compete against Lincoln East at the LPS meet on Friday and the HAC meet next week. The most interesting race at State may be who finishes second in the team race. Based on recent results, Lincoln East and Creighton Prep seem to have an edge on the second podium spot.

For full results go to https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/257658/results/1023700.

This and that

• Class D#1 Avery Arens clocked a 17:04 at her home meet last week. While at least one of the competitors had a GPS distance of 3.07 miles, a bit short of the standard, this still would have been Arens' fourth sub-18:00 effort even if the course had been longer.

  
  

• The Class D#1 TriCounty boys' team swept the top 5 spots at the Thayer Central meet on September 25.

  
  

• In the 38-team gold division at the prestigious Rim Rock meet last Saturday, Class B#1 Lincoln Pius finished 2nd and Class A#3 Creighton Prep finished 3rd in the team standings. David Krier and Joe Majerus of Pius were the top two finishers from Nebraska, placing 3rd and 7th.

Rankings

We published our weekly individual rankings on Wednesday. They include the top 15 athletes as well as athletes on our watch list. You can find those rankings, as well as team rankings prepared by the coaches, at our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings.

Photos

As of Tuesday morning we had posted photo albums from 74 meets on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums. At this point in the season, even we can't keep up with what's being posted by our 30+ Nerds, but each week we update our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022 to list the meet albums in chronological order. We do label every album on Facebook but we can't control how they are delivered to you. We are posting about 5,000 photos each week so no, we can't label each photo individually.

We had several Nerds at the UNK meet. It's the largest meet of the season and collectively we took about 15,000 photos. It will take us about a week to edit and post the albums.

Districts

For those of you new to high school cross country, here's a primer. On October 15th or 16th, the four Classes will have District competitions. Classes A and B will have four Districts, Class C will have five, and Class D will have six. From each District, the top three teams and the top 15 individuals will advance to State. Individuals who qualify as a team do not free up more spots for athletes from non-qualifying teams so, in theory, athletes from three qualifying teams could gobble up all 15 individual spots at a meet. As we learned last year, in the event of a photo finish for 15th place, the meet director will use the timer's video system to determine which runner crossed the line first.

The District locations and assignments for Classes C and D have been finalized for several weeks, with only the start times yet to be determined. You can see those assignments at https://secure.nsaahome.org/distassign.php?sport=ccb.

Team assignments for Class B Districts are determined in a two-step approach. At the beginning of the season, the Class B teams were divided between two District locations - Omaha Skutt and Overton. Within those two locations, teams are seeded based on the average finishing time of a team's first four runners as taken from their two fastest meets. While the NSAA hasn't yet assigned teams to the two District races at each site, you can see the average time results at these links: Class B boys and Class B girls. Based on that data, the Pius boys and Duchesne girls are the top-seeded teams.

The Class A Districts are also held in two locations - the Kearney Meadowlark course and Pioneers Park in Lincoln - but teams are not preassigned to a location. Based on the average time results for a team's five fastest finishers at four meets, the NSAA assigns teams to Districts. The allocation does not follow the average time data perfectly since the NSAA keeps the boys and girls teams from a high school at the same location. Here is the Class A boys and Class A girls data. Based on that data, the Lincoln North Star boys and Omaha Marian girls are the top-seeded teams.

Keep the girls away from the boys!

This summer a number of XC/TF coaches learned that the NSAA has a rule in place that boys are not supposed to practice or be in the same race as girls. It's a rule that is violated hundreds of times every week, particularly at Class C and D schools that only have one cross country coach. It's even an issue in Class A; one of the largest cross country meets in the state is the early-season Class of Metro meet where, for over 30 years, boys and girls have competed together in races held by grade. At small track meets regardless of Class, it's common for the boys and girls 4x800 teams to compete in the same heat.

The rule was news to Jeremy Haselhorst, the girls XC coach at Papio South, so his athletic director will be proposing a rule that allows for boys and girls to practice together, and for boys and girls to race together in non-varsity races. If you're a coach who needs more information to educate your athletic director as these proposals make their way through the NSAA legislative process, please contact Jeremy at jeremy.haselhorst@plcschools.org.

While we're on the NSAA legislative topic...

In my State Recap article posted in late October 2023, I advocated for a change in District qualifying for individuals. If you're unlucky enough to be in a District that has a few powerhouse teams, particularly in Class A or B, it can be exceptionally difficult to qualify as an individual. For example, out of the 60 automatic qualifiers at Class A Districts in 2023, only 12 were from non-team qualifiers. While the numbers are better for Classes C and D because they have more District sites and smaller team sizes, it's still tough to scratch out a State bid if your team doesn't qualify.

This proposal came to mind because the UNK meet featured eight races with at least 175 finishers, and the Class C and D boys races each had over 300 finishers. While I think it's a good idea to expand the size of the State field, I can't propose changes to the NSAA qualifying rules. However, athletic directors can. Last fall, the Wisner-Pilger athletic director (with coach Lia Raabe's assistance) submitted the following proposal for consideration by the NSAA member schools:

Summary: This proposal states that at the District cross country meets, if the number of top-15 individuals who are NOT on state-qualifying teams is less than 10, the next fastest individuals would qualify for the state meet until reaching 10 individuals not already on a state-qualifying team. If there are instances where 4 or more (3 or more in Class D) individuals from a non-qualifying team qualify, they would run as individuals at State and would not score as a team. Only the top 3 teams from each District would be eligible to score as a team, as is done currently.  

Rationale: In many cross country Districts, it is difficult for individuals to qualify for the State meet if they are not on one of the qualifying teams, especially in Districts with dominant teams. In 2023, in classes A and B, all Districts except one (both boys and girls) had four or less individual qualifiers. Several of those Districts only had two runners who were not on qualifying teams. Even in Classes C and D, where fewer athletes are allowed to run on each team, that number was 6 or less in more than half of the Districts.

This proposal would allow for runners who are not on a strong team to have a better opportunity to qualify for the State meet. In 2023, the number of runners in the State races ranged from 83 to 131, while the number of runners at the UNK meet held earlier in the year on the same course ranged between 167 and 339, so even with the addition of these extra runners, each race should still be a manageable number.

If applied to the 2023 State Meet the increase in numbers would be:

Class A Girls: +23 Class A Boys: +28

Class B Girls: +26 Class B Boys: +30

Class C Girls: +21 Class C Boys: +21

Class D Girls: +17 Class D Boys: +17

Pros: (a) Lessens impact of districts with powerhouse teams. (b) Helps struggling teams trying to build a program. (c) Ensures that fewer top-quality individuals are left home. (d) More similar to NCAA qualifying procedures.

Cons: Schools may have to pay for hotel rooms for additional qualifiers.

Here is the data from the 2024 season:

District	A boys	A girls	B boys	B girls	C boys	C girls	D boys	D girls
1	3	2	5	5	5	6	6	9
2	4	3	5	5	4	6	7	5
3	3	4	3	3	6	9	7	8
4	6	6	4	6	6	6	7	6
5	-	-	-	-	5	6	5	9
6	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	6
Subtotal	16	15	17	19	26	33	38	43
Team qualifiers	84	84	72	72	90	90	90	90
Max field	100	99	89	91	116	123	128	133
2024 field	100	99	89	89	115	120	124	121
Proposal impact	+24	+25	+23	+21	+24	+17	+22	+17

Alas, this proposal had a tie vote (25-25) at the November 2024 District Three meeting (Wisner-Pilger's NSAA District), with only 3 of 53 ADs abstaining, so it did not advance to the second round of voting where all of the NSAA Districts could vote on the proposal.

Wouldn't it be great if cross country coaches got their athletic directors to propose this rule at every NSAA District?

Nerd gear

We're pretty rotten at marketing because this is the first time we've mentioned Nerd T-shirts this season. If you're a running nerd and aren't afraid to show it, we've got some reasonably priced Nerd shirts available at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/shop. Evan Eickhoff of Boone Central was rockin' his Nerd shirt during the medal ceremony at his home meet last week.

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on October 2, 2025. If you find an error, shoot us an e-mail at jayslagle@hotmail.com and we'll get it fixed.

Like this coverage of the Nebraska T&F and cross country scene? There's more of this at www.preprunningnerd.com. Check out the Blog tab for our frequent stories and the Results tab for every Nebraska high school meet we can find. If you want to see meet photos or just need to kill a few hours on social media, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @PrepRunningNerd or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/preprunningnerd.

Finally, if you think runners, jumpers and throwers are the best things on earth, you'll enjoy our two most popular articles. In 2018 we published "The Runner with the Broken Heart" about a high school boy who finished last in nearly every race he ran. In 2022 we published, "The Fall and Rise of Emmett ," a story about a high school triple jumper who became a quadriplegic after a swimming accident.