10/8/25 Nerdsletter

Contributor: The Nerd

Growth by a thousand cuts

I recently completed a challenge that the 1995 version of me would have never attempted. The risk of failure and collateral damage was high, the differences in possible outcomes were significant, and the situation so unique that no YouTube instructional video was going to improve my odds.

In the aftermath of that experience, I reflected on the winding and sometimes difficult path that we take during our adult development. For example, thirty years ago I had virtually no management experience before assuming supervision of ten employees at a medical practice. Ten months later, I assumed responsibility for all of the practice's sixty employees. While the vast majority of those employees were great people, I was soon forced to engage in difficult discussions with employees who were either misbehaving or weren't living up to their potential. Those early talks were hard; I didn't know what to say or how to say it. When I started to get the hang of those talks with rank-and-file employees, I began to realize that I needed to have similar discussions with managers and owners. In most cases, those folks were older than me and the topics were more sensitive, but the message was largely the same: "We all need to perform well, I want you and our company to be successful, and this specific thing is getting in the way of that."

There is a reason that most of us don't marry the first person we date. Dating is, more than anything, a socialization process where we learn how to respect someone, how to treat them well, and how to engage in a healthy and loving relationship. If we're good students, every dating relationship changes us. In addition to learning how to act, we also discover what we want in a partner and how we want that person to treat us. Of course, our needs and wants change as we mature: the hot, cocky and moody quarterback might have been your dream date in high school, but perhaps a thoughtful and dependable accountant is more your cup of tea in your mid-20's. Every bad date, misunderstanding and broken heart should eventually help you find a lasting partner.

If we surveyed 6th graders and asked how many of them thought they would run a thirteen-mile race in college, you'd be lucky to see one hand in the air. The chasm between thirteen miles and their current running ability, likely limited to a playing field or gym class, would simply be too wide to fathom. However, if they keep taking small bites at the apple - a mile in junior high PE, building up to a a 5k in high school - then pretty soon that half marathon in college doesn't sound unrealistic.

One of the many certainties in life is that we will encounter a series of difficult experiences. If we do our jobs correctly as parents, we know when our children are equipped to handle those challenges alone and when we need to give a helping hand. The challenges become bigger as you age but, hopefully, so do your capabilities to handle them. The passage of time may make us forget how intimidating our first challenges were, but those early experiences were just as difficult as later ones. Your first mile run was just as hard as your first marathon; that first contentious discussion with a high school teacher will be as hard as working past the first argument of married life.

Life is a series of both wonderful and difficult experiences. The thousand little cuts that wound you during tough times are the symbols of growth. A bad race, a bad breakup, a reprimand from a boss... embrace it, learn from it, grow through it.

Districts

As of Tuesday, 10/7, the Districts assignments are set for all four Classes. District assignments are listed at https://secure.nsaahome.org/distassign.php?sport=ccb for boys and https://secure.nsaahome.org/distassign.php?sport=ccg for girls. One of the more interesting twists occurred in Class A when Lincoln North Star, penciled in as the host of the A2 and A3 races at Pioneers Park, was shipped to the A1/A4 meet in Kearney. The reason for the change is the complex rules used for Class A District seedings which, to a lesser degree, are also used for Class B assignments.

Here are the basics for Class A. Each school submits their four fastest meet results, defined as the average 5k time for their top five finishers at a meet. They don't have to be the same five athletes, but rather just their first five finishers at a particular meet. The average finishing time for those four meets - basically the average of 20 finishing times - is used to seed the teams at https://www.maxpreps.com/feeds/affiliates/nsaa/cross_country_rankings.ashx?apikey=d2c04f01-4e70-4e85-aa67-e39455f00c65&gender=boys&file=html. In odd years, Class A schools are assigned to the four Districts based on boys' average times using a serpentine method:

A1 Kearney	A2 Lincoln	A3 Lincoln	A4 Kearney
1 Lincoln North Star	2 Creighton Prep	3 Lincoln East	4 Millard North
8 Millard West	7 Papio South	6 North Platte	5 Fremont
9 Lincoln Southwest	10 Elkhorn South	11 Lincoln High	12 Omaha Central
16 Lincoln Southeast	15 Norfolk	14 South Sioux City	13 Grand Island
17 Kearney	18 Omaha Burke	19 Omaha Westview	20 Westside
24 Omaha North	23 Omaha South	22 Papio La Vista	21 Millard South
25 Bellevue West	26 Columbus	27 Lincoln Northeast	28 Omaha Bryan
	Omaha Benson	Omaha Northwest	29 Bellevue East

The NSAA adhered strictly to this serpentine seeding method for the Class A boys. When Lincoln North Star and Kearney were slotted into the same District, it became clear that one of them couldn't host. Since there were other Lincoln schools who could host the meet at Pioneers Park, Lincoln North Star earned a bus ride to Kearney.

Several years ago we wrote an incredibly riveting article about the effectiveness of this seeding system but, sadly, I can't find it. It does have a few quirks. For example, North Platte will drive right past the Kearney exit on its way to Lincoln, a necessary move because the A2 and A4 Districts didn't have a Lincoln school who could host at Pioneers Park. If, for example, Lincoln High was the 10th seed, I am guessing they would host A2 and A4 while the A3 teams would be headed to Kearney.

The Class A girls assignments in odd years are a bit less straight forward. The boys' seeding process dictates which schools are headed to Kearney and Lincoln, and the girls' teams from those schools will go to the same location. Within that location, the NSAA attempts to create two equitable Districts. Each District should have three teams ranked in the top 12 - by seeding, these are the 12 teams favored to advance to State - and the NSAA has accomplished that this year. A1 has the 1-8-10 seeds, A2 the 2-7-9 seeds, A3 the 5-6-12 seeds, and A4 the 3-4-11 seeds.

Class B assignments are a bit murkier. By the middle of the season the NSAA had divided the 30 Class B teams into two locations - Overton and Omaha Skutt - based on geography. Based on the average of the two fastest meets for each school, the teams were assigned to one of the two Districts at their predetermined location. Here is the Class B boys' seeding:

B1 Skutt	B2 Skutt	B3 Overton	B4 Overton
3 Gretna	4 Elkhorn	1 Lincoln Pius	2 GINW
6 Elkhorn North	5 Waverly	9 Alliance	8 Norris
7 Omaha Skutt	14 Gretna East	10 Seward	11 Aurora
18 Plattsmouth	15 Bennington	13 Lexington	12 Scottsbluff
20 Platteview	21 Standing Bear	16 Gering	17 Schuler
26 Ralston	22 Blair	23 York	19 Beatrice
29 Omaha Gross	Nebraska City	24 Lincoln Northwest	25 Hastings
		28 Crete	27 McCook?

Due to the geographic limitations of the Class B seeding process, the B4 District has four top-12 teams while the B2 District only has two. If I had to guess, I think Aurora or Scottsbluff might be willing to drive a little further if it improved their chances to advance to State.

The Class B girls' seeding doesn't have the 'girls-follows-boys' assignment problem but it does suffer from the same geographic limitations. Here is the Class B girls seeding:

B1 Skutt	B2 Skutt	B3 Overton	B4 Overton
1 Duchesne	2 Elkhorn North	4 Lincoln Pius	6 Aurora
5 Elkhorn	3 Gretna	9 Norris	7 Seward
8 Omaha Skutt	11 Waverly	10 Hastings	14 Scottsbluff
13 Gretna East	12 Bennington	19 York	18 Schuyler
15 Platteview	16 Plattsmouth	20 Lexington	21 Crete
23 Blair	17 Standing Bear	25 Northwest	22 Lincoln NW
24 Nebraska City	29 Omaha Gross	26 McCook	27 Beatrice
Ralston	Omaha Mercy	Alliance	28 Gering

Again, if the goal is to have three top-12 seeds in each District, then the B2 District is too top heavy and the B4 District is too light.

As for Class C and D, they don't have a complicated process for assigning teams to Districts. The assignments are made prior to the season based on geography to limit each team's travel time.

Start times have also been announced for all District locations at https://nsaahome.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025-District-Sites-Times.pdf.

How to qualify for State

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 part of a team do not open additional spots for athletes from non-qualifying teams, so, in theory, athletes from the three qualifying teams could take 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.

In prior years we've advocated for a change to the qualification process to allow for a minimum number of athletes from teams which didn't qualify for State. For example, the B2 girls District at Skutt will be daunting, and we would not be surprised if Elkhorn North and Gretna took 12 of the 15 automatic qualifying spots. The third team qualifier will probably have two medalists, which could mean that there could be as few as one athlete from a non-qualifying team.

State junior high meet

The State junior meet starts this Saturday at noon at the Papio South. Over 1,500 athletes will compete in one of six races. The race will draw athletes from all over the State. This year's meet features a change in race format with two championship races for each gender (Class A/B and C/D) and one open race for each gender. Small schools can opt up into the Class A/B race if they'd like, although we expect that most teams will follow the A/B and C/D split. Although the registration deadline has closed, you can find more details about the meet at https://jhaselhorst.wixsite.com/nestatejhxc. We should have six Nerds there with cameras and drones; give us a 'Howdy Nerd' if you see one of us.

Rankings

Last week's rankings included the UNK results from Monday, so this week's rankings only included results from Tuesday through Saturday. With a number of teams opting not to race a second time last week, we had a limited amount of data to work with. We also recognized that the athletes racing on Thursday were probably racing on tired legs, so we gave those athletes some leeway if they had a bad result late in the week after a good result at UNK.

The updated rankings cane be found at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings. The only coaches' rankings that were released this week were for Class A, and those updated rankings can also be found at that web address.

Results

Our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/xcresults lists all race results through last Saturday. We'll update this week's results once we have recovered from the Nerdsletter.

Photos

We've uploaded albums for 85 meets this season. With a goal to hit at least 10 of the 15 District locations next week, plus conference meets this week, we should easily top 100 meets this season. Our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022 has been updated to list all of the Facebook albums that were posted through Sunday. You can also go to our Facebook album listing at https://www.facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums although the albums are listed in the order they were uploaded rather than the date of the meet.

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.

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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on October 8, 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.