10/14/25 Nerdsletter
- jayslagle
- 55 minutes ago
- 15 min read
Contributor: The Nerd
No room for fear or doubt
Postseason meets can be challenging. The competition is at its best, minor injuries seem amplified, and athletes often dwell more on worst-case scenarios than what they've already accomplished. At this critical moment, don't let your mind diminish all the hard work you've done to this point. You're healthy. You made the varsity team for Districts. Your season continues for at least one more week.
It's just a race. Your future in running and in life is not dictated by whether you run well or poorly this week. Still finding it difficult to get out of your own head? Please consider reading one of our most popular articles: No Room for Fear or Doubt.
Finishing strong
Jorja Boller, a senior at Beatrice, is a three-season athlete who, until this year, played volleyball in the fall, wrestled in the winter and played tennis in the spring. Last January she suffered a painful injury to her hip but continued to wrestle. She entered the postseason as the top seed in her weight class at Districts before the pain became too severe to do well; she failed to advance to State. With the aid of intensive physical therapy, she returned to the tennis court in the spring, capped off by winning a #1 singles match at State while still battling her injury.
As the school year wound down, Beatrice cross country coach Clark Ribble was looking for a seasoned leader for his girls team - mostly freshman and sophomores. Last May Jorja committed to joining the cross country team, most likely assuming it would pay dividends during wrestling season. Unfortunately, her hip pain didn't improve and she was limited to walking, sometimes with crutches, during early summer conditioning. On July 2 she had surgery to remove the scar tissue from a tendon in her hip, and she was restricted from physical activity for two months. In September she began participating in team activities but was limited to running 400 meters every mile.
Last Thursday at the Trailblazer Conference meet in Nebraska City, Jorja completed the first and last race of her cross country career. She ran a 8:15 first mile, possibly the fastest mile she's ever run, before fatigue and pain set in. She walked most of the final two miles and was joined by a wrestling teammate near the end. One hundred meters from the finish line, her teammates and coaches lined the course to cheer for her. She crossed the line in just under forty minutes. The time wasn't really the point. Finishing and - from Coach Ribble's standpoint, leading a team - was the goal. She accomplished both.
Jorja's season is over. She'll continue her physical therapy where, among other things, she's learning how to walk correctly - a byproduct of dealing with the injury, pain and two months of inactivity. In November she'll return to the wrestling mat, where she's ranked 5th in preseason polls.
Jorja may have only raced once, but she exemplifies everything a runner should be. Well done.
Finishing strong, Part 2
We wrote about Jase Bornemeier of Elmwood Murdock in our September 10th Nerdsletter at https://preprunningnerd.com/post/091025nl. Last December Jase was in a horrific auto accident that left him with two broken femurs and a broken collar bone. He used a wheelchair as recently as March, and yet somehow returned to the running in April.
Last Thursday Jase finished 15th at the ECNC meet, earning his second medal of the season. He's only a freshman. We're excited to follow the rest of his career.
Running through pain
There are hundreds of stories to love in Nebraska high school cross country. If you're a Class A or B fan who plans to attend the State meet on October 24th, here's one of many reasons why you should go early and cheer for the Class C and D athletes.
Gage Thull is a junior at Minden. He's been the Whippets' top runner for most of the season, medaling at each race, including a 17th-place finish at the huge UNK meet. With Gage just on the outside of the Class C Top 15 rankings all season - and with Minden ranked 7th in the latest coaches' poll - there's a good chance we'll see Gage at Kearney. It would be a bright spot during a difficult season.
You see, Gage's dad suffered a stroke on August 29th, the day that Minden opened its 2025 season. Greg Thull never left the hospital, passing away on September 26th. Greg never got to see Gage race this season. He leaves behind his wife, Abbey, and five children.
Losing a parent at any age is difficult. The Minden community, and particularly the cross country family, has been a rock for the Thulls. From coaches and parents to teammates, Gage and his family have been blessed with the kindness and quiet strength of the running community.
If you make it to Ogallala for the District meet or Kearney for the State meet, be sure to give some extra love to the Minden team. More importantly, keep the Thulls in your prayers.
All about heart
Two years ago we wrote an article about Memphis Zabawa, then a Millard North 7th grader who went into cardiac arrest when he experienced a severe asthma attack near the end of a cross country race. A Millard North teacher and a bystander nurse performed CPR until paramedics arrived to restart his heart with an AED. Memphis survived and his mom found a mission: to encourage people to learn CPR and to encourage sports teams and schools to have AEDs on site for practices and competitions.
Last week Memphis and his family were featured on the American Heart Association's social media accounts. Now a freshman, Memphis isn't competing in cross country but his younger brother is. Cruz Zabawa finished 14th in the Open race on Saturday.
Junior high State meet
As expected, last Saturday's junior high State meet was huge and full of exceptional performances. Due to time constraints (and the lack of full race videos), we can't share how each race unfolded. However, here are the outcomes of each of the six races:
A/B girls: Madison Scott was the defending champion after winning the title last year, battling current Class A#1 Emily Hegge on her way to a 10:31 mark. She's been the class of the State so far this year winning the huge Platte River Rumble meet, three other races listed on athletic.net, and at least two other Millard JH races that don't publish results. Racing for Russell Middle School (she also belongs to the 402 T&F club), she led from the start and by 800 meters had a 30-meter lead over a chase pack headed by Nina Polk of Scottsbluff. Madison maintained that lead for the remainder of the race, winning in 11:13. Polk ran alone for much of the race and finished second in 11:28 while Emi Mandago, a 7th-grader at Anderson Middle School in Millard, was third in 11:33. La Vista won its third consecutive title with 90 points, powered by 7th-grader Ana Carman (9th), 7th-grader Olivia Allison (23rd), 8th-grader Isla Buss (26th) and 7th-grader Audrey Ortiz (36th). Based on their youth, La Vista could be looking at #4 next year. Elkhorn St. Patrick's was 2nd with 146 points while Papillion Liberty was third with 155.
C/D girls: This is the race I should have recorded from the lead cart; the first five girls finished within 10 seconds, led by Mercy Kann of Norfolk Catholic in 11:43. With 300 meters and a tough uphill remaining, Kann had a 4-second lead over a pack of four girls: Sarah Burger and Madison Vetter of Kearney Zion Lutheran, Addison Rainforth of Doniphan-Trumbull and Molly Spargo of Dundy County Stratton. That ended up being the finishing order, with Kann winning by four seconds ahead of Burger. In the team race, Burger, Vetter, Sofia Loza (21st), Erin Freitag (66th) and Teagan Schweitzer (67th) powered Zion Lutheran to a nine-point win over Minden. The Zion Lutheran girls are all 8th graders, and we presume that bodes well for Kearney High's team next year. Minden finished second with scorers and eighth graders Regan Johnson (9th), Gemma Fritson (10th), Kinsey Morey (33rd) and Emerson Kuehn (58th).
Open girls: The first two races were restricted to 7th and 8th graders. The Open race consisted of younger kids, runners from teams who didn't make their six-runner varsity squad, and a smattering of athletes who just opted for this race. As the video above reflects, this field was just as competitive. Fifth-grader Aspen Samuels of Seward took the win in 12:00 followed by 6th-grader Josie Carey of St. Margaret Mary (Omaha) in 12:14 and 8th-grader Barrett Beutler of Bancroft-Rosalie. Barrett caught my eye with her intelligence, as evidenced by the "I Love Nerds" on her leg.
A/B boys: It wasn't particularly surprising to see Kamden Cupples of St. Wenceslaus win the A/B title in 9:48; he finished second last year behind Kearney's Maddox Helgoth, who is now in high school and ranked 9th in Class A. Kamden has also been a one-man wrecking crew in his first six races of the season, with an average winning margin of 53 seconds. What was surprising was to see Carter Ribble of Beatrice on Kamden's hip with 600 meters to go. Kamden finished in 2nd, eight seconds back, while Trevor Stott of Kearney Horizon was third in 10:22.
On Thursday I watched Carter win the Trailblazer Conference title at Nebraska City and I thought at the time, "he looks good but I wonder how he compares to the best kids in Nebraska." Thanks to the JH State meet, we now know the answer: Carter is really good. We're also excited to know that he'll be running in high school next year; his dad is the Beatrice High School coach.
C/D boys: We were back on the lead for this race and it was a great one to watch. A few overly ambitious competitors sprinted to the lead but fell back after the first hill at 400 meters, but the top contenders had moved up by 800 meters. Kellen Nielsen of Elmwood-Murdock pushed the pace through 1000 meters before Levi Bowen, a 7th grader at Fort Calhoun, took a small lead over Nielsen, Andrew Goodell of Perkins County, Colton Sievers of Palmyra and Tommy Reed of Homer. Bowen, who won the 2024 Open race in 10:57 as an 6th grader, extended his lead over Goodell to 10-15 meters over the next 1400 meters while Goodell appeared to be biding his time.
After a short but sharp uphill at 2400 meters, Bowen still held a 5-meter lead over Goodell while Reed and Nielsen were, respectively, 25 meters and 35 meters behind Bowen. Goodell passed Bowen with about 400 meters remaining, powering to a 10:17 win. Bowen finished 2nd in 10:20, Nielsen closed hard to take third in 10:33, and Reed was fourth in 10:34. St. Margaret Mary won the team title with 83 points with scorers Louie Smith (14th, 7th grader), Brendan Eckert (39th), James Ott (40th) and AJ Malmstrom (60th). Palmyra edged Perkins County for second, 90 to 97.
If the Goodell name sounds familiar, it's because Andrew is the younger brother of Class D#1 Eli Goodell. Eli is looking for his first and last State title in a few weeks. Shortly after the high school State meet, the Goodells will relocate to Ohio where their pastor father has taken on a new assignment. The Perkins County community is losing a great family, and the Nebraska running community will be losing two great runners.
Open boys: As noted in the Open girls summary, this race is the Wild West of the meet with 5th and 6th graders competing against a wide variety of junior high athletes. Cameron Gilliand of 402 XC and Track won the title in 10:46 followed by Owen Hubl of Thayer Central and 6th-grader Andy Swesey of Perkins County. The 3rd through 11th place finishers were all 5th through 7th graders so the talent pool is not just at the 8th-grade level.
Family matters
Speaking of the Goodells, you didn't have to look too hard to see junior high siblings of athletes who have made an impact at the high school. Kiddos competing on Saturday included:
Jenna Dahl, Fremont - 6th place in the A/B race, sister of two-time Class A State champion Elli Dahl.
Molly Spargo, Dundy County Stratton - 5th place in C/D race, younger sister of Class D track phenoms Clara and Abigail.
Margaret Lehn, Adams Central - 19th place in C/D race, younger sister of Class C #11 June Lehn.
Kelsey Betka, McCool Junction - 34th place in C/D race, younger sister of 2024 Class D State champion Kayleigh Betka.
Braxton Gerken, McCool Junction - 8th place in C/D race, younger brother of 2019 Class D 3rd-place finisher Madison Gerken.
Notable results
As usual, the results page on our website has been updated for last week's meets. A few notable results:
Avery Arens, a freshman at Crofton and the top-ranked girl in Class D, won the MidStates Conference title at O'Neill with a 17:11. It's the sixth time, out of six high school races, that she's run under eighteen minutes. If that seems normal... well, it's not. As we summarized in our September 24th Nerdsletter, prior to this season only one Nebraska girl (Elli Dahl) had ever run an in-season sub-18:00 on a course recognized as being an accurate 5k distance.
Josiah Bitker of Lincoln North Star continued his great season by winning the HAC meet at the UNK/State course in 15:54. He's won four meets this year and finished 2nd to non-Nebraska athletes in two other meets, which explains why he's been ranked #1 in Class A all season. Lincoln North Star cruised to the HAC win while Lincoln East finished in 2nd place. Assuming Lincoln North Star wins its first-ever State title, Lincoln East and Creighton Prep should be in a dogfight for second place.
Isac Portillo-Munoz of Lexington won a competitive Central 10 race over Ethan Smith and Jaxon Cushing of GINW and Austin Koch of Seward, all of whom are ranked.
Cece Kramper of Omaha Duchesne, ranked 1st in Class B, dipped below the 18:00 mark for the third time this season with her 17:52 win at the RCC meet in South Sioux City. Lincoln Wolfe of Omaha Skutt won the boys' title in 16:14.
Papio South athletes swept the Metro titles with wins by sophomore Aiden Gehring (16:17) and freshman Emily Hegge (18:42) at the difficult Walnut Creek course. Hegge and A#2 Tatum Nielson of Bellevue West met for the second time this year. Nielson briefly took the lead at UNK before finishing second, and on Thursday she tried a different tactic by shadowing Hegge for much of the race. Hegge is undefeated in her six high school races.
Also at the Metro meet, Marian lost a tiebreaker to the Millard West girls. In theory that should have kept Millard West ranked 1st in Class A, but Marian achieved that result without the contributions of Class A #10 Mabel Henningsen, who did not compete. Marian took over the top spot in the Class A rankings that were released on Monday.
The EMC meet at Gretna featured nine ranked girls in Class B. Sophia Reynolds of Hastings took the title in 18:33. Elkhorn North retained their top spot in the coaches' poll with a 6-point win over Gretna.
At the SWC meet in Broken Bow, Holdrege ran all of their top boys (unlike at the UNK meet) and they finished 4-5-6-7 to win 22-34 over Gothenburg. Holdrege is the defending Class C champion but currently sits 2nd in the rankings behind Lincoln Christian.
Rankings
The next-to-last team and individual rankings were issued earlier this week. You can find them at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings.
Photos at Districts
If we don't encounter family, work or school conflicts this weeks, the Nerd team and a few guest Nerds should be at all 19 District meets held in 15 different locations. Our Nerd roster for the week:
Wednesday
A1/A2 @ Kearney Meadowlark, 10/15/25, 1:00 - 4:30 (Nerdy by Nature, Mega Nerd)
A3/A4 @ Pioneers Park, 10/15/25, 1:30-3:30 (Nerd Dawg, Nerdtron, Royal Nerd)
C1 @ Cass County Fairgrounds, 10/15/25, 4:00-5:00Â (Nerd, Nerdfall)
C2 @ Mount Michael, 10/15/25, 4:00-5:10Â (Joyful Nerd)
C3 @ Pierce, 10/15/25, 4:00-5:00Â (Young Nerd)
C4 @ Branched Oak, 10/15/25, 4:00-5:15Â (Nerdtron)
C5 @ Ogallala, 10/15/25, 3:00-4:00 (Guest Nerds Kate and Ryan Mumm)
Thursday
B1/B2 @ Omaha Skutt, 10/16/25, 10:30 - 12:30Â (Nerd)
B3/B4 @ Overton, 10/16/25, 3:00-5:00Â (Sky Nerd, Guest Nerd Tim Braxton)
D1 @ Cass County Fairgrounds, 10/16/25, 3:00-4:00Â (Sun Nerd, Nerdzy)
D2 @ Norfolk, 10/16/25, 4:30-6:00Â (Nerdennan, Bloomin' Nerd)
D3 @ Ainsworth, 10/16/25, 4:00-5:00Â (Titanium Nerd, Disc Nerd)
D4 @ McCool Junction, 10/16/25, 4:00-5:15 (Nerd)
D5 @ Cambridge, 10/16/25, 3:00-4:00Â (Valley Nerd)
D6 @ Perkins County, 10/16/25, 3:00-4:15Â (Science Nerd, Registered Nerd)
If you see one of us, give us a "Howdy, Nerd!"
How to qualify for State (one last reminder)
For those of you new to high school cross country, here's a primer. On Wednesday and Thursday, 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.
Photo timing
Several of our Nerds are dealing with photo editing backlogs due to a high number of meets these last two weeks. For example, three of the Nerds at the Junior High State meet had shot meets two days earlier. We'll do our best to post meet photos and the Junior High State video as soon as we can, but family and our paying jobs come first. Please be patient. Our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022 lists every photo album that had been posted as of Sunday morning.
Wildcard rankings
With the encouragement of other coaches, Axtell coach Joe Philippi is trying to design a wildcard system for cross country that might one day replace the current State qualification system. Here is his summary after recording seven weeks of data:
I want to take this opportunity to illustrate the wildcard system and how it could be implemented in the future. The current system used in Class C and D is top three in each district qualify for state. In class C that is 15 teams and in class D that is 18 teams. These districts are based on geography in Class C and by number of girls teams then Geography in Class D. In class A and B they submit the top four (Class A) or two (Class B) fastest times run by individuals that make up their team and then serpentine the teams based on alternating years girls and boys. While there is no such thing as a perfect system, I would like to see a system that increases the chances of having the best teams running at state. Most coaches know where the hardest District is and hope they are not in it. Also, athletes can become ill or even have minor injuries that with rest could allow them to compete a week later at State.
After some discussion with other coaches, they seem to favor adding teams to the state meet. So the current proposal would add two teams in Class A and B and four teams in class C and D. These teams would come from the wildcard point system following the district meets. Below are the teams that currently sit outside of the top three team in their Districts (based on my points calculations) and would be likely to receive a wildcard spot. Please note that the results of District meets could change things.
Class A Boys Â
Lincoln High 45-31 (41.41)
Omaha Central 35-22 (41.18)
Kearney 43-31 (41.14)
Lincoln Southwest 33-28 (41.11)
Class A GirlsÂ
Bellevue West 38-21 (41.15)
Omaha Westview 39-32 (40.44)
Lincoln East 29-33 (40.23)
Class B BoysÂ
Lexington 45-27 (42.15)
Plattsmouth 47-23 (41.59)
Gering 41-32 (41.42)
Schuyler 66-42 (41.16)
Class B GirlsÂ
Omaha Duchesne 44-18 (43.39)
Hastings 39-29 (41.69)
Platteview 28-19 (40.81)
Class C BoysÂ
Battle Creek 46-13 (43.17)
Wayne 54-22 (43.11)
Boys Town 63-19 (43.07)
Cozad 65-30 (42.46)
DC West 48-23 (42.27)
Kearney Catholic 53-31 (42.05)
Class C GirlsÂ
Columbus Lakeview 38-16 (42.74)
Kearney Catholic 40-22 (42.29)
Central City 45-17 (42.24)
Arlington 20-15 (41.66)
Chadron 18-18 (41.64)
Battle Creek 32-23 (41.33)
Class D Boys
Hemingford 66-23 (43.24
Wood River 74-19 (43.02)
Creighton 12-6 (42.78)
Kenesaw 66-22 (42.55)
Humphrey-Lindsay 50-18 (42.37)
East Butler 47-23 (42.36)
Gordon Rushville 60-31 (42.31)
Class D GirlsÂ
Homer 55-13 (43.32)
Ponca 50-19 (42.88)
Hastings St. Cecilia 26-8 (42.76)
Norfolk Catholic 16-16 (42.09)
Elkhorn Valley 24-19 (41.93)
Wisner Pilger 27-25 (41.38)
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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on October 14, 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.