Wonky, nerdy post-season data
- jayslagle
- 20 hours ago
- 9 min read
Contributor: The Nerd
We're going into hibernation until indoor season but we wanted to leave you with a few nerdy observations.
Top 30 fastest finishers at State
Among all Classes, here are the top thirty fastest finishers for boys:
David Krier, Lincoln Pius, senior, 15:26
Joseph Majerus, Lincoln Pius, senior, 15:34
Kaser Johnson, Doniphan-Trumbull, junior, 15:42
Josiah Bitker, Lincoln North Star, senior, 15:45
Isac Portillo-Munoz, Lexington, junior, 15:47
Aiden Gehring, Papio South, sophomore, 15:48
Jared Schroeder, Waverly, senior, 15:53
J'Shawn Afuh, Lincoln North Star, junior, 15:56
Axton Stone, Gering, senior, 15:56
Liam Gonzalez, Norfolk, junior, 15:59
Trevin Opp, Lincoln Christian, junior, 15:59
David Protzman, Norfolk, senior, 16:00
Elijah Goodell, Perkins County, junior, 16:00
Derek Rieck-Capellan, Elkhorn North, senior, 16:01
Colton Ham, NP St. Patrick's, junior, 16:01
Elijah Bickley, Millard West, junior, 16:03
Tyler Hetz, Gothenburg, junior, 16:05
Trevor Zurn, Alliance, senior, 16:09
Zachary Petzet, Kearney, senior, 16:09
Samuel Schlautman, Lincoln Pius, junior, 16:11
Isaiah Coleman, Creighton Prep, junior, 16:12
Connor Boyle, Lincoln Southwest, senior, 16:12
Jaxon Cushing, GI Northwest, sophomore, 16:13
Finlay Sully, Creighton Prep, senior, 16:13
Lincoln Wolfe, Omaha Skutt, senior, 16:13
Trey Crabtree, Lincoln High, junior, 16:15
Maddox Helgoth, Kearney, freshman, 16:16
Aden Soto, Fremont, junior, 16:16
Ben Schlegelmilch, Lincoln East, senior 16:17
Caleb Thome, Millard North, junior, 16:19
The girls' top thirty:
Avery Arens, Crofton, freshman, 17:29Â (breaks previous course record)
Cece Kramper, Omaha Duchesne, junior, 17:55 (breaks previous course record)
Emily Hegge, Papio South, freshman, 18:24
Sophia Reynolds, Hastings, junior, 18:31
Tatum Nielson, Bellevue West, senior, 18:35
Kori McClain, North Platte, senior, 18:43
Lucy Zabloudil, Gretna, junior, 18:44
Abbigail Durow, Millard South, senior, 18:48
Leah Robinson, Elkhorn North, junior, 18:51
Dawson Kreycik, Kearney, senior, 18:53
Sydney Wendt, Lincoln High, senior, 18:56
Ashlyn Carter, Papio South, junior, 18:58
Haylen Holliday, Seward, sophomore, 18:59
Amalia Doty, Omaha Gross, senior, 19:04
Jenna Polking, Elkhorn North, senior, 19:09
Malia Woosley, Lincoln Pius, junior, 19:09
Kathryn Roberts, Elkhorn, junior, 19:10
Emma Steffensen, Waverly, senior, 19:11
Maya Freyer, Omaha Marian, sophomore, 19:13
Sierra Regan, Gretna, sophomore, 19:15
Reese Lancaster, Omaha Marian, freshman, 19:15
Katelynn Sanne, Millard West, senior, 19:15
Scout Bell, Gothenburg, sophomore, 19:16
Paityn Christoffels, Elkhorn North, senior, 19:17
Meredith Marsh, Lincoln Southwest, junior, 19:18
Claire Jarjalainen, Kearney, senior, 19:18
Alexis Chadek, Papio LaVista, senior, 19:19
Delani Runnels, Niobrara/Verdigre, junior, 19:27
Rarity Cournoyer, Gordon-Rushville, junior, 19:28
Addison Washburn, Elkhorn, junior, 19:28
In our 9/24/25 Nerdsletter, we summarized the number of girls who ran under 19:00 since the 5k distance was introduced in 2013. The highest number prior to 2025 was set in 2022 when thirteen girls broke the nineteen minute barrier at some point during the season. In 2025, thirteen girls broke that barrier just at the State meet - arguably one of the more difficult courses in the state. According to the Nebraska rankings at athletic.net, sixteen girls broke that barrier at some point during this season.
Top returners in 2026
A way-to-early look at the top returners next fall with their current grades listed:
Kaser Johnson, Doniphan-Trumbull, junior, 15:42
Isac Portillo-Munoz, Lexington, junior, 15:47
Aiden Gehring, Papio South, sophomore, 15:48
J'Shawn Afuh, Lincoln North Star, junior, 15:56
Liam Gonzalez, Norfolk, junior, 15:59
Trevin Opp, Lincoln Christian, junior, 15:59
Colton Ham, NP St. Patrick's, junior, 16:01
Elijah Bickley, Millard West, junior, 16:03
Tyler Hetz, Gothenburg, junior, 16:05
Samuel Schlautman, Lincoln Pius, junior, 16:11
Isaiah Coleman, Creighton Prep, junior, 16:12
Jaxon Cushing, GI Northwest, sophomore, 16:13
Trey Crabtree, Lincoln High, junior, 16:15
Maddox Helgoth, Kearney, freshman, 16:16
Aden Soto, Fremont, junior, 16:16
Caleb Thome, Millard North, junior, 16:19
Samuel Robinson, Norris, junior, 16:20
Gavin Wemhoff, Scottsbluff, sophomore, 16:22
Bryson Neels, Gothenburg, sophomore, 16:24
Mitchell Ripley, Lincoln Southwest, sophomore, 16:25
The girls' returners with current grades listed:
Avery Arens, Crofton, freshman, 17:29Â
Cece Kramper, Omaha Duchesne, junior, 17:55
Emily Hegge, Papio South, freshman, 18:24
Sophia Reynolds, Hastings, junior, 18:31
Lucy Zabloudil, Gretna, junior, 18:44
Leah Robinson, Elkhorn North, junior, 18:51
Ashlyn Carter, Papio South, junior, 18:58
Haylen Holliday, Seward, sophomore, 18:59
Malia Woosley, Lincoln Pius, junior, 19:09
Kathryn Roberts, Elkhorn, junior, 19:10
Maya Freyer, Omaha Marian, sophomore, 19:13
Sierra Regan, Gretna, sophomore, 19:15
Reese Lancaster, Omaha Marian, freshman, 19:15
Scout Bell, Gothenburg, sophomore, 19:16
Meredith Marsh, Lincoln Southwest, junior, 19:18
Delani Runnels, Niobrara/Verdigre, junior, 19:27
Rarity Cournoyer, Gordon-Rushville, junior, 19:28
Addison Washburn, Elkhorn, junior, 19:28
Sage Holtmeier, Tri County, sophomore, 19:29
Tayla Hurner, Wayne, freshman, 19:30
Based on the list above, the golden age of Nebraska girls running is not even close to being over.
The number of returners for the top five teams in each Class:
A girls: Marian (7 of 7), Lincoln Southwest (4), Millard West (5), Kearney (4), Papio LaVista (5)
B girls: Elkhorn North (3 of 6), Gretna (4), Lincoln Pius (5), Duchesne (6), Elkhorn (3)
C girls: Chase County (4 of 6), Adams Central (5), Columbus Scotus (4), Auburn (4), Gothenburg (6)
D girls: McCool Junction (4 of 5), Crofton (4), Tri County (4), Nebraska Christian (4), Gordon-Rushville (5)
A boys: Creighton Prep (4 of 7), Lincoln North Star (4), Millard West (5), Lincoln East (3), Lincoln Southwest (3)
B boys: Lincoln Pius (2 of 6), Seward (5), Elkhorn (3), Elkhorn North (3), Norris (5)
C boys: Lincoln Christian (3 of 6), Holdrege (3), Fort Calhoun (3), Syracuse (2), Gothenburg (5)
D boys: Doniphan-Trumbull (3 of 5), Tri County (3), Cornerstone Christian (4), Norfolk Catholic (2), Nebraska Christian (3)
A nice tradition
Toni Fowler, the coach at Adams Central, shared of a photo of the back of her team's second-place trophy. I'm guessing other teams also perform some variation of this but it's the first time anyone has shared a photo of it with me.
Three- and four-time Class A medalists
For the past ten years we've been publishing updated lists of three- and four-time State XC medalists for Class A. Jacob Hasenauer collaborated with us on this project, which goes back to the first boys (1960) and girls (1980) State meets.
For the boys, there have been sixty-eight boys over 66 years of meets who have earned at least three individual medals; ten of those boys have won medals all four years. The biggest challenge for boys to make this list is to medal as a freshman or sophomore. We did not add any new boys to the list this year but we have three underclassmen who have taken one more step towards this achievement: Papio South sophomore Aiden Gehring now has two medals, Lincoln North Star junior J'Shawn Afuh has two medals, and Kearney freshman Maddox Helgoth has earned his first medal. Here's the complete boys' list:
For the girls, in most years it's not unusual to see freshmen and sophomores medaling at State; the bigger challenge is typically to maintain that high level all four years, particularly as younger talent joins the field. We did not add any girls to the list this year although two girls - Millard South senior Abbigail Durow and Papio LaVista senior Alexis Chadek - both earned their fourth medals. With those updates, seventy-seven girls have earned at least three medals in 46 years of State meets while twenty-eight girls have won a medal all four years of their career. We have five current underclassmen who can still earn at least three medals: Marian sophomores Mabel Henningsen and Maya Freyer each have one medal, Marian freshman Reese Lancaster has one medal, Papio South freshman Emily Hegge has one gold medal, and Elkhorn South sophomore Grace Volzke has one medal. Here is the updated girls' list:
In years past I have asked if anyone was bored enough to compile the lists for Class B, C and D since the NSAA website has all of the information you need. I vaguely recall someone reaching out to me about this project, but I don't remember if they actually sent me a list.
How horrible were our rankings?
I've been trying to figure out how we could have a fantasy sports competition for high school cross country. As a thought experiment, I compared our final pre-State rankings to actual results to see how accurate our rankings were. For the analysis, anyone on our watch list (8-10 kids) was given a ranking value of 20 while unranked athletes were given a ranking value of 30. For the fifteen medalists, I subtracted each athlete's actual placement at State from our final pre-State rankings to calculate a 'variance', and any negative numbers were changed to positive. Here's a summary of the analysis:
In four of the eight races, we predicted 13 of the 15 medalists. Our best performance was in Class B, where ten girls finished within two spots of their rankings. We predicted the exact order of the first four boys in Class A - Bitker, Gehring, Afuh and Gonzalez, and we were 7-for-8 on predicting individual winners.
Six of the 120 medalists were not ranked or on the watch list in our final rankings. Of those six, Connor Boyle (LSW) and Tobin Klassen (Cornerstone Christian) were in the preseason top-15, Christopher Widwick (Holdrege) and Mazzy Kuchar (Elkhorn Valley) were in the top 15 at least once during the season, and Claire Karjalainen (Kearney) was on our watch list for three weeks. The sixth athlete was Carter Hannon of Doniphan-Trumbull, who placed 10th in Class D despite never making it on to our tracking list - which generally consists of 40 athletes for each Class by the end of the season. How did we miss Carter? Because he ran a 66-second PR at the State meet, and his State time of 16:54 was 2:18 faster than the time he posted on the same course at the UNK meet five weeks earlier. If you're wondering why Doniphan-Trumbull was a surprise winner of the Class D title, look no further than Carter Hannon.
How did the coaches' rankings fare?
We performed a similar analysis of the post-District, pre-State rankings issued by the coaches. In my opinion, their task was easier than ours; we had to rank fifteen athletes out of 100 or so kids for each race while they only had twelve (Class A and B), fifteen (Class C) or eighteen (Class D) teams from which to pick a Top 10. To give a bit of parity between the classes, when an unranked team finished in the Top 10, we assigned it a pre-State ranking of 12 to compare to their actual placement at State. Our findings:
While the Class B girls' rankings were the most accurate with a 7-point sum of variances, the Class A coaches take the win with their combined 22-point variance between the two races. The comparison probably isn't fair for Class D since it's more difficult to pick the top 10 teams out of a field of 18 compared to just 12, but it also reflects the unpredictable performance of three-athlete teams.
Photos
If you've been living on Pluto, you might have missed the announcement that all of our State photos are posted on our Facebook page. The Big East meet this past Friday was our 126th meet of the season. You can see a complete list of our albums at our website.
And that's it (mostly)
While a few of our Nerds still have meets on their radar - the GPAC championship at Mahoney State Park on Saturday and Nike Regionals in Sioux Falls on Sunday - most of us are done for the season. My camera bag will collect dust until the indoor season which reminds me...
Indoor season
If your athlete can't wait for the official track season to begin in March, we have good news for you. The NAIA colleges in Nebraska - and a few facilities in bordering states - will offer multiple opportunities for high school (and occasionally junior high) athletes to compete in December, January and February. This is particularly helpful for field event athletes. Look for us to publish an open indoor meet schedule by December 10th that can help you pick your meets. It's a great motivator during a long offseason, it's a fun opportunity to interact with kids from other schools, and it's the perfect opportunity to work on technique and strategy in a low-stress environment.
Thanks to the Nerds
Over the past week we've been highlighting on social media the thirty Nerds who shot for us during the season. The only reason we've grown to over 100 meets per season and 20,000 Facebook followers is because there are a lot of talented Nerds around the state who are willing to give up their free time. If you see one of them, give 'em a "Howdy Nerd."
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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on November 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 quadrapalegic after a swimming accident.