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Nerdsletter 10/13/26

jayslagle
11 hours ago
12 min read

Contributor: The Nerd


Free FCA Cross country clinic

Bellevue University is hosting a free cross country clinic on Saturday, 10/24, from 1:00-4:00. There will be four presentations during the event, with the keynote talk by 3x Olympian and 4x world record holder Jim Ryun and his wife Anne. I had the opportunity to interview Jim and Anne last Thursday, and you can watch or listen to the video at this link.


Our 75-minute interview included the following topics:

  • Jim was unsuccessful at every sport he tried, including his initial attempt at running when he was cut from the freshman track team after a 400-meter time trial. Just over a year later, his coach began talking to him about breaking the four-minute mile barrier by the time he graduated from high school.

  • Jim trained with Steve Prefontaine for a few weeks after moving to Eugene, but Oregon coach Bill Bowerman put an end to it.

  • He didn't struggle with race anxiety and uneven performances until after his second Olympic appearance.

  • He met his wife of 57 years on a blind date, but it wasn't a blind date for her; he had ignored her autograph request a few months earlier.

  • He was raised in a strict Christian household where he learned the rules about what he shouldn't do, but it wasn't until his 20s that he learned how to live the life of a Christian.


 As you might imagine from his appearance at the FCA clinic, Jim's Christian faith has been an important part of his life. The cross country clinic will also include presentations by former D2 athlete Aaron Yoder, former UNO runner Lily Jackson, and triathlete Lincoln Murdoch. Admission is free to attendees of all ages, but pre-registration at this link is required so the event venue has adequate seating.


No fear or doubt

With all the stress related to whether a team or individual qualifies for State at this week's District meets, this is a good time to remind your athlete to read one of our most popular articles, "No Room for Fear or Doubt."


On that note, I was listening to last week's "Nobody Asked Us" podcast by Kara Goucher and Des Linden, and an audience member asked them what advice they would give to a young runner. I'm paraphrasing their responses, but they were:


  • "This is a long journey, there's so much room to grow, and all of it doesn't need to happen tomorrow. This can be a gift you have your entire life."

  • "This is your sport, do what you like with it, take it in whatever direction you want. Be an athlete as long as you can, and just make sure the running stays fun."


Kara also offered this advice for parents: "This is the athlete's experience, and the supporters around them are really just there to be cheerleaders."


Photos


West Holt, 10/1 (Hurdle Nerd)
West Holt, 10/1 (Hurdle Nerd)

We've reached that point of the season where I can't keep up with all of the race albums being uploaded to Facebook. By my count, the Nerds shot at least eighteen meets last week. The easiest way to find meet photos is to go to the chronological listing at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022; that listing was updated on Sunday afternoon. You can also go to the Facebook album listing at https://www.facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd/photos_albums but those are listed in the order posted rather than by meet date.


We had six Nerds at the JH State meet on Saturday. Two Nerds were fully dedicated to photography for all six races while I dabbled in it the last two races. Four Nerds were primarily focused on taking video, and one of our Nerd alums will be creating a video that ought to be pretty cool. We started uploading some photos on Monday night but there may be additional posts later this week. The video will be posted whenever it's done; we can't rush art.


This is normally when I present one picture from each meet we shot. Unfortunately, it's District week AND my mom has a big birthday party, so I have to skip that feature this week.


This and that

  • The A4 boys race at the Kearney District site will feature the first head-to-head matchup between Class A #1 Aiden Gehring of Papio South and #2 Liam Gonzalez of Norfolk. The two boys have separated themselves from the rest of the Class A pack, but I suspect that Wednesday's race will be mostly focused on learning each other's racing strategy. The times may be fast but the real prize is nine days later.


  • The best thing we overheard last week came from the mouth of a Millard middle school coach: “If I see or hear that you have a walnut in your hand, you are not going to run today.”


    From Joyful Nerd's perspective, that seemed like an unreasonable request. The kids were racing at Walnut Grove Park.


  • Louise Walker of Omaha Marian finished 8th at the Metro meet, and managed to do so with just one shoe. I'm not sure where she lost it, but she'll be happy to know that we got a picture of it.


  • Maybe it's because I'm media, but I ran across an article from a national newspaper about the decline of high school sports coverage. When I started my business career in Omaha over thirty years ago, there were six prevalent marketing methods: newspaper, radio, television, billboards, direct mail and the yellow pages. Those very profitable industries have been decimated by the Internet, streaming radio, streaming video, social media and emails. It's no wonder that large newspapers don't have the advertising and subscriber revenue to cover everything they did 30 years ago. Small-town newspapers are still doing an exceptional job of covering local news and sports, and I encourage you to subscribe to your local newspaper so they can keep supporting their communities.


    The alternative is to build a statewide network of volunteers to provide coverage for a niche sport that metro newspapers can no longer afford to cover... but who would be stupid enough to try that?


Rankings

Individual rankings are posted for this week at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/week6rankings. The coaches updated their team rankings on Monday, 10/12, and the links to those rankings are posted at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/rankings.


Results

Our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/xcresults has been updated for meets held through Sunday. A few notable results:


  • In a Metro conference matchup of the top four girls' teams in Class A, Millard West prevailed by five points over Papio South and sixteen points over Omaha Marian. Elkhorn North finished fifth without scoring contributions from two of its top runners.


  • The previously-unranked Kearney boys' team won a tight HAC battle over Lincoln East and Lincoln North Star, but the new Class A poll reflects Kearney at #9, Lincoln East at #8 and Lincoln North Star at #6.


  • At the HAC meet, 13th-ranked Caitlyn Olsen of Lincoln Southeast pulled off a minor upset, winning in 19:38. She was followed by #9 Meredith Marsh of Lincoln Southwest in 19:48 and #11 Aubrey Anderson of Norfolk in 19:53. It was Olsen's first HS XC victory; the senior finished 19th at last year's HAC meet. She broke 20 minutes for the first time at Rim Rock on 9/26, and did so again at HAC. An acquaintance told me the secret to Caitlyn's recent success: this is the first time the senior has not played club soccer during the fall.


  • At the Atlantic (IA) meet on Thursday, the Pius girls varsity appeared to be focused on pack running rather than individual spoils; they finished 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 to easily win the team title, and the twelve girls Pius entered in the JV race took the top twelve spots. They might not be invited back.


  • The Lincoln Christian boys remain #1 in Class C after sweeping the top six spots in the Centennial conference race on Tuesday.


  • McCool Junction won its home meet and swept the top six spots; of note, Kayleigh Betka made her season debut in 21:16. Kayleigh won the Class D XC title in 2024 and the 3200 title last May.


Now we're getting serious...

District meets will be held this Wednesday and Thursday at fifteen locations around the State. Classes A and C meets will be held on Wednesday while Class B and D meets will be held on Thursday. State berths are on the line. But how do individuals and teams qualify for State?


In contrast to State track and field qualifying, the rules for State cross country are pretty simple. Individuals must finish in the top fifteen of their District meet, and the top three teams at each District meet also qualify. If there are ties for 15th place, the timing company will review the finish line camera footage to determine which athlete crossed first. If two teams tie for third place, the tiebreaker is the better finishing place of the teams' first non-scoring runner.


In Class A, each team is allowed up to seven runners, and the finishing places of the teams' first five runners are totaled to arrive at a team score. In Class B and C, the teams are each allowed up to six runners, and the finishing places of the teams' first four runners are totaled. In Class D, five runners are allowed and the first three finishers are scored. When adding up scores, there may be teams who don't have enough finishers to qualify for a team score. If so, the runners' results from those teams are discarded when calculating the team score. For example, if the second-place finisher in a Class D meet didn't have two teammates, the third-place finisher would count as two points, the fourth-place finisher as three points, etc.


As you would expect, quite a few of the team members from the three qualifying teams will also be individual qualifiers; in the worst case scenario, the twenty-one members of the three qualifying teams at a Class A meet could account for all fifteen individual qualifiers. This presents an enormous challenge for an athlete from a down-on-their-luck team who might be on the cusp of qualifying. Not only does he not get the benefit of training with at least one other fast runner, he also has to hope that his team isn't assigned to a District that has a few dominant teams. This is why we've asked coaches to propose NSAA legislation to add five (or ten) individual qualifiers who are not part of a qualifying team. I think we're 0-for-2 on that proposal, but I'm hoping that coaches will try again this year.


Meet locations

The District meet dates and start times, as well as tentative Nerd assignments, are shown below:


Wednesday

District A1/A2 @ Pioneers Park, 10/14/26, 1:30  (Nerdtron)

District A3/A4 @ Kearney Meadowlark, 10/14/26, 2:30  (Nerdy by Nature, Mega Nerd)

District C1 @ Branched Oak, 10/14/26, 4:00  (Nerdfall)

District C2 @ Boys Town, 10/14/26, 4:00 (Nerd Senior, Storm Nerd)

District C3 @ Albion, 10/14/26, 4:00  (Nerdolph)

District C4 @ Aurora, 10/14/26, 4:00

District C5 @ Ogallala, 10/14/26, 3:00 MT (Nerd Stammpede)

 

Thursday

District B1/B2 @ Beatrice, 10/15/26, 2:00 (Eagle Eye Nerd)

District B3/B4 @ Overton, 10/15/26, 3:00 (Livin' La Vida Nerdo)

District D1 @ Pender, 10/15/26, 4:30  (Bloomin' Nerd)

District D2 @ Oakland-Craig, 10/15/26, 4:00  (Combat Nerd)

District D3 @ McCool Junction, 10/15/26, 4:00

District D4 @ Neligh-Oakdale, 10/15/26, 3:00 (Hurdle Nerd)

District D5 @ Cambridge, 10/15/26, 3:00  (Valley Nerd)

District D6 @ Perkins County, 10/15/26, 3:00 MT (Word Nerd, Registered Nerd)


District assignments

Final District assignments were finalized on October 6 with the NSAA's release of Class A and B assignments.



Class A and B seedings are based on times submitted to the NSAA.


Here's the data breakdown:


You can see all of the coaches' polls at https://preprunningnerd.com/rankings.


This is an even-numbered year, so in Class A the girls are assigned by seedings, and then the boys from those schools are assigned to the same location (Pioneers Park or Kearney Meadowlark this year) with the NSAA trying to evenly distribute the top boys' teams between the two Districts at that site.


Class B is assigned differently since the teams are assigned to eastern and western sites at the start of the year. The seeding data above is used to distribute the teams between the two District races at each site. This approach leads to less traveling, but also an unequal distribution of ranked teams between the two sites. For purposes of the discussion below, the rankings I reference are how the teams were ranked on October 6th when the District assignments were released.


For Class A boys, each District has 3 of the 12 ranked and 'also receiving votes' teams in the coaches' poll. The same mostly goes for Class A girls, although the A-2 field includes the #1, #9 and #10 teams plus 'also receiving votes' Lincoln East.


For Class B boys, B-1 has three ranked teams, B-2 has #5, #6 and #10 plus 'also receiving votes' South Sioux City, B-3 has two ranked teams plus 'also receiving votes' Scottsbluff, and B-4 has two ranked teams. That's a pretty fair distribution. The Class B girls have an unequal distribution of ranked teams with 7 of the 10 ranked teams assigned to the Beatrice location. B-1 has three ranked teams, B-2 has four ranked teams plus 'also receiving votes' Beatrice, B-3 has one ranked team, and B-4 has two ranked teams and 'also receiving votes' Lexington. The current Class B approach was implemented in part to prevent a repeat of the 'Massacre at Mount Michael' from about five years ago when four of the top five Class B girls' teams were assigned to the same District. However, this year we have the Battle of Beatrice where these girls' teams will fight for the three team spots awarded for the B2 District: #1 Pius, #4 Duchesne, #8 Skutt, #9 Gretna and 'also receiving votes' Beatrice.


Unfortunately, that's still a better distribution of talented teams than the boys' D-3 District that includes #1 Doniphan-Trumbull, #3 Tri County, #4 McCool Junction, #9 Freeman and #10 Elmwood-Murdock.


Junior high State meet

The Papio South cross country course was buzzing on Saturday afternoon when, in six races held in just 2.5 hours, over 1,400 athletes competed for a State title or as a reward for finishing a hot and soggy season. Meet co-directors Jeremy Haselhorst and Shannon Stenger put on a great meet every year, but this is by far the biggest meet they've held. By comparison, about 1,000 athletes compete at the State high school meet while over 2,000 run at the UNK Invite and Platte River Rumble. The three divisions are (a) A/B for junior highs that feed into Class A/B high schools, (b) C/D for junior high feeders into Class C/D high schools, and (c) an Open race for 'JV' runners, runners younger than 7th grade, and schools aiming for a less competitive race. The top three in each race:


A/B boys individual

1. Timothy Doyzha, Beatrice, 10:34

2. Carter Roy, Northwest, 10:38

3. Easton Teets, North Platte, 10:40


A/B boys team

1. Lexington, 88 points

2. Bennington South, 201 points

3. North Platte, 205 points


A/B girls individual

1. Kaylee Steinmeyer, Seward, 11:31

2. Ava Ford, Elkhorn North Ridge, 11:51

3. Almendra Yanez, North Platte, 12:03


A/B girls team

1. Papillion, 90 points

2. LaVista, 129 points

3. Alliance, 136 points


C/D boys individual

1. Blake Hansmeyer, Ainsworth, 10:11

2. Raiden Barnes, Arcadia-Loup City, 10:15

3. Levi Bowen, Fort Calhoun, 10:18


C/D boys team

1. Brownell-Talbot, 69 points

2. Perkins County, 84 points

3. Ainsworth, 91 points


C/D girls individuals

1. Lainney Moeller, Thayer Central, 11:45

2. Nora Beller, Columbus Scotus, 12:01

3. Addison Rainforth, Doniphan-Trumbull, 12:08


C/D girls team

1. Ravenna, 61 points

2. Hi-Line, 83 points

3. Wayne, 93 points


Open boys individual

1. Daniel Norman, St. Peter (Lincoln), 11:11

2. Luke Johnson, St. Teresa (Lincoln), 11:15

3. Max Rutledge, St. Teresa (Lincoln), 11:31


Open boys team

1. West Omaha Track Club, 54 points

2. St. Teresa (Lincoln), 93 points

3. St. Patrick's (Elkhorn), 149 points


Open girls individual

1. Aspen Samuels, Seward, 6th grade, 11:32

2. Ryann McGranaghan, Club 402, 6th grade, 11:55

3. Ava Zuck, 6th grade, Club 402, 12:04


Open girls team

1. West Omaha Track Club, 27 points

2. Arlington, 61 points

3. Milford, 72 points


Of the twelve athletes listed above for Class A/B and C/D, at least five have older siblings who are current or former high school distance runners. We love to see it.


Run 4 Jared

With the JH State races starting every 25 minutes, there wasn't much time for on-site tweeting. I did find time for one post after Blake Hansmeyer of Ainsworth won the C/D title with the fastest time among the three races. Blake is the son of Jared Hansmeyer, who saw considerable success as the Ainsworth distance coach, including coaching Gatorade winners Rylee Rice and Ben Arens. Jared is in the midst of a tough battle with cancer, but he was able to be at Papio South to congratulate Blake after his win.


Jared is a private but beloved figure in the Nebraska coaching community. At the Central conference meet on Thursday, the Seward team wore special pink and white singlets in Jared's honor. For those athletes who aren't competing at State - as well as adults and children - there is a 5k fundraiser for Jared this Saturday in Ainsworth. I'll add a fundraising link if my contacts provide it to me.



********

 

Originally written and published in October 2026 at www.preprunningnerd.com. 

 

 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 Hassenstab," a story about a high school triple jumper who became a quadriplegic after a swimming accident.



 
 
 

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