Nerdsletter 10/21/26
Contributor: The Nerd
The weekend of awesomeness
I teased this a few weeks ago, but this Friday and Saturday combine for a dream weekend for the distance running fan. We have three big events that I'll cover in detail:
Friday, 10/23, 12:00-4:30 - High school State meet at Kearney Country Club
Saturday, 10/24, 10:00-11:30 - Blazing Tiger NAIA meet at Mahoney State Park
Saturday, 10/24, 1:00-4:00 - Free FCA XC clinic featuring Olympian Jim Ryun
FCA cross country clinic
We're going to go in reverse order since the majority of this Nerdsletter will be devoted to the State meet.
The Omaha chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is hosting a free cross country clinic this Saturday from 1:00-4:00 at Bellevue University, and Jim and Anne Ryun will be the keynote speakers. The majority of our followers weren't alive when Jim Ryun competed in his third and final Olympics in 1972, but that doesn't make Jim less relevant. He was the first American high school boy to run a sub-four minute mile, he competed in his first Olympics in 1964 while he was a senior in high school, and he was widely recognized as the best American middle-distance runner for almost a decade.
Based on my interview with him a few weeks ago, which you can see at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/jimryun, Jim's faith journey was as important to him as his athletic experience. Raised in a strict religious household where he learned what he wasn't supposed to do to be a good person, it wasn't until his mid-20s that he discovered that being a Christian was more than just following rules. The free clinic on Saturday will cover distance running and faith topics, and I think it's going to be phenomenal. My conversation with Jim and Anne was one of the most satisfying discussions I've had in years, and I say that from the perspective of buttoned-down Catholic who isn't terribly vocal about my faith.
The event is open to students, coaches, parents and adults of any age. 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 but pre-registration at this link is required so the event has adequate seating. The Ryuns are making a significant effort to travel from Tampa to Omaha for the clinic, and I'd love to give them a good audience.
Blazing Tiger
For the past few years, the College of St. Mary and Doane have co-hosted a NAIA-only meet that falls the day after the State high school meet. NAIA schools tend to compete close to home, and one of the goals of the Blazing Tiger meet was to attract schools from other parts of the country to help build the rankings profile of Nebraska teams. The strategy has worked and the meet has grown; this year we're expected to see about 35 teams in both the men's and women's races.
The women's field is expected to include seven ranked teams: #1 Dordt, #9 Benedictine, #15 College of St. Mary, #17 Doane, #20 St. Mary (Kansas), #21 John Brown and #23 Southern Oregon. In addition, four other teams in attendance are receiving votes in the national polls, putting them at #26-31 in the polls.
The men's field has three ranked teams: #2 Southern Oregon, #17 St. Mary (Kansas) and #19 Dordt. In addition, there are four other teams receiving votes in national polls, putting them at #27-34.
The women's race starts at 10:00 followed by the men at 10:45. Tickets are $20 per car (even with a State Park pass) and you can find more details at https://www.blazingtigerinvite.net/event-details. I shot a collegiate meet at Mahoney last Friday, and the course is looking absolutely gorgeous. Go for nature, stay for the awesome racing.
State primer
A bit of history
The sport of cross country was 'invented' in England, which hosted its first national championship in 1867, but it wasn't until 1960 that Nebraska held its first high school State meet. From 1960 to 1979, the State meet was a boys-only affair, but 4000-meter girls' competitions were added in 1980. The girls' distance was moved to the current 5000 meters in 2013. It is hard for me to fathom that we didn't have a girls' State meet until 1980.
By comparison, Nebraska high schools held their first version of a boys' State meet in 1899, and a girls' division was added in 1971.
Trevor Alber, a Hastings St. Cecilia coach and part-time Nerd, had some time on his hands over the weekend and did a deep dive on the recent history of teams that have qualified for this year's State meet. (If you have corrections, let us know.) Here are the longest active qualifying streaks according to Trevor:
Class A boys: Fremont (31 years), Millard West (22 years)
Class A girls: Lincoln East (30 years), Papio South (19 years)
Class B boys: Norris (8 years), Lincoln Pius (7 years)
Class B girls: Omaha Skutt (15 years), Norris (7 years)
Class C boys: Norfolk Catholic (11 years), Milford (9 years)
Class C girls: Auburn and Kearney Catholic (5 years)
Class D boys: McCool Junction (7 years), Cornerstone Christian, Hemingford and Nebraska Christian (6 years)
Class D girls: Ainsworth (13 years), Crofton (7 years), Nebraska Christian (6 years)
In terms of schools who have qualified both boys and girls teams each year, Millard West and Papio South have the longest streak at 13 years.
Trevor also looked at this year's qualifiers to see which teams had the longest gap since their last qualification:
Class A boys: Kearney (2018)
Class A girls: Elkhorn South (2024)
Class B boys: Lexington, Beatrice and Hastings (2024)
Class B girls: Northwest (2021)
Class C boys: Yutan (2016)
Class C girls: Yutan (first time qualifying?)
Class D boys: Amherst (1987) and Arcadia/Loup City (2009)
Class D girls: Arapahoe (1998)
Fan guide
The NSAA has a championship page at https://nsaahome.org/nsaa-cross-country-championships-hq/ that should be helpful for fans who don't attend the meet every year. A few important points:
Tickets: You must buy tickets at the online link provided by the NSAA. Cell reception can be spotty, so don't plan to buy them while you wait in line. You can't print the ticket or take a screenshot; you must use the GoFan app to show your tickets. There will be a credit card payment kiosk at the main entrance near the KCC clubhouse, but buying in advance will get everyone through more quickly.
Schedule: The meet moves quickly, with the first session races as follows: 12:00 Class D girls, 12:30 Class C girls, 1:00 Class D boys, 1:30 Class C boys. There is a break from 2:00-2:30 when they start presenting Class C and D awards, but those are often not completed when the second session starts. Those races are 2:30 Class B girls, 3:00 Class A girls, 3:30 Class B boys, and 4:00 Class A boys. The State meet timer can time multiple races at once, so, for example, there will likely be Class D girls still on the course at 12:30 when the Class C girls race starts. Consequently, don't assume you can see the last finisher of each race and still catch the start of the next race.
Awards: The top 15 finishers in each race receive coveted medals, and the top two teams in each race receive trophies and medals.
Scoring: To score a race, the computer eliminates all of the runners who aren't on a qualifying team, and then it sums the placements for the 'scoring' runners for each team. In Class A, up to 7 athletes can race on each team and 5 are scored; in Class B and C, up to 6 athletes can race and 4 are scored; in Class D, up to 5 athletes can race and 3 are scored. If two or more teams have the same score, the tiebreaker is whichever team had the fastest non-scorer. If a team doesn't have any non-scorers, then they lose the tiebreaker. For example, if two Class D teams tied for first place with 20 points, with one team's fourth member finishing 100th while the other team didn't have a fourth runner, the team with the 100th-place runner would win the State title. And that's why it's a team sport.
Results: Assuming you can get cell phone reception, you can find live results at www.athletic.net. That link isn't active yet, but we'll post it on our social media accounts on Friday morning.
The handy map
We introduced a State meet map in 2025 that we call Prep Running Nerd's Right-Handed and Somewhat Handy Guide to the Nebraska State XC Course, and it was a huge hit. When I overheard a parent yell, "I'm headed to the thumb," I shed a few tears. We'll post this map on our social media channels on Friday morning along with links to live results, but you're welcome to save this image to your phone.
Qualifiers
Team and individual qualifiers were determined through the results of District meets held last Wednesday and Thursday. Class A and B had four District meets, Class C had five District meets, and Class D had six Districts. At each meet, the top three teams and top fifteen individuals qualified for State. Once a team qualifies at the District meet, the coach is not obligated to field that same team at State. For example, an athlete may be held out of the District meet to allow for another week to recover from an injury or illness.
The table below reflects the number of team qualifiers as well as the individuals who did not qualify as part of a team.
Teams each gender | Boys individual | Girls individual | |
Class A | 12 | 16 | 14 |
Class B | 12 | 12 | 14 |
Class C | 15 | 27 | 22 |
Class D | 18 | 44 | 41 |
While exceptions exist each year (for example, Lincoln Pius last year), in general the average finishing time for the first five finishers on a Class A team is faster than Class B, which is faster than Class C, which is faster than Class D. Our view is that this is largely a result of two factors: (a) a larger school should have a larger student body from which to develop runners, and (b) two or more equally matched teammates tend to result in better workouts and faster times compared to a team where one good athlete is markedly faster than his/her teammates. Of course, the (a) component in this theory falls apart when a large school has a struggling program and can't develop the depth to bolster its top runners. In those situations, particularly in Omaha or Lincoln, good runners may be faced with the decision to continue training on their own during practices or consider transferring to a deeper program. In short, those good runners don't have teammates who can push them to be better.
Considering the uphill battle that athletes at struggling programs may face, we've been pushing coaches to submit a proposal to the NSAA to mandate that five or ten non-team qualifiers advance out of each District. Here's the number of non-team qualifiers out of each District meet this year:
ABoys | AGirls | BBoys | BGirls | CBoys | CGirls | DBoys | DGirls | |
District 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
District 2 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
District 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
District 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 8 |
District 5 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 7 | ||||
District 6 | 10 | 5 |
The NSAA legislative cycle has already started. Wisner-Pilger has submitted a proposal from NSAA District 3 to mandate a minimum of 10 individual qualifiers for Class C and D, while Oakland-Craig has submitted essentially the same proposal from NSAA District 2. If the proposals were in place for all Classes for this scholastic year, the number of individual qualifiers would have increased as follows:
Class A boys: 24 (96 finishers in 2025)
Class A girls: 26 (100 finishers in 2025)
Class B boys: 28 (89 finishers in 2025)
Class B girls: 26 (87 finishers in 2025)
Class C boys: 23 (117 finishers in 2025)
Class C girls: 23 (119 finishers in 2025)
Class D boys: 16 (131 finishers in 2025)
Class D girls: 19 (121 finishers in 2025)
My original idea was to simply mandate five non-team qualifiers for Class A and B, which would have added an average of less than six runners per Class A and B race at Kearney. Given the relatively small number of Class A and B teams (around 30ish), that seems like a good start since about 40% of teams qualify for State. The two proposals by Wisner-Pilger and Oakland-Craig are asking for ten individual qualifiers for Classes C and D, and that seems right too. For Class C, each of the five District meets has 11 or 12 schools, so 25% of teams qualify for State. For Class D, the six District meets average 21-22 schools, although some teams are not large enough to field three scorers. However, based on the teams assigned to Class D meets, less than 15% qualify for State. If you're the only good runner at your Class D school - perhaps the only girl on your team - you face long odds in qualifying for the State meet.
A proposal must first receive a majority of votes in its District to advance to the next round of meetings, where all six Districts are supposed to vote on every proposal that survives the first round. If the proposal receives a majority of votes in five of the six Districts, then it is usually fast tracked towards adoption. During the 2025/26 legislative cycle, two minimum-qualifier proposals (GINW's proposal had five, North Platte's had eight) were approved in their Districts and advanced to the January District meetings, where both proposals were approved by Districts 1, 4, 5 and 6. The two proposals failed in District 3 (including a whopping 5 yea's, 44 no's for the North Platte proposal). For District 2, which includes the Omaha area, there was 'no action' on either proposal. Given that many of the OPS cross country teams are struggling with depth and their athletes could benefit from such a proposal, the 'no action' on the proposals is befuddling. Interestingly, District 2 chose to take 'no action' on 15 of the 47 legislative proposals, which counts as a 'no' vote. None of the other five Districts had a 'no action' result on any of the 47 proposals.
Notable District results
In the B1 boys meet, Barrett Mechaley of Ralston finished 14th as the only non-team qualifier. Team qualifiers Lincoln Pius, Beatrice and Gretna took the other 14 spots.
In the B2 boys meet, South Sioux City qualified four boys in the top 15 but missed third place in the team standings by one point. While the four boys are technically enough to count for a team score at State, they won't be scored as a team since they didn't finish in the top three.
In the C1 boys meet, Syracuse finished 2nd in the team standings even though it had just one medalist, Treton Dowding in 10th place. Top-ranked Lincoln Christian placed its six boys in the top seven.
Similarly, in the C-5 boys meet, Sidney finished 3rd to advance to State with just one medalist, Hunter Elston in 7th place.
The boys D6 meet was the meet of parity, with the fifteen medalists coming from twelve different teams. Even more surprising, Perkins County finished 3rd without any medalists; its top three boys placed 16th, 18th and 20th.
At the A2 girls meet, freshman Emma Rinne of Lincoln East finished 11th and helped lead the unranked Spartans to third place, keeping alive the 28-year streak as State team qualifiers. We first wrote about Emma in our September 9th Nerdsletter when she collapsed forty meters from the finish line at her first cross country race.
At the A4 girls meet, Eva Sindelar of Lincoln North Star was the only medalist outside of the athletes from the three first-place teams: Elkhorn North, Lincoln Southwest and Elkhorn South.
Norfolk Catholic moved from Class D to Class C this season. The boys won the C3 meet with three medalists while the girls finished 3rd with medalist Mayla Sukup.
There's a reason why the Adams Central girls slid into the top ranking for Class C this week. At the C4 meet, all six of Minden's girls medaled... and they still finished one point behind Adams Central, which had five medalists. Amelia Buhlke (1st) of Central City and Makinley Eggleston (6th) of Aurora were the only two medalists not from a team qualifier.
In the D3 girls meet, the reigning Class D 3200-meter champ Kayleigh Betka of McCool Junction ran her second 5k of the season after returning from injury. She re-enters the Class D rankings at 15th this week, and McCool Junction could place well on Friday if Kayleigh continues to improve.
At the same D3 meet, Grayson Sherman of HTRS qualified in 9th place. We wrote about Grayson in our UNK results post because she successfully petitioned the HTRS school board to add cross country at her school. The senior has qualified for State T&F her first three years and has earned two State medals in the 4x800.
At the D6 meet, a distance runner from a sprint family has qualified for State. Molly Spargo, a freshman at Dundy County Stratton, finished in 9th place.
Returning champions
Class A: Emily Hegge, Papio South
Class C: Scout Bell, Gothenburg, and Trevin Opp, Lincoln Christian
Class D: Avery Arens, Crofton (2025), Kayleigh Betka, McCool Junction (2024), and Kaser Johnson, Doniphan-Trumbull
Cece Kramper of Omaha Duchesne won the Class B title in 2025 as a junior. She will not be competing at the State meet due to an injury.
3- and 4-time medalist hopefuls
At the completion of the season, we have been updating the list of Class A 3- and 4-time medalists. Trevor Alber has also undertaken the task of expanding this list to include all Classes. Based on his data, the following athletes will be competing for either a 3rd or 4th State medal on Friday:
Senior boys Prior medals
Isac Portillo-Munoz, Lexington 2023-2025
Tyler Hetz, Gothenburg 2023-2025
Trevin Opp, Lincoln Christian 2023-2025 (won in 2024-2025)
Kaser Johnson, Doniphan-Trumbull 2023-2025 (won in 2025)
Coltan Ham, NP St. Patrick's 2023-2025
J'Shawn Afuh, Lincoln North Star 2024-2025
Samuel Robinson, Norris 2024-2025
Sammy Holsing, Tri-County 2024-2025
Sullivan Jackson, Cornerstone Christian 2024-2025
Junior boys Prior medals
Aiden Gehring, Papio South 2024-2025 (won in 2025)
Samuel McQuistan, Holdrege 2024-2025
Bryson Neels, Gothenburg 2024-2025
Andrew Kastl, Norfolk Catholic 2024-2025
Senior girls Prior medals
Mallory Robbins, Plattsmouth 2023-2025
Leah Robinson, Elkhorn North 2023-2025
Sophia Reynolds, Hastings 2023-2025
Emma Williams, North Bend Central 2023-2025
Emilyn Kavan, Scotus Catholic 2023-2025
Malia Woosley, Pius X 2024-2025
Jaelyn Witter, Kearney Catholic 2023, 2025
Mazzy Kuchar, Elkhorn Valley 2024-2025
Leah Dawson, McCool Junction 2024-2025
Annah Perdue, York 2023, 2024
Junior girls Prior medals
Scout Bell, Gothenburg 2024-2025 (won in 2025)
Kayleigh Betka, McCool Junction 2024-2025
Lily Daly, Hastings St. Cecilia 2024-2025
Outlook for team races
Our final rankings at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/week7rankings reflect our predictions for individual medalists in each Class. In regards to the team races, we have a number of predictions in public view, including a new analytical spreadsheet created by Trevor Alber - the results of which we're making public in advance of State to see if his approach has any merit.
Class A boys
Our preseason predictions: Creighton Prep, Millard West, Millard North
Final coaches' rankings: Creighton Prep, Papio South, Fremont
Trevor's power rankings: Creighton Prep 57, Papio South 104, Lincoln North Star 108
Our current predictions: Creighton Prep, Fremont, Papio South
Class A girls
Our preseason predictions: Papio South, Omaha Marian, Millard West
Final coaches' rankings: Millard West, Tie - Papio South and Omaha Marian
Trevor's power rankings: Millard West 66, Omaha Marian 94, Elkhorn North 102
Our current predictions: Millard West, Papio South, Omaha Marian
Class B boys:
Our preseason predictions: Seward, North Platte, Lincoln Pius
Final coaches' rankings: North Platte, Seward, Lincoln Pius
Trevor's power rankings: Seward 38, Lincoln Pius 50, North Platte 75
Our current predictions: Seward, Lincoln Pius, North Platte
Class B girls
Our preseason predictions: Gretna, Lincoln Pius, Omaha Duchesne
Final coaches' rankings: Lincoln Pius, Seward, Gretna
Trevor's power rankings: Lincoln Pius 40, Seward 50, Gretna 57
Our current predictions: Lincoln Pius, Seward, Gretna
Class C boys
Our preseason predictions: Lincoln Christian, Holdrege, Gothenburg
Final coaches' rankings: Lincoln Christian, Holdrege, Gothenburg
Trevor's power rankings: Lincoln Christian 27, Holdrege 53, Gothenburg 70
Our current predictions: Lincoln Christian, Holdrege, Gothenburg
Class C girls
Our preseason predictions: Adams Central, Chase County, Gothenburg
Final coaches' rankings: Adams Central, Chase County, Gothenburg
Trevor's power rankings: Gothenburg 55, Adams Central 55, Minden 59
Our current predictions: Gothenburg, Minden, Adams Central
Class D boys
Our preseason predictions: Doniphan-Trumbull, Cornerstone Christian, Tri County
Final coaches' rankings: Doniphan-Trumbull, Cornerstone Christian, Tri County
Trevor's power rankings: Doniphan-Trumbull 20, Tri County 23, Cornerstone Christian 25
Our current predictions: Doniphan-Trumbull, Cornerstone Christian, Tri County
Class D girls
Our preseason predictions: McCool Junction, Crofton, Nebraska Christian
Final coaches' rankings: Crofton, McCool Junction, Nebraska Christian
Trevor's power rankings: McCool Junction 18, Crofton 22, Nebraska Christian 42
Our current predictions: Crofton, McCool Junction, Nebraska Christian
Signs
It's never too early to start making signs for the State meet. Our Nerds will be on the lookout for great signs like this one from last year.
No room for fear or doubt
If you're an avid reader of the Nerdsletter, you've probably seen dozens of references to our article, "No Room for Fear or Doubt" before big meets. Pre-race anxiety and doubt can be crippling for even the fittest and most accomplished athletes -- a topic that Jim Ryun addressed in our recent interview -- and it's important to step to the line knowing that (a) you deserve to be there and (b) how you run doesn't define you as a person or an athlete. Distance running builds the skills, resilience and discipline that will make you a successful adult, and a bad race won't change any of that.
Results
Links to last week's meet results, as well as the results for all meets this season, are available on our website at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/xcresults.
JH State meet video and photos
Nerd Ricky Bobby had our drone Nerd Bird fully deployed at the JH State meet, and we had six other Nerds on site for ground-based video and photos. We were also able to pull Nauj Nerd back into service for an incredible editing job. You can see the finished products at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/post/2026jhstatemedia.
Photos
Last week there were nineteen District meets held at fifteen locations, and our volunteer Nerds were able to make it to all but two (Aurora and McCool Junction). We still need to post photos from the A4 girls' race at Kearney, but the photos for the rest of the meets have been posted on Facebook.
As for the State meet, we'll have one 'volume' shooter for each of the eight races and as many as ten other Nerds roaming the course looking for great photos. If you see one of us, give us a "Howdy Nerd!" Because we are spreading the workload among many Nerds, we should have State albums posted on Facebook by the following Wednesday.
You can find a chronological listing of albums for over 100 meets this season at https://www.preprunningnerd.com/2022. Here are a few pics from District meets:
We also attended the following non-District meets last week:
********
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.
Comments