The latest Nerdsletter is posted at preprunningnerd.com/post/nl0…: ▪️ Parents, play your role ▪️ Eyes up ▪️ A distance runner's perfect weekend ▪️ To Burke or not to Burke ▪️ Middle School Monday ▪️ Rankings overview ▪️ Photo awesomeness With the UNK meet falling on Monday, we will not be publishing a Nerdsletter next week. PS: Happy 31st anniversary, Mrs. Nerd!

Team finished 5th at Rim Rock in the mud this morning. Aiden Gehring finished 3rd overall.

.@FremontXC alum Juan Gonzalez finishes 16th at the Cowboy Jamboree hosted by Oklahoma State. It’s his first official cross country race as a Duck.

Millard West was the only Nebraska high school team that ran last night at Gans Creek at the University of Missouri. The Millard West girls ran very well, finishing 5th out of 37 teams in the Elite Varsity division and 3rd out of 29 teams in the Elite JV division. The top three MW varsity girls were just five seconds apart - Harper Dubas, Madison Scott and Berkely Batten - between 18:26 and 18:31. Elijah Bickley led the MW boys, running 15:42 for 33rd place. athletic.net/CrossCountry/me…

Official photos of the Luther College Men’s Cross Country team 😂

Through 6:00 am this morning, we've posted albums for 57 cross country meets this season. We frequently receive comments that we don't label our albums; we do label them but we have no control how they're presented to followers, particularly if one of your FB friends tagged you in a photo. There are two easy ways to see what albums we've posted: 1. Go to our website at preprunningnerd.com/2022 to see a chronological listing of the meets with albums. I've updated this for meets posted as of this morning. 2. Go to our FB page and click on Photos/Albums at facebook.com/PrepRunningNerd… to see albums in the order they've been added to our FB page. Enjoy!

Due an overbooked weekend at Nerd HQ, we're asking this question two days early to build our meet schedule for the week. For the week ended October 4, 1) Which team(s) do you support? 2) WHERE are you competing? (No need to answer if UNK is your only meet next week) 3) On WHAT DAY and WHAT IS THE START TIME for that meet?

Viking Nerd is risking his life and his camera to shoot the rainy Doniphan-Trumbull meet. He’s joined here by Scott Sjuts, the starter and an apparent XC course Picasso based on his painting this work of art at the finish line. In his spare time, Scott studies early European subsistence farming, which has led to his frequent publication in the Deutschland Farmer’s Almanac as well as six guest appearances on the David Letterman show. He’s a true gentleman and scholar.

Ron Jones (pictured below) is the starter at the Falls City meet, renamed as the inaugural Louie Fritz Invitational in honor of the former Falls City coach (and my first running mentor) who passed away in March. Louie often ran the 20-mile round trip between his home and the middle school where he taught. He ran in black nylon dress socks years before the rest of us figured out that cotton tube socks caused blisters. He owned fifteen Peru State TF/XC records when he graduated in 1966, and he finished 14th at the 1965 NAIA XC national championships when he lead Peru State to a 3rd-place finish. As old school as a man could be, Louie Fritz was a Richardson County legend. Here’s to you, Coach. May your memory live on through this meet.

High school cross country in the morning: Omaha Marian junior Maya Freyer won the Lincoln North Star meet at Pioneers Park. Her time was 9 seconds faster than Class A state champion Emily Hegge ran on the same course last week. #nebpreps

Berry Nerdy is at the Fort Calhoun meet, postponed from Monday at Fort Atkinson to today at Papio South. I am sad to report that today’s meet has no re-enactments, living history exhibitions, or medieval jousting. It seems like a missed opportunity. On the bright side, it does have Jamie Schleifer as the starter and Bo Hansen as head of timing. Many years ago, Bo and Jamie were the stars of ‘Dukes of Hazzard,’ but their show was canceled after Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane discovered their moonshine still. They tried to resist arrest, but even the incompetent Rosco knew that Jamie’s starter’s gun only had blanks. Anyway, Jamie and Bo are just two good ol’ boys never meanin’ no harm. We’re lucky to have them.

The XC meet scheduled for today in North Bend has been canceled. No make up date is available.

Today's Nebraska City meet has been cancelled due to the forecasted weather.

The latest Nerdsletter is posted at preprunningnerd.com/post/nl0…: ▪️ Parents, play your role ▪️ Eyes up ▪️ A distance runner's perfect weekend ▪️ To Burke or not to Burke ▪️ Middle School Monday ▪️ Rankings overview ▪️ Photo awesomeness With the UNK meet falling on Monday, we will not be publishing a Nerdsletter next week. PS: Happy 31st anniversary, Mrs. Nerd!

The Crofton Cross Country Invite on Thursday, September 24 has been CANCELLED.

It’s One-Shoe Wednesday, when we celebrate those runners who win a race with one shoe. This week’s honoree is Henry Polickey of Mitchell who won the Kimball JH race on 9/11. When asked after the race why he ran with one shoe, he simply responded, “Because I want the Nerd post about it.” As with many of our posts, that’s not true, but kudos to Henry and condolences to whomever had to wash that sock. Photo: Distant Nerd

Monday's Fort Calhoun meet at Fort Atkinson State Park has been rescheduled for Thursday starting at 2:00 at Papio South. Despite our persistent questioning, we've received no response on whether there will be Civil War re-enactments as part of the pre-meet entertainment. Nerds love a good re-enactment.

For adults and students (but not those who qualify for State), the Run 4 Jared 5k will be held at the Ainsworth golf course on Saturday, October 17. The fun run is a fundraiser for former Ainsworth XC coach Jared Hansmeyer as he fights cancer. You can find out more about the event at facebook.com/events/s/run-4-…

A fresh round of boys' rankings are now available at our website at preprunningnerd.com/week3ran…. With many meets canceled last week and a number of teams taking an off week as they shift from late-week races to next Monday's UNK meet, the rankings changes this week are limited. Next week's rankings will be issued after the UNK meet, and we'll rely heavily on head-to-head results at that event. In Class A, 4 of the top 15 boys did not compete last week, and the top six rankings are unchanged. #1 Aiden Gehring of Papio South was the top Class A finisher in 15:40 at a muddy Pioneer Park course, while #2 Liam Gonzalez of Norfolk won his home (and muggy) meet in 15:41 with #3 J'Shawn Afuh in 2nd place in 16:24. The only addition to this week's rankings is Lincoln East's Dylan Linscott, who returns at #9 after finishing 4th at Harold Scott behind the #1, #4 and #7 boys. LSW and Fremont raced at the Heartland Classic in Pella on Saturday, and the meet featured a lightning delay, considerable mud and the consolidation of six races into two. #12 Mitchell Ripley of LSW was the top Nebraska finisher, followed by Logan Nielsen, Jasper Semrad and Aiden Soto of Fremont. Soto remains #15 in the rankings; we're not going to penalize him for finishing behind two teammates on a Tough Mudder course. Jackson Einspahr of Seward ascends to the #1 spot in Class B after besting last week's A#1 and B#1 boys at Harold Scott; Sam Schlautman of Pius moves to #2. By my count, 7 of the top 15 boys didn't race last week. The Adams Central meet today features 6 ranked boys from Northwest, Beatrice, Lexington and North Platte; I'm particularly interested to see how #4 Carter Ribble, a freshman from Beatrice, performs again his older ranked competitors. We have no new ranked boys in Class B, and Owen Muma of Norris made the biggest gain, improving from #9 to #7 after being the top Class B finisher at Norfolk. Last week's Fillmore Central meet featured 7 boys ranked in Class C and 3 boys ranked in Class D. #2 Bryson Neels of Gothenburg won the meet and the rubber match with his teammate Tyson Hetz, and Bryson takes over the #1 spot. Samuel McQuistan of Holdrege slides into #2 after finishing 4th at Harold Scott behind the A#1, B#1 and B#2 and ahead of at least nine other ranked runners from B, C and D. Trevin Opp of Lincoln Christian came off the injured list to make his season debut, finishing behind Neels and Hetz at Fillmore Central. The boys ranked 6th through 12th did not change positions this week. Emmanuel Gonzalez of Wayne is the only new face this week with his debut at #15 after strong performances at Wayne and Sergeant Bluff. The Ravenna meet last week was a good stress test for our Class D rankings. The top three finishers at that meet - Kaser Johnson of Doniphan-Trumbull, Coltan Ham of NPSP and Dutch Miller of Arcadia-Loup City - continue to be the top three boys in our rankings. Likewise, three ranked boys raced at Fillmore Central, and #8 Sammy Holsing of Tri County, #9 Carter Mierau of McCool Junction and #12 Carter Fritz of Centennial finished in their rankings order. Xander Cardoza of Dundy County-Stratton is the only new boy on the list at #15 after finishing as the top Class D at McCook. The graphics below list the top 10 boys in each Class; because most of you can't read microscopic print, our website has the expanded list of the top 15 boys and their schools, along with Nerd Watch List athletes who are just outside of the rankings. You can also find the coaches' team rankings, which were updated yesterday and are available at preprunningnerd.com/rankings. As a reminder, next week's rankings will not be issued until Wednesday to give us ample time to reflect the UNK results and to create our graphics.

Our latest batch of girls' rankings is now available on our website at preprunningnerd.com/week3ran…. With many meets canceled last week and a number of teams taking an off week as they shift from late-week races to next Monday's UNK meet, the rankings changes this week are limited. Next week's rankings will be issued after the UNK meet, and we'll rely heavily on head-to-head results at that event. In Class A, 8 of last week's top 15 raced at the Harold Scott meet. While A#1 Emily Hegge of Papio South won the race and retains the top spot, the meet led to a reshuffling in the rankings and added two new faces in the rankings. Caitlyn Olsen of Lincoln Southeast and Riley Kreisling of Elkhorn North join at #12 and #14 after finishing as the 6th and 8th Class A girls. #9 Aubrey Anderson of Norfolk and #11 Selah Carson of Bennington were the top two Class A finishers at Norfolk. Jenna Dahl, a freshman at Fremont, joins the rankings at #15 after being the top Nebraska finisher at the Heartland Classic meet on Saturday. Meredith Marsh of LSW finished behind Dahl but we've kept her at #5; the Pella meet featured a lightning delay, heavy mud and a consolidation of six races into two, and we're not going to penalize Meredith for Tough Mudder conditions. The Harold Scott meet featured 6 ranked runners in Class B. Sophia Reynolds of Hastings affirmed her #1 ranking after finishing as the top Class B girl ahead of #3 Haylen Holliday, #7 Malia Woosley of Pius in Malia's season debut, #12 Sierra Regan of Gretna and #14 Nora Ivanov of Pius. Rinlee Blomstedt of McCook won her home meet to remain at #4, while Natalie Ramirez of Lexington jumped from #15 to #10 after finishing as the 2nd Class B girl at that meet. Jillian Schumacher of Skutt makes her debut at #9 after being the top Class B finisher at Norfolk ahead of #11 Ella Carlson and new #15 Lydia Dominy, both from Norris. With the possible exception of the Pius team, most of the ranked girls should be at the UNK meet next week. In Class C, #1 Scout Bell won the loaded Fillmore Central invite in 19:19 over at least five ranked runners from Class C and D. #2 Tayla Hurner of Wayne won the Wayne and Sergeant Bluff (IA) meets last week, while #3 Mallory Robbins and her Plattsmouth teammates lost their second meet of the season due to weather. Four other ranked girls did not race this week, limiting the changes in rankings. #5 Addison Hauxwell of Chase County was the top C finisher at McCook, #7 Amelia Buhlke of Central City won the O'Neill meet, and #9 Neva Bauer of Arlington won her home road race just ahead of #10 Emma Williams. We have no additions to the rankings this week but we expect wholesale changes next when most of Class C congregates at the UNK meet. In Class D, 4 of the last week's top six girls either did not race or did not finish their race. At the Fillmore Central meet, #3 Leah Dawson was the top D finisher followed by Stella Steele, a freshman at Centennial, who makes her rankings debut at #15. #2 Delani Runnels of Niobrara/Verdigre cruised to an easy victory at Neligh-Oakdale, #7 Aysha Neal of Alma won the Arapahoe title, Shylee Gonzales of Sandhills/Thedford won at Ravenna, and Faith Galvin of LCC won the Pender meet. The graphics below list the top 10 girls in each Class; because most of you can't read microscopic print, our website has the expanded list of the top 15 girls and their schools, along with Nerd Watch List athletes who are just outside of the rankings. You can also find the coaches' team rankings, which were updated yesterday and are available at preprunningnerd.com/rankings. As a reminder, next week's rankings will not be issued until Wednesday to give us ample time to reflect the UNK results and to create our graphics.