By Tony Chapman – For the Nebraska School Activities Association
Over four-plus hours on Friday afternoon, cross country took center stage on the Nebraska School Activities Association championship calendar. The end result was a great day of racing under cool sunny skies to start the day followed by an afternoon that warmed up in the fall sun as the day finished with the closest team race of the competition in the Class C girls event. Eight races. Eight team champions. Eight individual champions. Here is a recap and a few notes from Friday.
CLASS A: Sure, it was the day Fremont’s Juan Gonzalez had hoped for when his 14:52.01 time was a state meet record and just the third-ever sub-15 minute time on the Kearney Country Club course.
So, yes the gold medal – and all-class gold — was good for sure but the icing on the cake for one of Nebraska’s all-time great distance runners? The Class A team title he got to share with his buddies.
“It was an amazing day,” Gonzalez said. “To run my race and then turn around and see my guys getting medals. To have four guys medal is so amazing. I am so proud of them.”
It was the fourth title in five years for coach Sean McMahon and the Tigers who lost to Omaha Creighton Prep in the tiebreaker last fall. They defeated conference mate Lincoln North Star 47-62 in the seven count five format for Class A. The two teams combined for seven of the top-nine spots in the Class A race.
“Our guys left it all out on the course,” McMahon said. “Our three and four runners (Michael Nichols and Jase Laday) are what set us apart. Our other guys didn’t let Juan and Noah carry us today. Michael runs an all-time PR on this course.”
The Tigers got a course personal best from the top-six runners on their team.
McMahon was also able to heap some praise to one of the state’s best ever.
“When he came in as a spit fire freshman, we had dominant seniors on our team that year,” the coach said. “He just ran fast and hung on without a care in the world. He didn’t even have to think about being a leader.
“These last two years, he has just been all in on the team. Last year when we lost, he’d have traded his gold medal. And, today, in our huddle he was talking and every single thing he said was about them, not a single word about himself.”
There was some history in the Class A girls race as well, when Kearney’s Abigail Burger (18:36.4) scored the first Bearcat female state title since 1998.
She actually fell down near the one-mile mark in a big group and was 17th, but moved up to 2nd after two miles with a lead group of 12 runners still all within six seconds of each other. A strong final mile gave her a four-second win over Millard West’s Kate Ebmeier. Ebmeier’s Cats, however, won the team title (54-93) over Lincoln Southwest by placing all seven runners in the top-25 of the team race. Millard West’s win was their fourth in school history.
CLASS B: Fittingly, the history makers in Class B were from both the Elkhorn North and Norris girls teams. After a runner-up finish in 2023, Elkhorn North caught three-time defending champion Norris for the team crown edging the Titans by six points in the team race.
“The best day we could imagine,” Wolves coach Jordan Fuglestad said. “We went through so many injuries and illness. Just up and down all year. It’s just the second time our group had run together this season.”
The Wolves medaled all six runners in the top-15 of the class to score 26 points to Norris’ 32. Sophomore Leah Robinson was second behind Norris defending champion Kendall Zavala.
“It’s really a crazy thing,” Fuglestad said of his team’s depth. “It was kind of forced to be learned this year. Their big thing all year has been we over me.”
Zavala, a Nebraska commit who also claimed the all-class gold, covered the course in 18:23.88 ahead of Robinson and teammate Atlee Wallman, who finished third. Zavala and Wallman are believed to be the only two frmale runners in Class B history to medal four times, in addition to being on a championship or runner-up team in each of those four years as well.
“We had to work our way up to get to Norris’ level,” Fuglestad said. “Norris has been great; they are still great. These girls have gotten better every year and we have been chasing them every year. We finally were able to get to the point we could compete with them.”
Gretna East’s Braden Lofquest had just enough to edge Hastings’ Austin Carrera in the Class B boys race. Lofquest was down for an extended time at the end of the race and nearly didn’t make the finish line. The recent Duke commit still had a four second advantage on Carrera who closed hard past Skutt’s Tommy Rice for second.
Led by Joseph Majerus (4th) and David Krier (5th), Lincoln Pius X won their 11th Class B team championship as they defeated Hastings. The Bolts had just 38 points in the team race.
CLASS C: Both races in Class C were the definition of team over star as the Holdrege boys and Auburn girls ran to team titles.
Holdrege won their fifth state championship in school history and first since 2017 when they upset favorites Gothenburg and Lincoln Christian. Gothenburg had edged the Dusters by two points at districts.
It took a deep team and consistency to get the job done. Freshman Sam McQuistan and sophomore Christopher Taylor earned medals as the Dusters scored 50 points in the team race. Five Duster runners were under 18 minutes and their fifth, non-scoring runner – Dominic Deaver – was across the line before Christian or Gothenburg’s fourth runner.
Christian’s Trevin Opp won the individual title in a masterful race with Milford’s Avery Carter and Gothenburg’s Tyler Hetz. The trio was well ahead of the pack with Hetz at a nearly seven second advantage at the two-mile mark. But, he was overcome in the final 500 meters and Opp (16:11.8) would win by 25 seconds over Carter as Hetz, with amazing determination, found the will to finish third when it appeared he may go down.
“It was a lot of fun racing against Avery and Tyler this year,” Opp said. “I felt pretty good most of the race and was confident in my training. It was a great day for our team as well.”
On the girls side, Arlington’s Hailey O’Daniel (19:26.1) won gold in a tight race with Scotus Central Catholic freshman Avery Heinrich, who led her team to a runner-up team finish.
It was the depth of Auburn that gave them their first state title since 1985 with cousins Liston and Olivia Crotty finishing 5th and 6th individually. The Bulldogs also had depth, getting all six runners in the top-35 of the team race.
Scotus (68 points), Gothenburg (70) and Minden (74) will return 16 of their 17 runners to next year’s teams.
CLASS D: Perkins County’s Mason McGreer and Elijah Goodell went 1-2 again for the Plainsmen, but this time the added fun was a team title. With the help of Brock Tines (25th) PC earned a tie in the team race with district mate North Platte St. Patrick (28-28) then won the fourth man tiebreak on Ethan Swesey’s finish ahead of the Irish.
McGreer and Goodell were in a pack at the 1-mile mark, but had set the pace by two miles with McGreer winning in 15:52.2, four seconds ahead of his teammate and just over 30 seconds ahead of Doniphan-Trumbull sophomore Kaser Johnson.
Youth was served over experience in the girls race as four freshmen were in the top-five including champion Kayleigh Betka of team champion McCool Junction. Crossing in 19:35.10, she beat Tri-County’s Sage Holtmeier by 16 seconds. They were the only two runners under 20 minutes in the race as the day warmed up.
Betka’s Mustangs – with sophomore Leah Dawson also medaling – topped newcomer Sandy Creek (31-42) for the team title. It was the Mustangs second title in school history after they also won the title in 2020.
Pender was a close third at 44 points. Sandy Creek freshman Madison Shaw was 5th in the individual race.
“(Our girls) are a lot of fun,” Mustang coach Ryan Underwood said. “They give me a hard time, I give them a hard time. These three girls that scored today have worked tremendously hard.
“Kayleigh came to our school in seventh grade and by random chance we were talking about going out for cross country and she had never thought of it before. She has fallen in love with the sport and has really taken off. It’s been a couple years in the making with them in junior high.”
Tony Chapman is a freelance writer based in Grand Island. He has written for multiple Nebraska daily and weekly newspapers. His weekly Harvest Sports Newsletter covers a wide variety of Nebraska prep sports.