Seth Krivohlavek

The final coaches' polls for Classes B, C and D have been released. Heading into Friday's State meet, here are the top-ranked teams: Class B Boys - North Platte, up from #2 last week Girls - Lincoln Pius Class C Boys - Lincoln Christian Girls - Adams Central, up from #2 last week Class D Boys - Doniphan-Trumbull Girls - Crofton The final Class A poll was issued last week and reflects Creighton Prep as the top-ranked boys' team and Millard West as the girls' favorite. To view the coaches’ polls for the entire year, as well as the Nerd individual rankings, go to preprunningnerd.com/rankings. Our final individual rankings will be issued tomorrow.

The final coaches' polls before District meets have been released for all four Classes. There are no new #1 teams but don't mistake that for a lack of competitive races. The Millard West girls remain atop the Class A girls' poll after winning Metros, but Omaha Marian and Papio South were closed behind. Elkhorn North finished 5th at Metros without points from its top two runners. Creighton Prep remains the unanimous #1 for the boys but Papio South was within fighting distance at Metros. One of Prep's top boys is injured but should return at State, giving them six top-25 competitors. Previously-unranked Kearney won a tight HAC battle over Lincoln East and Lincoln North Star, but the new poll reflects Kearney at #9, Lincoln East at #8 and Lincoln North Star at #6. Fremont remains at #3 after finishing 3rd in its first Metro meet. The Seward boys placed 6 in the top 14 at the tough Central conference meet and retain the top spot in Class B. North Platte moves from #3 to #2, trading places with Lincoln Pius. Pius won the Atlantic meet without its top runner. The Pius girls also raced at Atlantic on Thursday and 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 12 girls they entered in the JV race took the top 12 spots. #2 Seward won the Central conference title while #3 Gretna edged #7 Norris for the EMC title. The Lincoln Christian boys remain #1 in Class C after sweeping the top six spots in the Centennial conference race on Tuesday. #3 Gothenburg edged #2 Holdrege by 3 points at the SWC meet, but the Dusters did not have their second-best runner in the race. The Chase County girls placed 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11 at the SPVA meet on Thursday against mostly Class D competition. They remain #1 in Class C. Adams Central remains at #2 after finishing second behind Class B #2 Seward at the Central meet while #3 Gothenburg won the SWC meet by 3 points over #5 Minden. In Class D, the Doniphan-Trumbull boys remain the unanimous #1 after winning the LouPlatte title with finishers in 1, 3, 4 and 5. Cornerstone Christian remains 2nd after its top three boys finished together in first at the Frontier meet. Tri County sits in 3rd; they haven't competed since the UNK meet on 9/28. The D3 District meet at McCool Junction will include #1 Doniphan-Trumbull, #3 Tri County, #4 McCool Junction and #9 Freeman, plus an Elmwood-Murdock team that was ranked for the past two weeks after finish 7th at UNK. Finally, in Class D girls, Crofton was one vote shy of a unanimous #1. They narrowly lost to Class B #4 Wayne at the score-four MidState meet. Nebraska Christian won the Goldenrod meet with 10 in the top 15. 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. If you'd like to find out more about this season's team and individual rankings, visit our website at preprunningnerd.com/rankings. We'll publish another round of individual rankings tomorrow.