Contributor: The Nerd
The Platte River Rumble cross country meets are among the largest in the state and they're held at Mahoney State Park. Those two factors will make for exciting moments this Wednesday (junior high) and Thursday (high school), but they also add some complexity. If you're expecting to pull up to the meet ten minutes before the start and find a piece of grass for parking -- well, that's not going to work this week.
The website for the event is https://omahasports.org/platte-river-rumble-high-school. Here are the details.
Junior high meet, 9/11
Race times are 4:00 for the girls 3k and 4:40 for the boys 3k.
There are 25 junior high teams competing on Wednesday, September 11. They are: Ashland Greenwood, Aspen Creek, Bennington South, Columbus Lakeview, Council Bluffs Kirn, Crete, Elmwood Murdock, Freeman, Gretna, Harry Andersen, LaVista, Liberty, Lincoln Lutheran, Norris, Omaha Westside, Papillion, Plattsmouth, Scotus Central, St. Columbkille, St. James, St. Stephen, St. Wenceslaus, Syracuse and Waverly.
This meet should help us identify the eastern Nebraska kids who will be in contention for the State Junior High meet held on October 12th at Papio South. We expect to see Emily Hegge competing for Papillion Middle School; as a 7th-grader at last year's State meet she finished 0.27 seconds from the title, finishing behind Scout Bell (ranked in the top-ten in Class C this year for Gothenburg) and ahead of Mabel Henningsen (top-10 ranking in Class A for Marian).
Parking for the middle school meet is ON SITE at Mahoney State Park but YOU MUST PURCHASE YOUR PARKING TICKET IN ADVANCE. The parking costs $15.00 per car and includes the State Park entry permit and a trolley ride from the parking area to the start line. The link for the middle school meet (this is not the high school link) is https://apps.omahasports.org/upcoming-events?EV=255.
High school meet, 9/12
Here's the biggest detail: PARKING MUST BE PREPAID AND YOU HAVE TWO OPTIONS. The VIP experience costs $40 per car and includes on-site parking and a trolley ride to the start line. Most spectators will opt for the cheaper option - parking at the Gretna outlet mall and paying $5 per person for a shuttle ride to the start line. YOU MUST PURCHASE PARKING/SHUTTLE TICKETS IN ADVANCE AT THIS WEBSITE FOR BOTH OPTIONS: https://apps.omahasports.org/upcoming-events?EV=244
The high school meet offers six races: boys and girls large school varsity, boys and girls small school, and boys and girls open. The open races are mostly an overflow race for JV runners, especially for huge teams like Creighton Prep, Millard West, Duchesne and Omaha Marian.
Race times are:
8:30 Large school varsity boys
9:05 Large school varsity girls
9:45 Open boys
10:30 Open girls
11:20 Small school boys
12:05 Small school girls
There are 22 large school teams: Abraham Lincoln, Creighton Prep, Duchesne, Elkhorn North, Gretna, Lawrence Free State (KS), Lincoln East, Lincoln Pius, Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln Southwest, Millard North, Millard South, Millard West, Mount Michael, Norris, Omaha Burke, Omaha Marian, Omaha North, Omaha Northwest, Westside, Omaha Westview and Papio South.
There are 26 small school teams: Ashland Greenwood, Blair, Brownell Talbot, Columbus Lakeview, Crete, DC West, Doniphan-Trumbull, Elmwood-Murdock, Fort Calhoun, Freeman, Glenwood, Gretna East, Holdrege, Lincoln Christian, Lincoln Lutheran, Lincoln Northwest, North Platte St. Pat's, Omaha Gross, Roncalli, Plattsmouth, Ralston, Scotus Central, Standing Bear, Syracuse, Waverly and Yutan.
The large school division is designed for Class A schools but other schools can opt up, so we'll see a mix of Class A and B schools in those races. Key matchups to watch:
The Norris, Elkhorn North and Duchesne girls match up to see who has the edge in Class B. Norris edged Elkhorn North in the opening meet of the season, but we've yet to see Class B #2 Ella Ford and Jenna Polking line up for Elkhorn North. Jenna is expected to be out a few more weeks but we might see Ella's season debut.
The large school girls individual title hunt should be excited. We should see Class B #1 Kendall Zavala and #4 Atlee Wallman of Norris, Class A #1 Kate Ebmeier of Millard West plus #13 Sadie Osher and #15 Litzey Fredette, Class A #10 Silvy Munn and #5 Meredith Marsh (among others) from Lincoln Southwest, Class A #7 Mabel Henningsen of Marian, Class A #4 Abbi Durow of Millard South, and Class B #7 Leah Robinson of Elkhorn North.
The Doniphan-Trumbull, NP St. Pat's and Freeman boys teams include five ranked runners in Class D, and Doniphan-Trumbull and St. Pat's are top contenders for the Class D title this fall.
While we don't have top-ranked Juan Gonzalez and his top-ranked Fremont team in the field, we do get to watch some tough boys teams face off in the large school race: Class A teams Millard West, Papio South, Millard North, Westside, Lincoln Southwest and Lincoln East, plus Class B title contenders Lincoln Pius and Mount Michael. There should be about 15 boys ranked in Class A and B in that race. At this point Gretna East appears to be registered in the small school race, so it's unclear whether Class B #1 Braden Lofquest will face off against these other ranked athletes.
We hope to have at least one Nerd shooting the junior high meet and up to two Nerds shooting the high school meet. Given how large the meets are, you'll have to give us four or five days to get all of the photos edited.
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First published at www.preprunningnerd.com by Jay Slagle on September 9, 2024. If you find an error, shoot us an e-mail at jayslagle@hotmail.com and we'll get it fixed.
Like this coverage of the Nebraska cross country scene? There's more of this at www.preprunningnerd.com. Check out the Blog tab for our frequent stories and 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 quadrapalegic after a swimming accident.
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