Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Nebraska State Meet featuring Kent McCrimmon from Concordia HS

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BONUS: Nebraska State Meet featuring Kent McCrimmon from Concordia HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
• 0:03
  In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
• 0:06
  understanding around the country, we're going to be
• 0:08
  running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
• 0:12
  school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
• 0:16
  DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
• 0:21
  state. We'll be talking with a local
• 0:23
  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
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  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
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  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
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  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
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  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
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  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
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  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  So check us out every day here at April and May of 2024 as we
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  run through each state with a local state expert.
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  So let's get started right now. OK, here we go.
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  We're continuing our March through the 50 states, you know,
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  51 because we're including you, Washington, DC And now we're
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  going, I mean, pretty smack in the middle of the country here.
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  We're going to Nebraska. I have promised today's guest I
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  will make 0 corn and Cornhusker jokes.
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  So we're just going to get straight into it.
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  Help me welcome representing the great state of Nebraska from
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  Concordia High School. Mr. Kent Mccrimmon.
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  Kent, how are you, Sir? And thank you again for stepping
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  up here for this great state. Yes, absolutely.
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  Appreciate the invite, Mike. Doing well and excited to be
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  here. Awesome, man.
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  Well, let's start with you. Why don't you give us a little
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  bit of a, you know, a 32nd, 30,000 foot level introduction
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  of yourself and your coaching history, if you will, in the
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  state of Nebraska? Yes.
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  So I I like to say that I ended up a track coach by accident.
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  So I ran a little track in high school and then I was a football
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  player. Played four years at Dome
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  University here in Nebraska. And then I didn't know what to
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  do after football. So I joined the track team,
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  loved it, found out I was better at track than I was at football.
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  And then after graduating, a friend of mine started.
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  He started out as the head coach at Concordia, invited beyond to
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  work with the sprinters. And if you stick around at one
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  place long enough, eventually it'll be your shot to to take
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  the rein. So I this is going to be my 7th
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  year at Concordia. Been doing sprints the whole
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  time. This will be my second year as
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  the head coach. But that's what I've been doing
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  the past past seven years is just working, working with
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  Sprinters in the last two years, overseeing the whole team.
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  That's awesome, man Doan, what a great school.
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  So bravo for you for going there.
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  That's amazing. All right, let's start diving
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  into Nebraska. Some states, can't they do a
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  separate organizing body for private schools and a separate
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  one for public? Most we're finding out, actually
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  privates and publics all compete under the same governing body.
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  Let's start there. What do we do in private and
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  public schools in Nebraska? Yes, all all together.
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  So it's all overseen by the NSAA, the Nebraska State
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  Athletics Association. So they they they run
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  everything. So yeah, private schools, public
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  schools all together. There's a couple like real real
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  small private schools that don't quite meet their requirements.
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  So they kind of they'll jump into some meets but they're not
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  able to like qualify for state and things like that.
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  But there's a real small schools, like 10 high school
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  students kind of thing. Yeah, perfect.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And that's the most common that
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  we're finding out here. OK, so let's talk about the
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  state system and qualifying. Let's start with how many
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  classes and what are they called do we have there?
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  Yes, we have four classes, but the biggest being Class A and
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  then it goes down for there, so class ABC and D So we just have
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  4 four classes for track and A is the large DS are smaller
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  schools. Yep, perfect.
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  I'm always interested. You know, we have a, AA, AAA,
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  ABCDI, love the different division, one division, two
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  division threes. I love that.
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  That's. Perfect.
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  Yeah, it's interesting. And yeah, I wonder, I wonder why
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  they're not all synced up because it gets confused and
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  trying to compare from state to state.
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  Yeah, I'm Class B. Well, I'm AAA.
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  I'm like, well, how do I compare to?
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  That what does that mean? Yeah, that doesn't mean anything
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  to me. All right, So the big goal is to
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  get to the Nebraska State meet throughout the country.
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  The first round is typically the regional sectionals, areas,
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  division. We have all these different
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  names for Nebraska. What's the first round that we
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  have as we work to qualify for state?
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  Yeah, so the the big meet for state is districts.
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  So each class has a certain number of districts based on how
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  big, how many schools are in each class.
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  So the biggest class, Class A, they have 4 districts.
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  Class B we have 6 districts Concordia, Work, Class B and
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  then Class. D There are 9 districts and then
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  Class C as nine as well. So a bunch of small schools out
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  here in Nebraska. Does it go district and then
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  state, or is there another round in between?
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  Yep. Just district.
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  Straight to state. All right, good.
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  Perfect. So let's talk about districts.
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  How many athletes can I put in per event?
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  Is it completely open? Do you put it down to only two?
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  What's my first getting into districts?
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  How many can I, as a coach, can start strategizing?
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  Yes, it's so three individual athletes per event and then just
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  one relay for for relays. All right, so I can do three
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  shot putters, 3 Millers, and if I have a fourth one, let's say
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  I've got 4 Millers who all run sub 410.
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  The 4th one's got to figure out the 800 or the two mile or
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  something else because I can only do three no matter what
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  time my athletes might run. Yep.
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  OK, so then I get to districts and there's three athletes per
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  event for all the different schools.
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  Where do I have to place to get to state?
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  What am I trying to get after? Yeah, so it's going to be the.
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  So for Class B and Class A, it's the top three, and each event
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  are automatically qualified for state regardless of, you know,
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  whatever that mark is. And then there are at large, so
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  each each class are there's 24 that qualify for state in each
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  event except for the relays there will be 16 teams that go
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  in for the relay. So it's so individual events top
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  three plus there's some at large times after that which usually
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  ends up being you 6 athletes that are competing kind of for
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  those last six spots. Is that based on a time that is
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  calculated on previous year state need or or what?
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  No. So that's just so it's like next
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  six fastest times. So it's kind of at large.
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  So after those first eighteen automatically qualify just the
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  next six fastest times and it's just those times that were ran
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  at districts got it. So not a time that you can also
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  qualify to the state meet. If you're outside of the top
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  three, this is a hey, we have our top three and then out of
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  all the four through, let's call it eighth places around the
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  state, the next six fastest or far that you know depending on
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  the event will go to the state meet.
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  Yep. Got it.
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  Exactly. No time qualifiers?
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  No. No this the the only two
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  outliers will be our high jump and pole vaults.
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  So those are you can qualify for high jump and pole vaults.
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  So in addition to the top three from each district then you have
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  the whatever the 8th place mark was the the previous year at
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  state. If you hit that at districts,
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  then you go to state as well. Except for pole vault, they do
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  have a a minimum. So it's for guys you have to hit
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  9 feet 6 inches and girls 6 feet 6 inches.
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  So if it's in a yeah, abnormally shallow season, they're not.
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  They're not throwing people in there that aren't at least in
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  those heights. OK.
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  So let me say that back. For your for most of your
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  events, it's top three automatically.
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  You're going to state and then out of all the the districts the
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  next 6 farthest or fastest times except for in the high jump.
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  There is a minimum mark so top three are automatically going to
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  the state meet. But then there's also this based
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  on 8th place of the state meet before.
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  So if I get, if I get 8th at Districts, but I hit this this
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  mark in the high jump, I'm going to state so I can have, you know
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  conceivably 50 kids. Yep.
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  The, the math probably doesn't math there with the districts,
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  but you you know what I'm saying?
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  Yeah, yes, everybody had districts.
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  Yeah, everybody in districts could technically hit the
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  minimum mark and then everybody's going, OK, perfect.
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  In pole vault we have the same thing except for.
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  We do have a minimum mark for that.
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  Yep, perfect. Love it in relays.
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  How many relays are going per event?
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  Per district, yeah. So it's top, Yep.
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  So it's top two from each district, and then it's the next
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  four fastest times after that. So same thing next four.
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  Out of the four 3rd through 8th places, the next four fastest
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  relays are going to go perfect. Yes.
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  So talk to us about the state meet.
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  Is the state meet always held at the same venue?
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  Is it a college venue, high school venue?
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  How many days is the meet? Let's talk about that.
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  Yeah, so it's been at as long as I know at so Burke High School
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  here in Omaha, NE. And so I mean it works out for
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  us Omaha schools, we got a nice short travel but we got people
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  coming from across the state doing 8 hour drives coming in
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  for the state beat. So I'm not going to complain
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  about the location, but some other, some other people might
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  not like it. They have a great facility and
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  it's yeah they have awesome stadium, nice track and so they
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  could. It's as far as venues go, I
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  think is the, you know, the best one available to us where we can
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  pack in a bunch of people to to be there and support.
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  All four classes are held same weekend.
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  At Burke, yes. Yep.
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  So we it's so state is over the course of four days.
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  So you have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and it's sorry
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  that's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
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  That was going to be a follow up question by the way, yes.
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  Yeah, I was like, I was like, no, they don't know.
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  It's not on Sunday and that's so.
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  Two day meets for all classes. So ABCD have a two day meet and
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  usually it's classes A&B are kind of the same two days
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  together. So this year we were Wednesday,
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  Thursday and then classes C&D were Friday, Saturday and that
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  that does that does change from year to year.
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  Sometimes they they stagger them differently.
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  So four day total state meet but inside your Class 2 day state
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  meet. Yes, exactly.
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  You said in it's been in Burke for how long and is and is that
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  kind of been the the place as long as you know, Yeah. 1010
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  plus years, at least. So I yeah, I believe somebody
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  just told me. I think they used to do it
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  somewhere else before. Before I was in Nebraska.
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  I know what was going on, but that's where it's been for a
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  good chunk of time. And then you got to Nebraska and
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  they're like, you know what, Kent lives in Omaha.
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  Just keep it there. Yeah, let's keep it.
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  Yeah, let's keep it close. Makes sense.
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  Makes sense. A lot of states. more than I
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  would have guessed actually, which is a positive.
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  I love this. Are adding adapted unified
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  wheelchair events their state meet anything like that?
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  Yes, we do have a a unified state meet and so they yeah,
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  they do that at districts and then they have that one one of
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  the mornings where they'll run unified events.
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  I love it. I love it.
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  I, I, I I would not have guessed that many states but it's we're
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  we're batting a lot a high percentage.
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  I love that. So we have 4 state champion
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  boys, 100 meter runners and we have 4 girls 100 meter state
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  champions. Some states, some officially and
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  some unofficially. A week or so after the state
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  meet will hold like a meet of champions where we you know, we
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  line up and find out the air quotes here.
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  True state champion. Anything like that in Nebraska?
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  Nothing official, no unofficial. So I mean, no, not.
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  I mean, so, so a lot of kids, they run club track and so
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  they're, you know, they're competing against each other
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  shortly, shortly after. So you know that for bragging
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  rights at least, but. Nah, nobody.
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  Nobody that's branded it unofficially yet.
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  No one's, no one's running a meet where, hey, we invite the
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  top two for me or anything like that.
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  Yeah. OK, All right, perfect.
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  OK, let's talk about your events.
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  You know, the, the awkward way to ask this question is, well,
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  what's what unique events are you doing in Nebraska?
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  But they're not unique to you. So we're going to kind of go by
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  groupings here. So we can assume you're doing
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  the 102 hundred 400 and 800. What?
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  What are you doing in the 1632? Are you doing 1632?
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  Mile two, Mile fifteen, 3000. What are you doing there?
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  Yep, 1632. And that's the most common.
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  We're doing the 110 highs and the 100 highs for boys and
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  girls. Yes, we're doing 300 hurdles.
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  Yes, all right. On the relays, we know you're
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  doing the four by one and four by four insert the same joke
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  you've heard. If you've listened to every one
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  of these, you've heard the exact same joke.
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  We know they're doing the four by one and the four by four,
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  because if you're not, you're not really doing track, which
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  means you wouldn't be on this podcast any other relays besides
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  those two traditionals 4 by 1 and 4 by 4.
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  We do have the four by 8 kicks off every meet.
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  Kicks off every meet. That's awesome. 4 by 8 is not.
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  I thought 4 by 8 was every state.
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  It is not every state, so that's still unique.
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  But we're not doing any four by twos or or medley relays
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  anything like that at the state meet.
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  Not not at the state meets, no. They just added four by two
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  mixed as something you can do like officially at meets
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  throughout the year, but it's not at the state meet but
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  potentially coming. Hopefully it'll be fun if we had
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  in the future. Hold on now, that's unique.
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  Four by two mix. Are you saying two boys, 2
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  girls? Yes, Yep, and not an official
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  event yet for the state meet, but you can run it at your
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  invites and duels and what have you.
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  Yes, Yep. Interesting in the Yeah.
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  So yeah. And they just added it in this
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  year and I think kind of seeing what they've been doing at with
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  some of these top class sprinters where they've been
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  running it and I think it seems like people are really enjoying
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  that. So they said hey, it's you can
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  you can run it at your meets if you want to.
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  We just this last year we just had at one meet, which was fun
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  to see, but I imagine it'll start getting trickled in a
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  little bit more down the road. Is the idea to maybe make this a
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  state event? You know, I don't, I don't know
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  if that's the goal. I think right now it's just an
• 14:07
  extra event maybe. And I I presume that probably
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  early meets in the year are part of the meets that are people
• 14:13
  going to be doing it where, you know, people are just trying to
• 14:15
  get people in races get sometimes down before people are
• 14:19
  trying to really hold in on what they're going to focus on for
• 14:21
  state. I originally was against the
• 14:24
  idea of mixed relays for where there's a team title because
• 14:27
  it's like, well, how do you. Sure split the points.
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  But then I started thinking, well, let's not over complicate
• 14:31
  this. Maybe you just split the the
• 14:32
  points. Half goes, yeah, yeah, I don't
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  know. Anyway, that's cool.
• 14:35
  Yeah, yeah, I love that number. That's the first we've heard
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  that of a state so far that's experimenting with it at least.
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  So I appreciate that. OK, let's keep going.
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  We have long jump and triple jump.
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  Yes, shot put and discus. Yes, we already mentioned pole
• 14:49
  vault and high jump. Anything else?
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  Hammer throw, Steeple. Javelin, Multi combined events?
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  Anything else? Nope, none of those.
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  Some states will do some of these.
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  Those unique events as an unofficial state meet again a
• 15:05
  week or two later. Anything in Nebraska and
• 15:08
  unofficial combined events state meet or anything like that?
• 15:12
  No, nothing official. OK.
• 15:15
  Yeah. All right.
• 15:15
  Before we head into a couple of fun questions, anything that we
• 15:19
  might have missed with Nebraska, anything that's unique, which is
• 15:21
  hard because it's not unique to you, you just do it.
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  But anything unique or anything special that I should have asked
• 15:26
  or that we should know about Nebraska outdoor track?
• 15:30
  You know, nothing I can. Nothing I can think of.
• 15:32
  I think we, yeah, cover all the details, but nothing to at
• 15:35
  least, yeah, nothing to me that seems unique to us.
• 15:38
  When I think of Nebraska, I think of traditional.
• 15:40
  And so you've hit it. This is very traditional track
• 15:43
  and field, although the mixed read that's not traditional at
• 15:45
  all. So I love that.
• 15:47
  All right. Let's settle a little bit of an
• 15:48
  argument here, Kent. All around the country when you
• 15:52
  qualify for the final meet, you everybody says it a little
• 15:56
  differently. Some people say they're
• 15:57
  qualifying for the state meet they're going to state.
• 16:00
  Some say they're going to states, At least in your realm
• 16:04
  of the world and your culture, what are you guys trying to
• 16:06
  qualify for? How do you say it?
• 16:08
  Yeah, we're trying to go to state.
• 16:09
  We're going to state singular no S.
• 16:12
  No, S yeah, we're just, we're trying to go to State.
• 16:14
  It's a very emotional topic. That's why we had to put this in
• 16:17
  one of these State podcasts. I love it.
• 16:19
  Well, Kit, man, you have been awesome.
• 16:21
  I'm very grateful for your leadership and stepping up here
• 16:24
  for Nebraska. Due to that, I'm going to give
• 16:26
  you an award here. You're going to get the mythical
• 16:29
  magic wand here. If you could change one, and I
• 16:32
  always remind just one, if you could change one thing in your
• 16:35
  opinion that would benefit the high school Nebraska State Meet
• 16:40
  series, what would it be? Yes, I wish there was some
• 16:46
  Fordham of like auto qualify mark that people could hit at
• 16:49
  like official varsity meets throughout the year that would
• 16:53
  give them a chance to go to state.
• 16:55
  And you know, that could be based on like last year's
• 16:57
  qualifier times or something like that.
• 16:59
  But you know, yeah, some of these kids that are so talented
• 17:02
  putting up some of the best numbers of the year and, you
• 17:04
  know, you come out at districts, you drop a baton, you know?
• 17:08
  So you you roll your ankle on long jump and now you got the
• 17:11
  you know I think the goal state is you want the best athletes
• 17:14
  competing together against each other seeing those top marks but
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  if you know it's it's it's too easy to miss out on some of
• 17:20
  those top competitors to get to state.
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  So you know you got somebody who's running 12 flat in the
• 17:25
  girls hundred said hey you know they should just they should get
• 17:27
  that auto auto qualify mark get them to state that is the most
• 17:32
  common usage of the magic wand. I think there is this great
• 17:36
  battle and I don't think it's insight of in every individual
• 17:39
  state. It's also encompasses NCAA.
• 17:42
  There's always a lot of discussions there as well of how
• 17:44
  do we get the best how do we make sure the best people are at
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  the final meet for that's the state meet national championship
• 17:49
  etcetera. One way or the other how do we
• 17:52
  get them there and not let a false start or drop baton stop
• 17:56
  the fans from seeing the. Top of the top.
• 17:59
  So I appreciate that, Kent. Thank you so much, man.
• 18:02
  You know we are barreling down the road continuing these 51,
• 18:06
  the state's meets, not 51 states, 51 state meets I guess,
• 18:09
  right DC target, all of we should just have you as a state
• 18:12
  here. But so thankful for you here in
• 18:15
  Nebraska and really grateful for what you guys do there in the
• 18:18
  state of Nebraska. And join us tomorrow.
• 18:20
  We're doing this every day. Join us tomorrow as we go to the
• 18:22
  next state in capital order and alphabetical order.
• 18:26
  We're just going to keep rolling.
• 18:27
  So thanks for being here today guys.
• 18:28
  Talk to you tomorrow. Awesome.
• 18:30
  Thanks, Mike.