LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA RULES AND REGULATIONS
Title:

Number of Individual State Qualifiers for Cross Country

Author:Landon Bloedorn
School:Wisner-Pilger
NSAA District:3
 
Proposal for:Activities Manual
 
Classes Affected:Class C
Class D
Activities Affected:Boys Cross-Country
Girls Cross-Country
This proposal:WILL increase costs to the school
WILL increase costs to the NSAA
WILL increase travel for participating schools
WILL decrease a student's or coach's instruction time
Implementation date:2026-08-01
Sections affected in Activities Manual:Page
15
Article
State Championship Qualifiers
Section
1.2
Summary:This proposal states that at the district cross country meets for Classes C and D, if the number of top-15 individuals who are NOT on state-qualifying teams is less than 10, the next fastest individuals would qualify for the state meet until reaching 10 individuals not already on a state-qualifying team. If there are instances where 4 or more (3 or more in class D) individuals from a non-qualifying team qualify, they would run as individuals at state and would not score as a team. Only the top 3 teams from each district would be eligible to score as a team, as is done currently.
Rationale:In many cross country districts, it is difficult for individuals to qualify for the state meet if they are not on one of the qualifying teams, especially in districts with dominant teams. In 2025, even in classes C and D where only 6 and 5 athletes respectively are allowed to run on each team, half of district races (boys and girls) had six or less individual qualifiers, with several districts having as few as 4 individual qualifiers. That number was 73% in 2024, and there were similar numbers in 2023. This change would allow for runners who are not on a strong team to have a better opportunity to qualify for the state meet. This is especially relevant to Classes C and D who are divided into districts geographically rather than serpentined by time (which would be difficult due to the variance of courses and terrain across the state). The geographical distribution often results in several high-quality teams participating in the same district. The increase in numbers would still be manageable at the state meet. In 2025, the number of runners in the C and D state races ranged from 118-131, while the UNK meet held earlier in the year on the same course had races up to 340 people, so even with the addition of these extra runners, each race should still be a manageable number.

If applied to the 2025 State Meet the increase in numbers would be:

Class C Girls: +22
Class C Boys: +18
Class D Girls: +19
Class D Boys: +29
Pros:Lessens impact on top individuals in districts with powerhouse teams. Ensures that fewer top-quality individuals are left at home. More similar to NCAA qualifying procedures
Cons:Schools may have to pay for hotel rooms for additional qualifiers.