Belen Jesuit was second of 40 teams at the Great American XC Festival and leads Class 3A, Ponte Vedra beat Vanguard at Speziale and moves to second, and Fort Myers won the flrunners.com Race of Champions.
Florida Class 3A boys cross country team rankings through seven weeks: August 21-October 3, 2026
Belen Jesuit was second of 40 teams in the COROS Race of Champions at the Great American XC Festival in North Carolina with 117, and Marcelo Mantecon won it. Belen's second seven won the Red Invitational at the same meet. First, by a long way.
Ponte Vedra beat Vanguard 26 to 29 at its own Craig Speziale Invitational, Luke Ross winning by 40 seconds, and moves to second. Fort Myers won the flrunners.com Race of Champions with 86, 25 points ahead of Tavares, with Chiles fourth, Lincoln sixth and Osceola seventh. Lincoln comes into the ten.
A team is ranked on its whole season, with the most recent race counting most, and a meet it won never counts against it. A team that sat out the weekend is not marked down for it. The virtual race behind these scores contains only Class 3A teams, so a team's place here and on the statewide list can differ. As always, this is data plus judgment, and we will miss somebody along the way. A (P) beside a team means it has not put its returning five on a starting line and is entered on what they ran last November. How we sorted it out is at the bottom.
About the times. The average on each line is the converted season figure the scoring uses, in Cecil Field terms, and so are the times beside each runner's name. Times in the write-ups are what the kids actually ran that day; the race log for every runner is on the rankings page.
The statewide lists: Week 7 boys team top 10 and Week 7 girls team top 10. The 3A boys individuals are here, and last week’s edition of this list is here. The other classes this week: 3A girls, 1A boys, 2A boys, 4A boys.
1. Belen Jesuit (Miami): 57 points
Converted average 15:47.6 · 1-5 spread 1:27.6 · finished 1-3-5-17-31 in the class · This week: 2nd of 40 at the Great American XC Festival (117).
Marcelo Mantecon 15:06.4; Armando Cruz 15:21.1; Jack Michalak 15:38.8; Nicholas Veloso 16:17.9; Dominic De Armas 16:34.0.
Second of 40 in the Great American Race of Champions with 117: Mantecon first in 14:35.9, Armando Cruz sixth, Jack Michalak 19th, Nicholas Veloso 55th. The next seven won the Red Invitational with 129. First.
2. Ponte Vedra: 202 points
Converted average 16:45.0 · 1-5 spread 1:28.0 · finished 6-36-38-48-74 in the class · This week: 1st of 11 at the Craig Speziale Invitational (26).
Luke Ross 15:54.5; Aiden Killoran 16:45.0; Colin Bovee 16:46.6; Logan Hunt 16:56.3; Jasper Graham 17:22.5.
Won the Craig Speziale Invitational on Saturday with 26, three points ahead of Vanguard: Ross first by 40 seconds, Aiden Killoran third, Colin Bovee fifth, Logan Hunt seventh. Second, directly above the team it beat.
3. Vanguard (Ocala): 169 points
Converted average 16:36.9 · 1-5 spread 0:57.9 · finished 22-23-24-28-72 in the class · This week: 2nd of 11 at the Craig Speziale Invitational (29).
Trevor Berquist 16:22.9; Jacob Rogers 16:24.2; Lachlan Bryniarski 16:27.0; Christopher Taylor 16:29.6; Cooper Gumpert 17:20.8.
Second at Speziale with 29. Christopher Taylor, Jacob Rogers, Lachlan Bryniarski and Trevor Berquist were second, fourth, sixth and eighth. The front four are seven seconds apart on the season. Third.
4. Fort Myers: 201 points
Converted average 16:38.5 · 1-5 spread 1:58.3 · finished 4-18-27-67-85 in the class · This week: 1st of 17 at the flrunners.com Invitational (86).
Reed Hagen 15:33.9; Trae Britton 16:20.0; Noah Lefko 16:27.9; Elijah Brown 17:18.5; Brock Jackson 17:32.2.
Won the flrunners.com Race of Champions on Saturday with 86, ahead of Tavares, Calvary Christian, Chiles and Naples; Noah Lefko and Trae Britton were 11th and 12th, and Reed Hagen 16th. Won the North Port Invite on September 19. Fourth.
5. Leon (Tallahassee): 294 points
Converted average 16:58.7 · 1-5 spread 1:45.1 · finished 13-30-42-68-141 in the class
Isaiah Renn 16:13.4; Carson Weiss 16:33.9; Asher McGrew 16:49.0; Andrew Barnes 17:18.5; Sam Ito 17:58.5.
Won the St. John Paul II Panther Invite on September 26 with 15, Isaiah Renn first in 16:20.1. Fifth.
Recovery
What the travel teams sit in after a big meet.
Belen flew to North Carolina and raced the next morning. Hyperice Normatec 3 compression boots are what you see in college training rooms after a race like that: air pressure that squeezes from the feet up while you sit, seven levels, and a Bluetooth app for presets.
Check price on AmazonAs an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
6. Tavares: 308 points
Converted average 16:59.7 · 1-5 spread 2:00.1 · finished 10-44-47-52-155 in the class · This week: 2nd of 17 at the flrunners.com Invitational (111).
Liam Ilea 16:04.9; Navid Lozano 16:52.4; Nicholas Alvarez 16:56.3; Emiliano Lozano 16:59.9; Eric Chen 18:05.0.
Second in the flrunners.com Race of Champions on Saturday with 111, behind Fort Myers; Liam Ilea was second individually in 16:14.2. Won the Weeki Wachee Invitational on September 26 with 19. Sixth.
7. Chiles (Tallahassee): 485 points
Converted average 17:24.7 · 1-5 spread 2:23.4 · finished 14-45-84-119-223 in the class · This week: 4th of 17 at the flrunners.com Invitational (179).
Jonathan Kiros 16:13.7; Jack Nottingham 16:53.2; Emerson Gandy 17:30.7; Noah Olson 17:48.9; Camp Andrews 18:37.0.
Fourth in the flrunners.com Race of Champions with 179, ahead of Lincoln and Osceola. Jonathan Kiros was fifth individually and Jack Nottingham is the No. 2. Seventh.
8. Lincoln (Tallahassee): 509 points
Converted average 17:39.8 · 1-5 spread 0:25.3 · finished 81-86-89-123-130 in the class · This week: 6th of 17 at the flrunners.com Invitational (212).
Stokes Bryan 17:28.6; Bryan Duff 17:32.3; Trent Parsons 17:33.6; Emari Thomas 17:50.6; Oliver Trager 17:53.9.
Won the Tift Invitational in Georgia on September 26 with 53 against 19 teams, then was sixth in the flrunners.com Race of Champions on Saturday with 212, ahead of Osceola. The tightest five in the ten: 25 seconds from first to fifth. New to the ten.
9. Osceola (Seminole): 425 points
Converted average 17:23.4 · 1-5 spread 1:07.7 · finished 39-53-65-133-135 in the class · This week: 7th of 17 at the flrunners.com Invitational (220).
Spencer Mehltretter 16:48.3; Sebastian Laviano 17:02.2; Duncan Mehltretter 17:16.0; Stone Gildner 17:54.4; Landen Whiteley 17:56.0.
Seventh in the flrunners.com Race of Champions with 220, behind Chiles and Lincoln. Won the Todd Howsare Memorial on September 26 and the Mitchell Mustang Invite on September 19. Ninth, behind the two teams that beat it Saturday.
10. Fleming Island: 443 points
Converted average 17:18.0 · 1-5 spread 1:48.0 · finished 20-26-77-156-164 in the class
JP Strombeck 16:21.6; Luke Janke 16:27.6; Ryder Muyres 17:26.0; Jack Loehr 18:05.3; Andrew Lou 18:09.6.
Did not race. Third at Bale-N-Trail on September 26 with 100, behind Bolles and Creekside, with JP Strombeck winning the Elite race. Tenth.
Just missed
Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) ran the Nike XC Town Twilight Race of Champions in Indiana on Saturday, 41st of 44 with 1009, Ethan Reid first for it in 16:27.9 on a course we cannot price; its varsity was 10th at Bale-N-Trail without its No. 1, Dayne Kimball, and that race is not held against it. St. Augustine was fifth at Bale-N-Trail. Rockledge was fifth at Harmony on Saturday, where Brody Johnson won.
Where the virtual race disagrees with this list
- Ponte Vedra over Vanguard: 1st and 2nd at the Craig Speziale Invitational, and neither has raced its top runners since.
- Chiles over Osceola: 4th and 7th at the flrunners.com Invitational, and neither has raced its top runners since.
- Lincoln over Osceola: 6th and 7th at the flrunners.com Invitational, and neither has raced its top runners since.
Reader supported
Free to read, no paywall. Every Class 3A boys team race this season went into this list, and every team result was checked by hand. If it helps your team, you can buy us a coffee.
How we ranked them
- Every mark is converted to a Cecil Field equivalent through the runners who ran both that course and last year's state meet.
- Each runner is scored on his whole season, weighted toward the most recent race: this week counts seven times, last week six, and so on back to opening weekend, which counts once. A race he won never lowers that figure, and a meet a team won never lowers the team's. A school's five best runners on that basis are its team.
- Those five, with a sixth and seventh where they exist, go into one virtual race against every other Class 3A team, scored the way cross country is scored. 118 3A boys teams cleared the bar; 0 of them are projections. Points climb as more teams enter and are not comparable to last week's; compare the order.
- Where two teams in this class have raced each other with at least three of their scoring seven, the team that won ranks ahead of the team it beat until they meet again. Where results go round in a circle, the newest meeting decides. A race run without a team's No. 1 or without two of its scoring five is not held against it.
- New this week: results from September 12 and earlier no longer order teams. The times still count in the figures.
- A team whose returning five have not raced is entered on last November's state times and marked (P).
- Classes are 2026-27, resolved against the FHSAA classification documents.
- Bishop Kenny's Bale-N-Trail losses to St. Augustine and Fleming Island do not order the teams: Kenny ran without its No. 1 (Darrin, September 29).
Every result behind this list is in the rankings section, and the full weekend is in the weekend recap.
Logos: Belen Jesuit Preparatory School; Ponte Vedra High School; Vanguard High School. Card art: Run Florida Run.