How are these Florida boys team rankings calculated?

Every runner is scored on his whole season, with his best converted mark from each week averaged and the most recent week weighted highest: week three counts three times, week two twice, week one once. A race a runner won, or a meet a team won, is never allowed to lower that figure. Each school's five best runners on that basis go into one virtual race with every other school's, scored by standard cross country rules. Where two ranked teams raced each other this week, the result on the grass orders them.

Who is the No. 1 boys cross country team in Florida?

Belen Jesuit, which won the 75-team Florida Horse Park Invitational on September 5 with 63 points. Marcelo Mantecon and Armando Cruz went 1-2 and the next three Belen runners were all inside 16:25. Second place scored 231. Their Cecil Field win, a 15:54.4 average, is the only sub-16:00 team figure in Florida.

Why did Lake Minneola drop from fifth to eighteenth?

Their 16:23 converted average from Cecil Field was the second-best in the state two weeks ago, but at the Horse Park they finished ninth with 372 points, with a 2:59 spread from first to fifth. Under the season weighting the Horse Park run counts three times as much as the Cecil run.

Why is Gulliver Prep ranked ahead of Doral Academy when Doral has a better average?

The two tied on 282 points at the Horse Park and Gulliver won the sixth-runner tiebreak. A head-to-head result orders teams that met this week, and a tiebreak is a result. It is the placement on the list we trust least.

Where would IMG Academy rank if it were an FHSAA member?

Second. IMG won its own Summit Challenge with 16 points behind Fletcher Rodbro's 14:54.0 and James Pfuhl's 15:37.4, a converted average of 15:53.8 that lands within a few points of Belen Jesuit in the virtual race. On one race in a six-team field, against a Belen team that has won two deep races, we would put them second. IMG is not an FHSAA member, so its team is named but not scored.

Week 3 Boys Team Top 10: Florida Cross Country Rankings

Florida boys cross country team rankings, through three weeks: August 21-September 5, 2026

Belen Jesuit took its full lineup to the Florida Horse Park on Saturday and won the 75-team race with 63 points. Second place scored 231. Marcelo Mantecon and Armando Cruz went 1-2, the next three Belen boys were all inside 16:25, and the gap to the rest of the state is as wide as it was on opening night. Nothing about the top of this list has been interesting for three weeks, and that is Belen's doing.

Underneath, the week did what we hoped it would. Flagler Palm Coast, Bolles, Lake Minneola, Vanguard, Doral Academy, Newsome, Gulliver Prep, Ponte Vedra and Creekside all ran the Horse Park in the same race, Niceville won again in the panhandle, Hagerty won at DeLand and St. Cloud won at home. For the first time this season most of the top fifteen has a head-to-head result against the others.

One change in how this list is built. Through two weeks a team was scored on its single best meet. From here on every runner is scored on his whole season, with the most recent race counting most: this week three times, last week twice, opening weekend once. A school's five best runners on that basis go into one virtual race with every other school's, scored the way cross country is scored. Top five count, sixth and seventh displace, five finishers required, low score wins. A meet a team won is never allowed to lower its figure. And where two teams raced each other this week, the result on the grass orders them. Lake Minneola's 16:23 average from Cecil Field was the second-best in Florida two weeks ago; on Saturday they were ninth at the Horse Park, and the season now says 18th. That is the biggest change on the page and the fairest one.

Points climb every week as more teams enter and are not comparable to last week's; compare the order and the averages. The averages below are converted season figures; the times next to each runner are what he actually ran. Out-of-state entries are excluded, and IMG Academy is not an FHSAA member; there is a word on them at the bottom. The boys individual top 10 is here, and the girls' team rankings are here.

1. Belen Jesuit, 3A: 120 points

Horse Park, 63 points out of 75 teams: Mantecon 15:22.1, Cruz 15:24.4, Jack Michalak 16:13.8, Davi Bodoh 16:16.9, Dominic De Armas 16:24.8. Two races, two wins, and the Cecil Field run, where Cruz went 15:06.0, Michalak 15:47.0 and Liam Salom 15:54.0, is the one that ranks them: a 15:54.4 average, still the only team in Florida under 16:00. The Horse Park win is left out for the plain reason that a win never lowers a team's figure. They also sent a second squad to the Pine Crest meet on August 28 and finished second there to Doral Academy. Depth is not the word. They have two lineups.

2. Nease, 4A: 189 points

Cecil Field, 16:09.8, on a 0:55 spread: Rishi Chopra 15:39.0, Matthew Ishee 15:54.0, Gideon Churchill 16:20.0, Joseph Morley 16:22.0, Colin Lasota 16:34.0. They did not race in week three, so the Cecil run is still their whole season, and it is a better number than anything anybody but Belen has produced since. Second on one race, run fifteen days ago. They need to run again.

3. Flagler Palm Coast, 4A: 504 points

Second at the Horse Park with 231, six points ahead of Bolles: Douglas Seth 15:52.7, Dylan Ciardi 16:12.3, Enzo McGovern 16:51.0, Mateo Almeida 16:51.2, Owen Stackpole 17:20.5. Two weeks earlier they won Spikes & Spurs with 23. The season averages 16:37.1. The virtual race alone would put Bolles ahead on spread; the actual race had Flagler ahead by six, and that is what orders them.

4. Bolles, 2A: 506 points

Third at the Horse Park with 237: Brantley Rigdon 16:12.6, Aidan Chandler 16:18.5, Vincent Barragan 16:46.7, JP Bracamontes 17:00.2, Liam Sumner 17:00.6. Their Cecil Field run two weeks earlier was nearly the same team a few seconds a runner quicker, and the season averages 16:41.8 on a 0:58 spread, the tightest five in the top ten after Nease. A six-point loss to Flagler and a 135-point win over Lake Minneola on Saturday. Still the clear 2A favorite.

5. Niceville, 4A: 619 points

Won the Pace Patriot Invitational with 42, 52 points clear of Gulf Breeze: Bryant Olson 16:07.8, Sebastian Riemer 17:16.0, Brayden Riemer 17:35.4, Carson Jackson 17:46.3, Reid Sadowski 17:51.9, on a slow course. Three meets, three races with the same five, and the season averages 16:44.4. Olson is a top-ten individual now. The 1:39 behind him is what keeps this team fifth instead of third.

6. Gulliver Prep, 2A: 759 points

Opened at the Horse Park and finished fourth with 282, tied on points with Doral Academy and ahead on the sixth-runner tiebreak: Kayaan Ghaffar 16:10.5, Adrian Iziliaev 16:28.3, Emilio Perez-Garcia 16:36.6, Tyler Keating 17:23.4, Nicolas Altaba 17:26.4, a converted 16:54.3 on a 1:16 spread. Ghaffar was 14th in a 549-runner field. One race, and the tiebreak over Doral is the only reason they are sixth rather than seventh. A 2A team, which puts them in the same November race as Bolles, 45 points behind them on Saturday.

7. Doral Academy, 4A: 644 points

Fifth at the Horse Park with 282, a dead heat with Gulliver settled by the sixth man: Martin Fernandez 16:01.4, Rafaele D'Agostino 16:47.6, Joaquin Cogo 17:04.9, Pedro Rodriguez 17:05.0, Javier Parker 17:06.3. Eight days earlier they won the Pine Crest meet with 49 ahead of Belen's second squad, Fernandez in 16:06.5 out of 406. The season averages 16:51.2 on a 1:04 spread, a better number than Gulliver's, and only the tiebreak keeps them behind.

8. Hagerty, 4A: 668 points

Won at DeLand with 38 out of 20 teams: Nate Winslow 16:36.0, Camden Thompson 17:02.6, Reid Henson 17:10.1, Wesley Lizon 17:13.4, Elijah Lizon 17:34.2. That follows a win at Trinity Prep and a Spikes & Spurs run on opening weekend, three races with the same five, each one better than the last, and a season average of 16:51.2. They have not raced anybody ranked above them.

9. East Ridge, 4A: 760 points

Did not race in week three and holds on two: Cecil Field and the Whispering Pines win. Axel Sallault 15:47.0 and 15:47.0, Jonahel Vazquez 16:41.0 at Whispering Pines, Aubin Sallault 16:29.0 at Cecil, Watson Dunham 17:15.0 at Cecil, Anthony Murphy 17:36.2 at Whispering Pines. A season average of 16:47.5 on a 2:03 spread, the widest in the ten. Sallault is a top-ten individual and the four behind him have not raced since August.

10. Ponte Vedra, 3A: 786 points

Sixth at the Horse Park with 298, ahead of Columbus, Creekside, Lake Minneola and Vanguard: Luke Ross 16:02.8, Jack Feather 16:54.4, Aiden Killoran 16:57.2, Logan Hunt 17:10.4, Colin Bovee 17:13.1. Two weeks earlier at Spikes & Spurs, Feather and Killoran were 18:05 and 17:58. That is a minute of improvement from the second and third men in fourteen days, and it is the run that gets a team into the ten.

Just missed

Columbus (837) was seventh at the Horse Park with 335 on a 0:47 spread, the tightest five of any team in the top twenty. Spanish River (846) won the Dr. Garcia Bulldog Invite with 57 over Jupiter's 68 and has run twice; on the generous reading of that course they would be in the top five, and on the reading we trust they are here. Fort Myers (865) and St. Cloud (863) are next; St. Cloud won its own invitational with 55, Luis Rivera first, and has the same five boys in every race. Vanguard (Ocala) (867) hosted the Horse Park and finished eleventh with 388, Trevor Berquist's 16:15.2 the only run inside 16:40. Leon (883) has not raced since Dueling Summits on opening weekend. Creekside (939) was eighth at the Horse Park.

Lake Minneola (941) is the drop of the week. Quentin Thompson was third at the Horse Park in 15:46.8 and the team was ninth with 372, Joshua Ping at 18:45.6 as the fifth man, a 2:59 spread. Weighted three to one against their Cecil run, the season reads 18th. Close that fifth-man gap by a minute and they are back in the top six.

Newsome was 13th at the Horse Park with Jonas Williams seventh in 15:58.3. Bishop Kenny was ninth a week ago on a projection; they raced, finished 18th with 586, and the projection is gone. That is what a projection is for. It holds a place until the team runs, and then the run counts.

Where the virtual race disagrees with this list

Flagler over Bolles. The virtual race has Bolles ahead on spread; the Horse Park had Flagler ahead by six points. The race wins.
Gulliver over Doral. Identical 282 at the Horse Park, and Gulliver's sixth man broke the tie. The virtual race has Doral ahead by more than a hundred points on a better season average. A tiebreak is still a result, and it is the placement on this page we would bet against first.
Nothing else. Everything else on this page finished in the order it is ranked.

Method notes

One virtual race, Cecil Field equivalents, top five score, sixth and seventh displace, five finishers required. Every runner is scored on his whole season, weighted toward the most recent race: his best converted time from each week he raced, averaged with week three counting three times, week two twice and week one once. A race a runner won is never allowed to lower his figure, and a meet a team won is never allowed to lower the team's. A school's five best runners on that basis are its team. This replaces the best-single-meet rule used in weeks one and two. Where two ranked teams met this week, the result orders them. 418 scoreable teams, seven of them projected.
Scores inflate as more teams enter and are not comparable across weeks. Order and averages are.
Projections (P) enter on their returning five's 2025 state times. A team with five or more returners that fields five without at least two of its returning scorers is also projected; Jupiter Christian is the only boys' team that triggered it this week. No projected team is in the top ten.
Fifty-two courses are in the season and 36 can be rated for the boys. Nine week-three courses could not be and rank nobody. Dr. Garcia was priced at its more conservative reading; the generous one lifts Spanish River into the top five.
Out-of-state schools are excluded. Non-FHSAA programs are named and not scored.
Classes are 2026-27, resolved against the FHSAA classification documents.

A word on IMG Academy

IMG Academy in Bradenton is not an FHSAA member, which means no district meet, no regional and no state meet in November, and it is not scored on this list. It should be said plainly where it would sit if it were. IMG won its own Summit Challenge on Saturday with 16 points, Fletcher Rodbro 14:54.0, James Pfuhl 15:37.4, Jose Cedeno-Barrera 15:58.5, Jackson Hawkins 16:09.6 and Maddi Duke 16:13.3, a converted average of 15:53.8. In the virtual race that lands within a few points of Belen either way. On one race, in a six-team field on their own course, against a Belen team that has now won two deep races, we would put them second in Florida. Rodbro is ranked third on the individual list, where the same caveat applies: one race, against nobody on this page.

Every result behind this list is on the site: the rankings section carries the week 3 lists next to weeks 1 and 2, and the full Saturday is in the Horse Park recap. Where this started: the week 1 boys team rankings.