Bolles won Bale-N-Trail by 28 points and moves up to third, Braddock won the Larry Wooten Invitational and holds fifth, and Nease stays second on a body of work that includes third place at Roy Griak.
Florida boys cross country team rankings through six weeks: August 21-September 26, 2026
Bolles won Bale-N-Trail, the biggest meet in Florida on Saturday. On Bartram Trail's course, the Bulldogs put five in the top 13 of the Elite race and scored 41, with Creekside second at 69 and Fleming Island third at 100: Aidan Chandler fourth in 15:56.5, Armaan Sharma 16:09.1, Aaron Ches 16:13.8, Wyatt Cleek 16:23.8, Vincent Barragan 16:33.3. Their second group won the 11th-12th grade race with 19, Liam Sumner first in 16:45.2. Bolles moves up from fourth to third.
The season figures put Bolles second. We have Nease there. Nease was third of 40 at Roy Griak in Minnesota a week ago, and no Florida team except Belen has beaten its full varsity this year, Bolles included: Nease beat Bolles 158 to 236 at Cecil Field. Nease's top boys ran Bale together as a group in the 11th-12th grade race, and we don't count those runs. This is our call, not the arithmetic, and it is written up at the bottom.
In Miami, Braddock won the Larry Wooten Invitational with 23 against 12 other teams: Jacob Castanedo won in 16:58.1, Yanliet Gomezdelafe was second in 17:06.1 and Ian Vicente third in 17:25.5. Columbus was second with 54, running none of its top seven in the varsity race. Braddock and Columbus hold fifth and sixth, ahead of Doral and Spanish River, on the Race of Champions result from Sept. 18. Neither of those two has raced since.
Belen's second group won the STU Bobcat Invitational with 26. Niceville, Doral, Spanish River, Hagerty, Vanguard, Fort Myers and Flagler Palm Coast did not race, and a missed week never counts against anyone.
How this works, briefly. Every runner is scored on his whole season, with the most recent race counting most. 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. Times are leveled to Cecil Field through the runners who ran both the 2025 state meet and the course in question. A meet a team won is never allowed to lower its figure. Where two teams have raced each other and neither has raced its top runners since, the result on the grass orders them. A team that has not raced at all is projected from its returning five.
Points climb 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 his season figures in Cecil Field terms. Out-of-state entries are excluded, and IMG Academy competes as an FHSAA Independent outside the state series. The individual list is here, the girls' team list is here.
1. Belen Jesuit (Miami), 3A: 90 points
Season average 15:42.7 · 1-5 spread 1:10.7
Marcelo Mantecon 15:07.1; Armando Cruz 15:24.1; Jack Michalak 15:27.2; Nicholas Veloso 16:17.2; Davi Bodoh 16:17.8.
Did not race its top seven. The second group won the STU Bobcat Invitational with 26, ahead of Gulliver, with Liam Salom second in 16:33.8 and five Belen boys in the top eight. The first five are still the Southern Showcase five: Mantecon, Cruz, Michalak, Veloso, Bodoh. First, by 257 points in the virtual race.
2. Nease (Ponte Vedra), 4A: 450 points
Season average 16:37.6 · 1-5 spread 1:02.2
Matthew Ishee 16:05.8; Rishi Chopra 16:11.3; Joseph Morley 16:40.9; Charles Carlson 17:01.7; Matthew Myers 17:08.0.
Did not race as a team. The top boys, Ishee, Chopra, Morley and Carlson among them, ran the Bale-N-Trail 11th-12th grade race together in 18:57, and the Elite team, 11th with 287, was a second group; we count neither. Third of 40 at Roy Griak on Sept. 19, and the only Florida team to beat its full varsity this season is Belen. Second here by our call: the virtual race has Nease third, 103 points behind Bolles.
3. Bolles (Jacksonville), 2A: 347 points
Season average 16:31.0 · 1-5 spread 0:41.8
Brantley Rigdon 16:14.4; Armaan Sharma 16:21.8; Aidan Chandler 16:24.8; Aaron Ches 16:38.0; Wyatt Cleek 16:56.2.
Won the Bale-N-Trail Elite race with 41, 28 ahead of Creekside: Chandler 15:56.5, Sharma 16:09.1, Ches 16:13.8, Cleek 16:23.8, Barragan 16:33.3, all five inside the top 13. Brantley Rigdon, the top Bolles runner on the season, ran the 11th-12th grade race instead, where the second group won with 19. Second in the virtual race and third here, behind Nease, which beat Bolles at Cecil Field. The Bale runs don't improve the figure, and a meet a team won never lowers it.
4. Niceville, 4A: 458 points
Season average 16:37.8 · 1-5 spread 1:12.9
Bryant Olson 15:51.6; Brody Mathis 16:37.2; Reid Sadowski 16:42.9; Sebastian Riemer 16:52.6; Carson Jackson 17:04.5.
Did not race. Sixth at the Southern Showcase on Sept. 19 with 227: Olson 15:27.6, Mathis 16:02.9, Sadowski 16:14.8. Fourth, eight points behind Nease in the virtual race, and behind Nease and Bolles on the Cecil Field result.
5. Braddock (Miami), 4A: 707 points
Season average 16:57.5 · 1-5 spread 0:51.0
Yanliet Gomezdelafe 16:29.4; Ian Vicente 16:54.0; Liano Lacayo 17:01.7; Jacob Castanedo 17:01.8; Lucas Knight 17:20.3.
Won the Larry Wooten Invitational with 23: Castanedo first in 16:58.1, Gomezdelafe second in 17:06.1, Vicente third in 17:25.5, Knight seventh, Arguello tenth. Won the Class 4A scoring of the Race of Champions on Sept. 18 with 78, ahead of Columbus, Doral and Spanish River in the same race. Twelfth in the virtual race, fifth on that result.
6. Columbus (Miami), 4A: 689 points
Season average 16:56.0 · 1-5 spread 0:52.2
Nicholas Garcia 16:20.3; Lundin Steven 16:49.4; Lucas Saenz 17:07.5; Valerio Rodriguez 17:10.2; Bryce Barger 17:12.5.
Second at Larry Wooten with 54, with none of its season top seven in the varsity race; the Columbus JV won the JV race with 15. Beat Doral by two points and Spanish River by 24 in the 4A scoring of the Race of Champions, and none of the three has raced its top runners since. Tenth in the virtual race, sixth here.
7. Doral Academy, 4A: 644 points
Season average 16:53.1 · 1-5 spread 0:57.6
Martin Fernandez 16:12.2; Rafaele D'Agostino 16:46.8; Javier Parker 17:07.9; Joaquin Cogo 17:08.5; Pedro Rodriguez 17:09.9.
Did not race. Third in the 4A scoring of the Race of Champions with 105, behind Braddock and Columbus. Martin Fernandez leads the five at 16:12.2 on figure. Sixth in the virtual race, seventh on the grass.
8. Spanish River (Boca Raton), 4A: 648 points
Season average 16:53.0 · 1-5 spread 0:56.5
Casey Sangely 16:14.2; Erik Moss 16:43.8; Marcus Benavente 17:07.1; Spencer Singerman 17:09.2; Will Irby 17:10.7.
Did not race its top runners. Fourth in the 4A scoring of its own Race of Champions on Sept. 18, though Casey Sangely won the race. Sangely, Moss, Benavente, Singerman and Irby have a 56.5-second spread, the fourth-tightest in the ten.
9. Hagerty (Oviedo), 4A: 650 points
Season average 16:51.0 · 1-5 spread 1:07.3
Camden Thompson 16:23.8; Nate Winslow 16:26.7; Wesley Lizon 16:55.1; Reid Henson 16:58.3; Elijah Lizon 17:31.1.
Did not race. Won the Coach Joe McKinney Classic on Sept. 19 with 37, seven points ahead of Tavares. Camden Thompson and Nate Winslow are both under 16:27 on figure. Hagerty hasn't met anyone above it.
10. Vanguard (Ocala), 3A: 679 points
Season average 16:50.5 · 1-5 spread 1:25.6
Trevor Berquist 16:16.5; Lachlan Bryniarski 16:36.3; Jacob Rogers 16:44.0; Christopher Taylor 16:53.5; Cooper Gumpert 17:42.0.
Did not race. Won the Rockledge Raider Classic on Sept. 18 with 22. Holds tenth, and holds its Cecil Field win over Fort Myers, which sits directly behind it. (A Vanguard at the Lake Wales Invitational on Saturday was the Vanguard School of Lake Wales, not this one.)
Just missed
Fort Myers (3A) did not race and is eleventh. It is fifth in the virtual race, but it lost to Vanguard by seven at Cecil Field and the two have not met since. Flagler Palm Coast (4A) did not race; twelfth. Tavares (3A) won the Weeki Wachee Invitational with 19, Liam Ilea first in 16:24.8, on a course we can't price yet; thirteenth. Gulliver Prep (2A) was second to Belen's second group at STU with 59, and Emilio Perez-Garcia won the race in 16:33.6; fourteenth. Lake Minneola (4A) was third of 37 teams at PR'ville in Huntsville with 210: Quentin Thompson 15:32.7, Matthew Lydiard 15:37.7, Jacob Kelly 15:42.6 and Drew Sasson 15:52.3, then a fifth man at 17:11.0. Too few Florida runners have raced there to level the course, so the run is named here and not scored. Lake Minneola is sixteenth. Creekside (4A) was second to Bolles at Bale with 69, Eli Scharf fifth in 15:57.9. Wiregrass Ranch (4A) won the Stampede Sprint with 49 against 20 teams. East Ridge (4A) won the West Orange Invitational with 46, Axel Sallault first by 26.6 seconds.
Where the virtual race disagrees with this list
- Nease over Bolles: Our call: Nease was third of 40 at Roy Griak on Sept. 19, and no Florida team but Belen has beaten its full varsity; it also beat Bolles at Cecil Field, 158 to 236. Bolles is second in the virtual race.
- Braddock over Doral Academy: Braddock 78, Columbus 103, Doral 105 and Spanish River 127 in the Class 4A scoring of the Spanish River Race of Champions on Sept. 18, the same race; Doral and Spanish River have not raced since, and the call made last week stands.
- Columbus over Doral Academy: Columbus beat Doral by two points and Spanish River by 24 in the Class 4A scoring of the Race of Champions on Sept. 18; Columbus has not raced its top seven since and neither has Doral.
- Vanguard over Fort Myers: Fort Myers lost to Vanguard by seven points at Cecil Field and the two have not met since; a win on a course priced a minute slow does not jump a team it lost to (Darrin, 2026-09-13).
Method notes
- New this week: a team only counts as having raced when at least three of its season top seven ran. Belen at STU, Columbus at Larry Wooten and Nease at Bale-N-Trail each ran without them. Without the rule, those outings would have cancelled older results the teams haven't had a chance to answer.
- Bale-N-Trail was scored as an Elite race plus grade races; only the Elite race is a varsity meeting. Group runs, such as Nease's pack in the 11th-12th grade race, are left out of both the course reading and the figures.
- PR'ville (Huntsville), the Weeki Wachee Invitational and the Chief XC Invitational are not rated this week; none has enough Florida runners with a state-meet time to price the course.
- A meet a team won never lowers its figure: Belen (weeks 1 and 3), Niceville (weeks 2 and 3), Fort Myers (week 5), and Bolles and Braddock (week 6) each carry a dropped win.
- Points are a virtual-race sum over more than 90 scored teams and move every time a new file enters the pool; compare order and averages, not points, week to week.
The individual list is here; last week's team list is here; every result from Saturday is in the weekend recap.
Featured image: the schools' own logos, credited to Belen Jesuit Preparatory School (Miami), Nease High School (Ponte Vedra) and The Bolles School (Jacksonville).