Week 3 Boys Top 10: Florida Cross Country Rankings

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

Marcelo Mantecon pinned on a number. He won the Florida Horse Park Invitational in 15:22.1, teammate Armando Cruz was 2.3 seconds behind him, and the two best returning runners in the state finished the way they were ranked. Belen Jesuit won the team title by 168 points. That was supposed to be the story of the week.

Then the IMG Academy results came in from Bradenton. Fletcher Rodbro, a junior, ran 14:54.0 to win the IMGA Summit Challenge by 43 seconds. Nobody in Florida had broken 15:00 this season. Nobody else has come within twelve seconds of it. IMG is not an FHSAA member, so Rodbro has no state meet in his past and none in his future, but he ran the race and he ran the time, and he goes on this list.

One change in how this list is built, and it matters. Through two weeks a runner was ranked on his single best race. From here on he is ranked on his whole season, with the most recent race counting most: this week's run counts three times as much as opening weekend's, last week's twice as much. A boy who has run three times and gotten better each time gets credit for all three, and a boy sitting on one race from August 21 is sitting on evidence that is getting older. One more thing, and it matters this week: a race a runner wins never counts against him. Winning on a fast course, or winning while pacing a teammate, is not a bad day, and the season figure leaves it out rather than mark him down for it.

Every time is weighed against where it was run, using runners who raced both that course and last November's state meet, with Cecil Field as the yardstick. We use the data and our own eyes, and we will get one or two wrong along the way. The girls' list is here, and the boys team rankings are here.

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1. Marcelo Mantecon, Belen Jesuit, Sr., 3A

The wait is over. Mantecon opened at the Horse Park on Saturday and won it out of 549 runners in 15:22.1, with Cruz on his shoulder the whole way and nobody else within 24 seconds. It is eleven seconds slower than he ran on the same grass last September. Nobody at Belen will mind. A two-time 3A champion, fourth at Nike Cross Nationals and runner-up at the Brooks national championship, he is likely the top returner in the country. He held the top spot for two weeks on his resume. Now he holds it on a result.

2. Armando Cruz, Belen Jesuit, Sr., 3A

Second to his teammate by 2.3 seconds in 15:24.4, and still the owner of the fastest time any FHSAA boy has run this season, the 15:06.0 from Cecil Field on opening night. Two races, both under 15:25, on two different courses. He has now beaten every Florida boy he has faced except one, and that one lives in his locker room.

3. Fletcher Rodbro, IMG Academy, Jr.

The time of the season so far, and it came out of a small meet on IMG's own campus. Rodbro won the IMGA Summit Challenge out of 74 runners in 14:54.0, 43 seconds clear of teammate James Pfuhl, who ran 15:37.4 for second. The course reads a touch quick, not enough to matter: on neutral ground the run is still worth around 15:01, the best number anybody in Florida owns.

Two honest cautions. IMG Academy is not an FHSAA member, so Rodbro has never run a Florida state meet and will not this year, which means we have no November mark to check him against. And he has not yet raced anybody on this list. He ranks third on the strength of one run, behind two seniors who have raced each other and won at every level in this state. If he lines up against them, that could change fast.

4. Jaxon Kiper, Strawberry Crest, Sr., 4A

Did not race, and holds fourth because the boys around him did not run past him. He is still ranked on the 23-second win at the Jim Ryun Invitational in 15:54.3, on a course slow enough to make that worth about 15:16 on honest ground, and last week's pacing job at Central Hillsborough still does not count against him. The asterisk is the same one as three weeks ago: no 2025 state result on record, and no race yet against anybody ranked near him. He is one of two boys in the top ten with a single race, and the longer that stays true the less it will hold.

5. Isaiah Howdeshell, Largo, Sr., 3A

Raced for the first time since opening night and won the Parker Valby Invitational out of 134 in 16:05.8, 17 seconds clear of East Lake's Truman Houk. Parker Valby is a quick course, quick enough that the clock there says less than the win does, and a win never counts against a runner on this list. He is ranked on the 15:20.0 from Cecil Field, third in the elite race and still the fourth-fastest raw time by a Florida boy this fall. What Saturday did was answer the only question about him, whether he would race at all. Largo dropped from 4A to 3A this year. He shares a class with both Belen seniors now.

6. Bryant Olson, Niceville, So., 4A

Three races, and the season adds up to sixth. Olson ran 15:44.0 at Cecil Field on August 21, won at Pine Forest in 16:13.6 a week later, and on Saturday won the Pace Patriot Invitational out of 165 in 16:07.8, 20 seconds ahead of Rocky Bayou's Dominic Ferguson, on one of the slower courses in the panhandle. That run is worth about 15:29 on neutral ground, the best of his three. He also has the one head-to-head that settles the next two places: he beat Sallault at Cecil Field, 15:44.0 to 15:47.0. A sophomore who was 15th in 3A last November, now in 4A after Niceville moved up, and the best runner in the panhandle by a distance.

7. Gabriel Harris, Lake Wales, Sr., 3A

The biggest riser on the page, and he got here by racing. Harris was third at Jim Ryun on opening weekend in 16:21.1, then on Saturday ran 15:43.8 for second at the St. Cloud Invitational, three tenths behind Luis Rivera and 35 seconds clear of everybody else in a field of 188. St. Cloud runs a little slow, so that is worth about 15:33 on neutral ground, and two races that both land in the top fifteen add up to a season worth seventh. He was 16:10 at state last year. He is a lot better than that now.

8. Axel Sallault, East Ridge, Sr., 4A

Did not race, and holds on the two races he has: 15:47.0 at Cecil Field and 15:47.0 to win Whispering Pines eight days later, the same time to the tenth on two courses. Add the 15:27.5 he ran at state, the second-fastest returning time in Florida, and the body of work is still one of the best in the state. Olson beat him at Cecil and has run twice since; that is the whole difference between sixth and eighth. East Ridge was not at the Horse Park. He has not raced anybody ahead of him yet.

9. Rishi Chopra, Nease, Sr., 4A

Also idle since opening night, and still on his 15:39.0 from Cecil Field, fourth in the elite race and the only number in this half of the list that needs no conversion at all. Every boy directly around him has raced more recently, and two of them have raced three times. He is ninth on a run that has aged well and will not age forever.

10. Luis Rivera, St. Cloud, Sr., 4A

Two wins in eight days, both by three tenths: over Brody Johnson at the Kowboy in 16:04.6, and over Harris at St. Cloud on Saturday in 15:43.5, out of 188, with nobody else within 35 seconds. St. Cloud runs a little slow, so that is worth a shade under 15:33 on neutral ground. Three races, each faster than the last, from 16:43.0 at Jim Ryun on opening weekend. He has no 2025 state mark, which means every number he owns was earned this season, and the season has him in.

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Just missed

Quentin Thompson (Lake Minneola, Sr., 4A) is first out, by two seconds, and it is the hardest line on the page. He ran 15:16.0 for second at Cecil Field, the third-fastest raw time by any Florida boy this fall, and on Saturday was third at the Horse Park in 15:46.8, 22 seconds behind Cruz and six ahead of Seth. That is a good race in a deep field and, on a course that runs about even, a 15:50 run. Weight the two the way the season is weighted and he lands eleventh. He has beaten Seth, Watkins, Williams and Moss head to head and lost to nobody but Belen. One 15:20 somewhere honest and he is back in the top five.

James Pfuhl (IMG Academy, Sr.) was second to Rodbro at the Summit Challenge in 15:37.4, 43 seconds back and 21 ahead of the next boy, a time only four FHSAA runners have beaten this fall. One race, no state history, and the same caveats as his teammate. Andrew Sides (Buchholz, Jr., 4A) has not raced since his 15:49.0 at Cecil. Dominic Ferguson (Rocky Bayou Christian, Sr., 1A) was second at Pace in 16:28.3. Matthew Ishee (Nease, Sr., 4A) is on his 15:54.0 from Cecil.

Douglas Seth (Flagler Palm Coast, So., 4A) was fourth at the Horse Park in 15:52.7, the fastest time of his season, and drops out anyway. The Spikes & Spurs win that ranked him seventh was worth about 15:32 on a course we cannot price with much confidence, and the Horse Park, which we can, said 15:53. The season adds up to fifteenth. Dylan Macias-Buenrostro (Mariner, Jr., 3A) won the 3D Sommers Invitational by 53 seconds in 16:25.3 and is sixteenth.

Luke Ross (Ponte Vedra, Sr., 3A) was eleventh at the Horse Park in 16:02.8. Will Moss (Montverde Academy, Sr., 2A), the 2A state champion, opened there in eighth in 16:00.2 and is ranked on it. Landon Watkins (Sickles, Jr., 4A) was sixth in 15:57.9 and Jonas Williams (Newsome, Sr., 4A) seventh in 15:58.3. Jonathan Kiros (Chiles, Sr., 3A) was tenth in 16:01.4, Martin Fernandez (Doral Academy, Sr., 4A) ninth in 16:01.4 a week after winning the Pine Crest meet out of 406. Levi Howard of Woodward Academy was fifth in 15:55.9; he is from Georgia and is not ranked here.

Elijah Arterburn (Atlantic Christian, Sr., 1A) won the Dr. Garcia Bulldog Invite out of 232 in 16:23.9; on the most generous reading of that course he would be in the top ten, and on the reading we trust he is a 16:10 runner over three races. Willie McKenney (American Heritage, Fr., 3A) was second there in 16:42.0 as a freshman. Levi Mollica (Oviedo, Sr., 4A) won at DeLand in 16:27.2.

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Method notes

• Times are weighed against the course they were run on, using athletes who ran both the 2025 FHSAA state meet and that course, matched on name and school, with Cecil Field as the neutral reference.
• A runner's mark is 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 runner who has raced once is on that race. A race he won is never allowed to lower that figure; if it would, it is left out. That is why Howdeshell, Olson and Rivera are ranked where they are. A returner who has not raced on a rated course is projected from his 2025 state time. This replaces the best-single-race rule used in weeks one and two.
• Fifty-two courses are in the season so far and 36 of them can be rated for the boys. Nine of the 22 week-three meets could not be, on too few runners in common with the state meet: BCAA Tradewinds, BCAA Heritage Park, Lightning Invites, Miami Country Day, Lakewood Spartans, SHS Meet 1, Grayling, Crystal River and the OP small meet. Marks run there are reported raw and rank nobody.
• Two week-three courses were priced conservatively because their samples pulled in two directions. Dr. Garcia was taken at its median rather than its mean, which is why Arterburn is not ranked where the generous reading would put him. The IMG course was taken at the boys' reading, slightly fast.
• Out-of-state entries are excluded. IMG Academy is a Florida school but not an FHSAA member; its runners are ranked as individuals and its team is named in the team rankings but not scored.
• Grades and classes are 2026-27, resolved against the FHSAA classification documents where the returner files are silent.

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 2 boys list.